In cultivating the land, we live from and with soil fertility. An ecologically vital soil is continuously restoring its productivity. If we neglect its needs, it suffers as a result. The soil loses vitality, and becomes more sensitive to weather and erosion; harvests decline. In organic farming, damage cannot be offset by purely technical means. This is why an exhausted or degraded soil requires recovery by means of ecologically sensitive actions, which help the soil to regenerate on its own. Despite the practical constraints and problems, many possible actions are available enabling us to act according to our responsibility as farmers for a living soil. It is worth it, not only financially. In the 1960s, scientist Ernst Klapp defined soil fertility in a practical sense as "the natural, sustainable ability of a soil to produce plants". He described it as the ability of the soil to provide everything for stable yields without external aid. Since then, agricultural science has widely been replacing the comprehensive term soil fertility with a multitude of physical, chemical and biological variables. One of the current tasks of science is to render such detailed knowledge applicable to farming practice.