One hundred years after the Dust Bowl blew away topsoil from nearly 200 million acres of American farmland, farmers and ranchers are slowly entering into a new relationship with the soils beneath their boots.
But is change happening quickly enough to make an impact on the future of our soil? Some experts are concerned.
Certainly the nomenclature “soil health” is more commonplace now across farm management plans and in everyday farm-gate conversations.
“In the early 2000s ‘soil health’ was a term hotly debated among scientists as a replacement for ‘soil quality’,” says Dr. Bianca Moebius-Clune, climate and soil health director of American Farmland Trust’s Climate and Soil Health Initiative.
More than 20 years later, Moebius-Clune says that “significant strides” have been made in normalizing the concept of soil health across the research and agricultural community.
But that normalization may not be translating to soil health practices on the ground fast enough.
“We need to scale up the drivers of adoption, because we don’t, as of yet, have a New Conventional Agriculture where soil health management systems are the new normal,” she says.
“Depending on which data we look at, no-till or reduced-till are in use on about half the acres at this point, and possibly still slowly growing, while cover crops increased from 10M acres in 2012 to about 15M acres in 2017 to about 18M acres in 2022 per the Ag Census, that’s 6% of today’s about 300M cropland acres,” she says.
“That’s progress, but not enough progress!”
Soil Health Principles
Moebius-Clune says that principles that promote healthy soil ecosystems are broadly applicable, but they need to be carefully adapted for success in a production system.
She points to four globally accepted principles that, together, can achieve an optimal soil health system:
- Maximize biodiversity
- Maximize living roots
- Maximize soil cover
- Minimize disturbance
Putting these into place on farms and ranches is to commit to stewarding what Moebius-Clune calls an “underground herd of livestock” or living organisms that contribute to a vibrant soil ecosystem and, therefore, high-functioning soils.
Beyond well-known practices like reduced tillage and cover cropping, those baseline principles can yield additional opportunities for farmers to invest in the health of their soil, including diversification of crop rotations, integrating livestock into cropping systems and precisely managing inputs. One innovative soil health tactic—biochar--has recently been included by USDA-NRCS through Soil Carbon Amendment Conservation Practice Standard 336, meaning financial and technical assistance is now available to help growers with implementation.
Soil Health Drivers
If the baseline principles are basic enough, why aren’t more farmers and ranchers jumping ahead in implementation?
Moebius-Clune says that adoption thus far has largely been driven by innovators, early adopters, researchers, NRCS and organizations like American Farmland Trust that have put time and effort into education, outreach and training. But, that work, she says, is not sufficient to take soil health adoption to the next level.
“We need to address the still significant social, financial and technical barriers to adoption,” she says.
American Farmland Trust is working in collaboration with partners across the value chain, including America’s Conservation Ag Movement, to break down those barriers through initiatives that develop farmer networks, science-and-practice grounded technical resources, decision-support tools and policy solutions to improve farmer access to resources.
Soil Health Benefits
Those soil health early adopters are seeing tangible benefits on farms and ranches, especially as climate extremes are becoming more prevalent.
“Healthier soils provide more resilience in extreme conditions,” says Moebius-Clune.
Moebius-Clune credits the “stable aggregates” of healthy soils for keeping pores open during periods of heavy rainfall events, allowing rainfall to infiltrate into the soil and store rather than washing topsoil downstream.
“This prepares systems to be more resilient during droughts when stored water in a deeper root zone remains available for longer,” she says, adding that diverse production systems are more likely to produce some crops that maintain yield when others fail.
The diversity of ecosystems in healthy soils can protect crops from pests and pathogens as well.
“There is even evidence in social science literature that farmers who manage for healthy soils may experience less stress and more inspiration, autonomy, confidence, freedom, flexibility and happiness,” she says.
Soil Health + Bottom Line
While soil health practices could lead to enhanced opportunities for farmers and ranchers looking to cash in on the carbon marketplace, Moebius-Clune cautions that there is still confusion and uncertainty holding many back.
But, even without that opportunity, American Farmland Trust has been putting soil health to the economic test by highlighting case studies where soil health penciled out in the bottom line.
“Our case studies show potential for return on investment through increased yields, decreased input costs, decreased long-term production system risk during extreme weather events and decreased maintenance needs and also quantify environmental benefits such as decreased erosion, nutrient and sediment pollution and increased carbon sequestration,” Moebius-Clune says.
“We know that farmers who successfully adopt these systems experience real economic returns on their soil health investments that can be quantified.”
America’s Conservation Ag Movement is a public/private collaborative that meets growers across the country where they are on their conservation journey and empowers their next step with technical assistance from USDA-NRCS and innovation solutions and resources from agriculture’s leading providers. Learn more at americasconservationagmovement.com.
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