Agricultural soil management affects billions of invertebrates per hectare, with tillage, pesticide use, and compaction causing mortality and welfare harm at a scale rarely considered in discussions of farming and animal welfare.
Soil invertebrate welfare occupies the outer boundary of animal welfare consideration — organisms so small, so numerous, and so phylogenetically distant from vertebrates that their welfare potential is rarely considered. Yet if earthworms are capable of experiencing harm — and the evidence for nociception, while preliminary, warrants attention — then agricultural tillage and pesticide use cause welfare harm at scales that dwarf all other human uses of animals combined. This is not an argument for abandoning agriculture but for integrating precautionary welfare thinking into farming practice decisions where lower-harm alternatives are available. No-till and reduced tillage systems that benefit soil invertebrate communities are often also better for soil carbon, water retention, and long-term productivity — creating aligned incentives for welfare and agronomy.