Soil contains billions of invertebrates per square meter, including mites, springtails, beetles, and nematodes. Their welfare is almost entirely unconsidered, but their ecological role is fundamental.
Soil invertebrate welfare is perhaps the most challenging area in animal ethics — the organisms are numerous beyond comprehension, their sentience is entirely unknown, and they are almost never considered in welfare discussions. Yet if even a fraction of soil invertebrates have morally relevant experience, conventional agricultural practices including tillage, fumigation, and pesticide application cause suffering at extraordinary scale. Regenerative farming practices that reduce soil disturbance improve both ecology and any welfare the organisms might have.