BIOSENSE

Sense of Biodiversity: invisible knowing in (dis)appearing farming landscapes

Finnish Research Council 2025-2029

Techno-scientific approaches to agriculture have fueled degenerative land use, leading to habitat loss and species extinction. While standardized biodiversity assessment practices-rooted in metrics, classifications, and valuations-have documented the richness of biodiversity in small-scale, traditional, and indigenous farming landscapes, they overlook underlying relational dynamics. The vitality of these landscapes stems from farmers’ long-term, multisensory relationships with their more-than-human surroundings. Yet, the critical role of sensory ways of knowing and relating to biodiversity remains strikingly underexplored.

BIOSENSE advances the study of biodiversity in boreal climates by synthesizing sensory ethnographic analysis with natural science-based biodiversity assessments. It builds on extensive preliminary data and will collect new data from 10 small-scale, biodiversity-oriented farms in boreal regions: Finland, Norway, and Canada. The project develops an interdisciplinary, sensory-relational framework to study agricultural biodiversity, aiming to: (1) generate new empirical insights into farmers’ sensory knowledge in fostering biodiversity, (2) pioneer a multi-sensory methodology for interdisciplinary biodiversity research, (3) advance relational knowledge theories, and (4) create alternative representations of biodiversity knowledge.

BIOSENSE reimagines our understanding of biodiversity beyond accounting for what is visible. It produces knowledge on how non-indigenous farmers in boreal environments develop sensory understandings of biodiversity and transmit this knowledge between farmers and to next farmer generations, and how farmers use sensory knowledge to sustain and live well within multispecies landscapes. By providing a platform to develop entirely new, place-based multisensory methods that are synthesized with biodiversity assessments, the project has the potential to break new ground not only in agricultural biodiversity research but also in biodiversity research more broadly. It also enables knowledge sharing and development of practical tools with and for farmers to better adapt to and mitigate the biodiversity crisis. The project addresses a critical science-policy gap by repositioning biodiversity as an independent and urgent priority rather than a secondary concern to carbon sequestration. With a strong emphasis on societal impact, BIOSENSE introduces innovative ways of studying, representing, and engaging with biodiversity.

In the Shadow of Carbon: carbon farming knowledges and the future of regenerative rural landscapes

Kone Foundation 2024-2027

Carbon farming is increasingly seen as having significant potential for both mitigating and adapting to climate change. Efforts to increase carbon sequestration on agricultural land have encouraged policymakers, market actors, and researchers to promote knowledge that supports carbon farming. However, there is a risk that a sustainability transition in agriculture centered on carbon sequestration—where carbon is positioned as a key product of farmland alongside food—will overshadow farmers’ diverse ways of knowing and the multispecies relationships that underpin agricultural landscapes.

This project examines knowledge production processes within regenerative agriculture and develops a methodological framework of multispecies regenerative knowledge tailored to farmers’ needs. The project brings into dialogue different knowledge communities, including carbon farming researchers, policymakers, and funders, as well as farmers committed to regenerative practices, thereby making visible perspectives that are often overlooked.

It contributes to scholarly debates in the field of regenerative agriculture by engaging two key strands of research: transformative food studies and science and technology studies (STS). We employ qualitative methods and a multi-sited ethnographic approach, including interviews, participant observation, and focus group discussions. At the conclusion of the project, we will convene a dialogue event bringing together representatives from the various knowledge communities involved.

The project advances epistemic diversity and socio-ecological awareness by: i) bringing into discussion the uncertainties underpinning carbon farming knowledge and the risks of a carbon sequestration–focused transition that reframes food systems primarily around carbon sink production and carbon neutrality; and ii) making visible the multispecies relationships, skills, and ways of knowing in regenerative agriculture that remain in the shadow of carbon farming discourses, and fostering dialogue among farmers, researchers, and other-than-human actors in agricultural landscapes.

More-than-human economies in the era of ecological crises: tracing human-soil relations, reciprocity and livelihoods in regenerative agriculture

Finnish Research Council 2021-2024

Despite growing awareness of the root causes of the myriad ecological cataclysms happening all around the world, the dominant economic and social theories have failed to conceptualize economic relations as outcomes of entangled interdependencies between humans and other living organisms. In this project my aim is to shed light into how people are re-organizing food economies in ways that are more fit with local ecological boundaries, considerate of multi species diversity, and provide meaningful livelihoods.

I focus on regenerative food (re)production giving particular attention to regeneratively oriented diversified farming, community supported agriculture, seed saving communities, forest gardening and traditional farming methods. As a particular branch of regenerative agriculture, namely carbon farming is increasingly gaining more popularity, this project also investigates into the science and practices of carbon farming.

In doing so, I adopt a practice theoretical approach and build on theories of diverse economies and environmental humanities with an aim to advancing conceptualizations of more-than-human economies. Empirically, the project opens up a new research agenda and a methodological inquiry to studying the interwoven relationships between humans and other species. Through an ethnographic research approach, I follow how human-soil relationships form and are organized in ‘practices of regeneration’ and how they are influenced by the livelihood (im)possibilities.

See project abstract here.