Soil Trust
= different initiatives in the UK and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
= Household-based vegetable co-purchasing platform in Hong Kong ; also named, Belonging-to-the-Field (回歸田嘢)
URL = http://markuswernli.org/work/2021/st/ [markuswernli.org/st/]
Get in touch: ecologydesignlab at tongji dot edu dot cn .
1. John Thackara:
“Every day, Hong Kong disposes over 3,000 tons of food waste. The ambition of the Soil Trust is to shift the perception around organic wastes — from something to be discarded to a source of new life.
In a variety of activities, citizens are getting involved in scavenging plastic bins, brewing eco-enzymes, upcycling kitchen scraps, and even participating in hot-composting at the farm… all for the unifying purpose of nourishing soils and our web of life. Both hospitality professionals and students designed behind the scenes the implementation of a socio-metabolic arrangement with the potential to be multiplied elsewhere.
They are also developing the Growers Without Borders (泥玩無國界) service learning program. This combines eco-friendly farming practices with creative community involvement.
For Markus Wernli, Professor at PolyU Design, the key is nutrients cycling that revolves around the principle of fermentation: the culturing of both microbial and social life.
Responding to the absence of household-level organic waste recovery in Hong Kong, Soil Trust (泥玩 :集「棄」還田) is building a soil commons — a community of flourishing — around recovering food scraps that brings food consumers and producers together for mutually invigorating local soils. Particular attention is paid to the processes involved to make grassroots nutrient cycling desirable for urban households without land access.”
(https://www.resilience.org/stories/2025-07-01/agtech-for-agroecology/)
2. Marcus Wernli
"Responding to the absence of household-level organic waste recovery in Hong Kong, Soil Trust (泥玩 :集「棄」還田) is building a soil commons — a community of flourishing — around recovering food scraps that brings food consumers and producers together for mutually invigorating local soils. Particular attention is paid to the processes involved to make grassroots nutrient cycling desirable for urban households without land access. The aim of Soil Trust is to (1) make foodscrap cycling an integral part in Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) for strengthening producer-consumer relations, (2) stimulate eco-farm practice innovation towards probiotic soil regeneration, and (3) demonstrate the importance of a vibrant, localised First Sector in Hong Kong for resource recovery as well as climate change mitigation. Mindful of storage limitations, cultural acceptance issues, and the subtropical conditions of Hong Kong, Soil Trust applies bokashi fermentation to ensure cleanliness and soil regeneration. In bokashi fermentation, layers of kitchen scraps are pressed with alternate layers of inoculated rice bran into an air-tight bucket for maturation. What effectively is an anaerobic, pH-lowering pickling process locks up nutrients over time, and therefore: (a) prevents methane and malodors; (b) proliferates valuable fungi and microbes essential to soil life; (c) functions independently from any electricity and chemicals; (d) integrates flexibly as compost input, soil conditioner, or animal/insect feed; and (e) affords direct community engagement since bokashi production is an enjoyable, social outdoor experience (even more so in pandemic times).
For exploring bokashi fermentation as metabolic link between urban households and local production farms, Soil Trust established since autumn 2021 a field trial inside the Hong Miu Organic Farm (康苗有機農場) with 17 member households of the community-supported agriculture (CSA) platform TinYeah (回歸). At the bi-weekly Farm Care Mornings, the families are invited to produce their bokashi bedding, tend to compost, mulch the soil, and raise the vegetables grown out of it. At their homes, families source-separate, collect, and bokashi-ferment their kitchen scraps, as well as self-document their experience. Families unable to attend Farm Care Mornings send their bokashi-filled bins and receive empty bins as well as bedding supply through the CSA’s weekly vegetable delivery system. The Soil Trust team with the support from the Research Institute for Future Food (香港理大未來食品研究院) provides the necessary know-how transfer, scientific validation, social arena, and material supplies for orchestrating this native bokashi collective. 'Native bokashi' means to upcycle waste with waste whereby all inputs and tools are sourced from locally recovered materials, including: rice bran (bedding), citrus peels (enzyme starter), sawdust (composting), cardboard (mulching), and recycled plastic containers (fermentation)."
(source ?_
UK
= an initiative of Slow Money, making it possible for individuals to put their money to work in small food enterprises via small donations, since October 2012
URL = http://www.soiltrust.org/
"Through Slow Money’s emerging network, including local chapters, investment clubs and regional and national gatherings, more than $20 million has flowed to 170 small food enterprises over the past two years. Lots of small, decentralized actions, linked by a strong vision: for the health of our families, our communities and our planet, we must bring money back down to earth.
ENTER the Soil Trust. Now, whether or not you can ever attend a Slow Money meeting, whether or not you are ever going to write a $5,000 or $50,000 check to invest directly in a small food enterprise, you can be part of this movement.
Chip in a tax-deductible contribution of $50 or more. We will aggregate these funds and invest the capital in collaboration with Slow Money’s network, utilizing the expertise of our national leadership and the local knowledge of Slow Money investors around the country. Investment returns will come back to the Soil Trust, to be re-invested, building a long-term, non-profit fund that will continue working to rebuild local food systems for generations to come.
By contributing to the Soil Trust, you not only build support for small food enterprises, but you contribute to the creation of a whole new kind of fund and whole new kind of funding. You join thousands of Slow Money folks around the country who are working together to fix the economy from the ground up."
(http://www.soiltrust.org/about/)
Characteristics
"The Soil Trust is:
- funded by grassroots donors;
- enabled by local Slow Money investors, who are leading with their own time and money and
- connecting us with food entrepreneurs around the country; and,
- managed by a uniquely qualified team of nationally experienced investors and financial activists."