Soil is the source of survival. Our water, our food and our health depend on it, yet the economy still treats it as a free and inexhaustible storehouse.
Soil takes centuries to form. More than 60% of Europe’s soils are already in poor condition, and our economic model still fails to account for these losses.
On 17 November 2026 at 17:00 (CET), the Open Eyes Economy Summit in Kraków will host the special session MISSION SOIL: The Economics of Greed versus the Source of Survival.
Six speakers will take us down through the soil profile, layer by layer: Paweł Chmieliński (ERDN, IRWiR PAN), Francesca Bampa (UNESCO), Michał Moś (Energene Seeds), Nikola Patzel (IUSS), Katarzyna Gizińska (ERDN, Polish Soil Orchestra) and Anka Wandzel (MOST Cooperative Urban Farm). Their talks will be accompanied by The Sowers, an artistic intervention by the Relict Soil collective and the Polish Soil Orchestra.
For the first time, the economics of value, soil science, cultural psychology, anthropology, soil education and artistic practice will meet in one place.
We also invite you to explore the booklet prepared by ERDN for the summit. It offers a closer look at the activities behind the session, including the artistic work of the Relict Soil collective, the Polish Soil Orchestra and the Horizon Europe projects SOILSCAPE, LandShift, NEMESIS and SoilTribes.