Unsustainable agricultural practices lead to soil salinization

What is it about?

Soil salinization plagues areas around the world, both today and in ancient history. Treating this as an instance of ecological trauma, I examine scriptural evidence that the ecological memory of ancient Israel included instances of agriculturally-induced soil salinization.

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Photo by Rory McKeever on Unsplash

Photo by Rory McKeever on Unsplash

Why is it important?

As interpreters continue to wrestle with what the "sins of Sodom" were, I offer an additional possibility--that they involved an unsustainable agricultural system that traumatized the surrounding land--and support this possibility with evidence from scripture, archaeology, and contemporary scientific research.