Author: Soil Health Institute

Microbial Community Structure and Cmin Interpretive Summary

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

Interpretive Summary of the Technical Paper:

“Linking soil microbial community structure to potential carbon mineralization: A continental scale assessment of reduced tillage”

Carbon mineralization potential is a commonly used indicator of soil health and is recommended by the Soil Health Institute. Some may be more familiar with the indicator when described as “CO2 burst” or “soil respiration.” The terminology associated with the indicator reflects the methodology used, where a burst of carbon dioxide (CO2) released from microbial activity is measured upon rewetting an air-dried, sieved soil. Reported measurement values are often greater in no-till systems when compared to conventionally tilled systems. While the measurement is known to be driven by soil microbes, little is known about which microbes are responsible for creating the burst of CO2. Understanding which microbes drive these differences will strengthen interpretation of this widely used indicator of soil health.

To better understand the microbes associated with greater carbon mineralization potential in reduced tillage systems, scientists at the Soil Health Institute analyzed soil DNA sequences, collected as part of the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements. Soils used in the study were collected from 124 long-term agricultural research sites across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Specific DNA sequences were used to identify different microbes found in each soil and research treatment. First, we determined how tillage impacted the abundances of different microbes. Next, we identified groups of soil microbes that flourished in no-till systems and were influential drivers of 24-hour carbon mineralization measurements.

Results indicated that switching from intensive tillage practices (moldboard, chisel plow, etc.) to no-till management consistently changed the abundance of certain microbes, except in systems with wheat-based rotations. We hypothesized that the greater belowground biomass produced in wheat systems may mimic residue incorporation from tillage, resulting in similar microbe populations between the treatments. Results from less intense tillage comparisons (no-till vs. reduced tillage and reduced tillage vs. intense tillage) were mixed. Less intense tillage comparisons at approximately half of long-term sites contained similar microbial fingerprints. However, when grouped by soil pH, we found only soil microbes at sites with slightly acidic soils were unaffected by differences in tillage.

Next, we identified microbes that influenced greater carbon mineralization potential measurements. We found that many of the microbes that influenced greater CO2 bursts were also more abundant in reduced tillage systems. These organisms were often slower growing and adaptive to lower, but consistent nutrient concentrations. This means that the organisms are not reliant on additional outside inputs (organic residues, manures, etc.), but are capable of cycling nutrients from residues contained within stable aggregates and from root exudates when available. Additionally, several of the organisms could produce extracellular polymeric substances, commonly referred to as, “microbial glues.” Many of these substances form biofilms, which help microbes deal with changes in soil moisture over time. Additionally, these “glues” have been shown to enhance aggregation in the soil profile. This study demonstrated how understanding the microbial drivers of carbon mineralization potential strengthens our ability to interpret this widely used measurement. In this particular case, we discovered that reducing tillage resulted in soil microbial communities more capable of thriving under diverse environmental conditions. This means that as more climate extremes are experienced, those microbial

communities present in reduced tillage systems are more resilient to those extremes and can therefore carry on their important functions of building soil aggregates, cycling nutrients, and others.

Read the peer-reviewed manuscript here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003807172200075X

Carbon Paper Interpretive Summary

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

Interpretive Summary of the Technical Paper:

“An evaluation of carbon indicators of soil health in long-term agricultural experiments”

Organic carbon is the basis of the soil food web. When soil microbes feed on carbon as a source of energy, it affects nutrient cycling, water cycling, and greenhouse gas emissions. These biological processes provide nutrients for plants and create aggregates in the soil that help increase water infiltration and reduce erosion. A wide variety of measurements have been suggested to assess important aspects of carbon cycling in soils, yet selecting the right indicator has been difficult because:

  • There are many measurements to choose from, and it is hard to compare different measurement methods;
  • The measurements can be highly variable across landscapes and time; and
  • Local climate and soil characteristics affect the measurements.

To address these issues, the Soil Health Institute collaborated with approximately 100 partners to assess soil health measurements for a range of management practices at 124 research sites across North America. We compared seven measurements (soil organic carbon, loss on ignition, 24- and 96-hour potentially mineralizable carbon, water extractable organic carbon, permanganate oxidizable carbon, and beta-glucosidase enzyme activity) to understand which ones best characterize soil health. These measurements quantify the amount of different types of carbon or the potential for microbes to cycle that carbon. We assessed:

  • The relationship of each measurement to a suite of soil inherent properties and climate variables;
  • The response of each measurement to management practice;
  • The effect of soil type and climate on response to management; and
  • The relationship among indicators in their response to management practices.

Across North America, all C measurements responded to reducing tillage, cover cropping, utilizing organic sources of nutrients, and retaining crop residue, but did not respond to changing a cropping system’s diversity. We examined the effect of tillage in more detail because many research sites had tillage experiments. We found that reducing tillage generally resulted in higher levels of all C measurements regardless of soil texture, and this response was generally greater in wetter climates. We concluded that, while many of these C measurements provide insight into soil health, soil organic carbon and 24-hour potentially mineralizable carbon are recommended based on their ease of interpretation, availability, and relative low cost.

Learn more about this study by reading the peer-reviewed manuscript here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071722001651

Comparing Aggregate Stability Methods

Posted on by Soil Health Institute
A person holds soil aggregates collected from a tilled field.

Soil structure is the backbone of a soil’s ability to support processes vital to the health and productivity of plants, animals, and ecosystems. Soil structural units, or aggregates, form when fresh organic matter is decomposed and transformed by soil microbes into binding agents among mineral soil particles. Because soil structure is difficult to measure, aggregate stability is often used as an indicator. Wet aggregate stability is a measure of a dry soil aggregate’s ability to resist dispersion when rewetted. Increases in aggregate stability are linked to improved water infiltration and reduced erodibility.

The popularity of the measurement in soil health over the past few decades has spurred the creation of numerous methods designed to assess aggregate stability. While most methods appear responsive to management practices, few studies have directly compared the methods. Those studies that have been conducted found that different aggregate stability methods responded differently to management, making comparison among the indicators difficult. This has left stakeholders wondering, “Is any specific aggregate stability indicator advantageous to use over another?”

To address this and other questions, Soil Health Institute scientists and partners conducted a study to evaluate over 30 soil health measurements at 124 long-term agricultural research sites across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. We compared four common methods of measuring aggregate stability: water stable aggregates using the Cornell Rainfall Simulator, wet sieved water stable aggregates (Yoder method), slaking captured and adapted from SLAKES smart-phone image recognition software, and the mean weight diameter of water stable aggregates. We evaluated each indicator’s sensitivity to climate and inherent soil properties. Additionally, we explored each indicator’s sensitivity to long-term adoption of soil health management practices, including rotation diversity, number of cash crops, residue management, organic nutrient amendments, cover crops, and tillage. Finally, we examined the cost and availability of each indicator to determine its scalability.

All four indicators were sensitive to climate and inherent soil properties to a certain extent. This means that the indicators should only be compared among similar soils within similar climates. None of the indicators detected differences between diverse and monoculture rotations or increases in the number of different cash crops included in the rotation. All four methods, to a certain degree, were sensitive to organic nutrient amendments, cover crops, and tillage. Considering these results, no single method was clearly superior and all four are viable options for measuring aggregate stability. Although all measurements responded to management, SLAKES was the most practical in terms of time and cost. Therefore, we concluded that slaking via image recognition measured on intact 4-10 mm diameter aggregates was the most suitable method for scaling up assessments of aggregate stability as a soil health indicator.

SHI to Advance Soil Health Training and Research in More Than 35 States as an Implementing Partner in Five USDA Climate-Smart Commodity Grants

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For Immediate Release  

September 27, 2022: The Soil Health Institute (SHI) congratulates all recently announced USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grant recipients. As an implementing partner across five selected projects, SHI will work alongside a wide variety of organizations to assist farmers, ranchers, and landowners on their journey toward improved soil health and climate resiliency. Funding made available through this historic investment will enable SHI to advance the establishment of place-based Soil Health and Carbon Targets, provide farmers with measurable goals based on what is achievable for their soils and production systems, increase access to soil health training and availability of on-farm economic analyses, and leverage our work across projects to create communities of practice to support successful adoption of regenerative soil health systems that contribute quantifiable economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society. SHI is a partner on the following projects:  

  1. Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership. Led by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, this project will accelerate long-term cover crop adoption by creating a platform to incentivize farmers across 20 states. The platform will quantify, verify, and facilitate the sale of ecosystem benefits, creating a marketplace to generate demand for climate-smart commodities. 
  1. Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Agriculture’s Regenerative Transformation). Led by Truterra, LLC, this project will catalyze a self-sustaining, market-based network to broaden farmer access, scale adoption of climate-smart practices, and sustainably produce grain and dairy commodities with verified and quantified climate benefits across 28 states.   
  1. U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program. Led by the U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, this project will build markets for climate-smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to over 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate-smart practices on more than 1 million acres, producing millions of bales of Climate-Smart Cotton over five years, and demonstrating major carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reductions and millions of dollars of economic benefits to farmers. 
  1. Climate-Smart Potatoes from the Pacific Northwest: Managing Soil Health for Climate-Smart Outcomes. Led by Oregon State University, this project will build climate-smart markets and advance adoption of climate-smart management systems in the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where more than 62% of U.S. potatoes are grown and 15% of the domestic supply of seed potatoes are produced. 
  1. Quantifying the Potential to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Increase Carbon Sequestration by Growing and Marketing Climate-Smart Commodities in the Southern Piedmont. Led by Rodale Institute, this project will utilize an interdisciplinary system approach including farmer adoption, understanding economic/social barriers, market/consumer buy-in, utilizing technology, and easing the burden on farmers. The results of the project will build climate-smart markets, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and increase farmer economic opportunities and adoption of climate-smart agriculture.  

About the Soil Health Institute  

The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission of safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement. Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being. Accordingly, the Institute brings together leaders in soil health science and the industry to conduct research and empower farmers and other landowners with the knowledge to successfully adopt regenerative soil health systems that contribute economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society. The Institute’s scientific team holds doctorates in various soil science and related disciplines, with specialties in carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, water cycling, nutrient management, soil microbiome, farmer/adviser education, ecosystem services, soil-plant relationships, on-farm economics, and others. The team follows a comprehensive strategy for advancing adoption of regenerative soil health systems.  

Healthy soils are the foundation for restoring our land. Together, we can create a secure future for all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and help farmers and organizations meet production and environmental goals at scale. Visit www.soilhealthinstitute.org to learn more and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  

Advancing Regenerative Soil Health Systems: Walmart Foundation Supports the U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

For Immediate Release

Morrisville, North Carolina – Aug. 18, 2022. The Walmart Foundation announced it has provided a $2,000,000, three-year grant to the Soil Health Institute’s (SHI) U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund (USRCF) to scale activities of the project and expand the initiative to Alabama and South Carolina. The USRCF is a farmer-facing, science-based initiative designed to empower farmers and their advisors with the tools, resources, and networks they need to successfully adopt regenerative soil health systems, with the goal of eliminating one million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the atmosphere by 2026.  

“Regenerative soil health systems can provide significant benefits for farmers, food supply chains, our climate, and nature,”

said Kathleen McLaughlin, Chief Sustainability Officer and Executive Vice President at Walmart Inc. and President of the Walmart Foundation. “However, adoption of soil health practices remains low. The USRCF’s scientific approach empowers farmers and aligns with the Foundation’s work on regenerative agriculture. We are excited to support this ambitious project to support farmers with the resources and tools they need to adopt more regenerative systems and accurately measure the outcomes of these practices for their land and livelihoods.” 

Through the USRCF, begun in 2021, SHI has initiated work in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, and Mississippi, where it has established farmer-to-farmer education networks with more than 100 cotton farmers, delivered 12 education programs, sampled soils in over 200 locations to develop Soil Health and Soil Carbon Targets, interviewed farmers managing 11,000 acres to assess their economic experiences with regenerative systems, delivered initial economic results to growers managing 187,000 acres, and mentored five student interns from Historically Black Colleges and Universities to help prepare them for leadership positions in U.S. agriculture.  

“The USRCF is making good progress,” said Dr. Cristine Morgan, SHI’s Chief Scientific Officer. “The drought conditions sweeping across the cotton-belt this year only underscore the importance of soil health systems to farmers’ livelihoods because they can build drought resilience and increase profitability. We feel fortunate to have the Walmart Foundation’s support that will allow us to expand the reach and impact of the USRCF to Alabama and South Carolina.”  

The U.S. Regenerative Cotton Fund was initiated in 2021 with a founding grant from the Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation. The VF Foundation is a Sustaining Supporter, and Levi Strauss & Co. is a Contributing Supporter of the Fund. Participating partners currently include Cotton Incorporated, National Cotton Council, Field to Market, Arkansas Soil Health Alliance, DELTA F.A.R.M., and the University of Georgia.  

In 2021, the USRCF was selected as an Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) Innovation Sprint Partner, a joint initiative by the United States and United Arab Emirates to accelerate investments in climate-smart agriculture.  

About the Soil Health Institute 

The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission of safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement. Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being. Accordingly, the Institute brings together leaders in soil health science and the industry to conduct research and empower farmers and other landowners with the knowledge to successfully adopt regenerative soil health systems that contribute economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society. The Institute’s scientific team holds doctorates in various soil science and related disciplines, with specialties in carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, water cycling, nutrient management, soil microbiome, farmer/adviser education, ecosystem services, soil-plant relationships, on-farm economics, and others. The team follows a comprehensive strategy for advancing adoption of regenerative soil health systems. 

Healthy soils are the foundation for restoring our land. Together, we can create a secure future for all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and help farmers and organizations meet production and environmental goals at scale. Visit www.soilhealthinstitute.org to learn more, and follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. 

About Philanthropy at Walmart  

Walmart.org represents the philanthropic efforts of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation. By focusing where the business has unique strengths, Walmart.org works to tackle key social and environmental issues and collaborate with others to spark long lasting systemic change. Walmart has stores in 26 countries, employs more than 2.2 million associates and does business with thousands of suppliers who, in turn, employ millions of people. Walmart.org is helping people live better by supporting programs to accelerate upward job mobility for frontline workers, advance equity, address hunger, build inclusive economic opportunity for people in supply chains, protect and restore nature, reduce waste and emissions, and build strong communities where Walmart operates. To learn more, visit www.walmart.org or connect on Twitter @Walmartorg. 

Soil Health Institute Announces Recommended Measurements for Evaluating Soil Health

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

For Immediate Release

Morrisville, North Carolina – Aug. 12, 2022. The Soil Health Institute (SHI) today announced its recommended measurements for assessing soil health. These recommendations answer the No. 1 question about soil health that farmers, ranchers, and their advisers have been asking since the soil health movement began.   

With support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, and General Mills, the Soil Health Institute led a 3-year, $6.5-million project to identify effective measurements for soil health across North America. SHI partnered with over 100 scientists at 124 long-term agricultural research sites in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico where conventional management systems were compared with soil health-improving systems.  

“This allowed us to evaluate over 30 soil health measurements at each site where they had the appropriate experimental design to allow us to come to the appropriate statistical conclusion about the effectiveness of each measurement,” said Dr. Wayne Honeycutt, President and CEO of the Soil Health Institute. “Evaluating each measurement across such a wide range of climates, soils, cropping systems, and management practices also provided the scientific rigor we needed to identify which measurements could be widely used.” 

The concept of soil health is basically about how well a soil is functioning. Such functions include cycling water, carbon, and nutrients. Whether a heavy rain infiltrates into the soil or runs off the soil reflects how well that soil is functioning. Soil health can be improved through management, but farmers need practical, effective measurements for assessing the current status of their soil and evaluating progress at improving its health. 

The Soil Health Institute found that many measurements are effective for assessing soil health from a research perspective.

“While this is good news for the science, we also wanted to identify a minimum suite of measurements that is practical and affordable for all land managers,”

said Dr. Cristine Morgan, Chief Scientific Officer of SHI, “so we also evaluated these measurements through the lens of cost, practicality, availability, redundancy, and other filters.”  

Based on these results, SHI recommends a minimal suite of three measurements to be widely applied across North America (and likely beyond). Those measurements include: 1) soil organic carbon concentration, 2) carbon mineralization potential, and 3) aggregate stability. 

Soil organic carbon is a key component of a soil’s organic matter that influences available water holding capacity, nutrients, biodiversity, structure, and other important soil properties. Carbon mineralization potential reflects the size and structure of microbial communities in soil, thereby influencing nutrient availability, soil aggregation, and resilience to changing climatic conditions. Aggregate stability describes how strongly soil particles group together. This influences whether a heavy rainfall will infiltrate into a soil or run off a landscape, taking with it valuable nutrients that become detrimental to water quality. Soil aggregates also influence erosion, aeration, root growth and, therefore, nutrient uptake by plants. 

While these three metrics provide a minimum suite of widely applicable measurements for assessing soil health, additional measurements may be included depending on the landowner’s or researcher’s objectives. “We have found that adding soil texture to this list of measurements allows us to calculate a soil’s available water holding capacity,” said Dr. Dianna Bagnall, Research Soil Scientist with SHI. “We can then show a farmer how much more water they can store by increasing their organic carbon and improving soil health.” Because management does not change soil texture (sand, silt, and clay), it only needs to be measured once. 

“Providing a scientifically rigorous, yet practical approach for assessing soil health should increase adoption of regenerative soil health systems because farmers and their advisers can now measure the impact of their management choices with confidence,” said Dr. LaKisha Odom, FFAR’s Scientific Program Director for Soil Health.

“This will in effect bring more on-farm and environmental benefits to scale for agriculture and society.” 

To facilitate use of these measurements, details on SHI’s recommended protocols for sampling and analyzing soils are described on its website. Specific details on the underlying research and data analyses are described in several peer-reviewed publications and interpretive summaries. Additional manuscripts are currently in peer-review. 

About the Soil Health Institute 

The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission of safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement. Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being. Accordingly, the Institute brings together leaders in soil health science and the industry to conduct research and empower farmers and other landowners with the knowledge to successfully adopt regenerative soil health systems that contribute economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society. The Institute’s scientific team holds doctorates in various soil science and related disciplines, with specialties in carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, water cycling, nutrient management, soil microbiome, farmer/adviser education, ecosystem services, soil-plant relationships, on-farm economics, and others. The team follows a comprehensive strategy for advancing adoption of regenerative soil health systems. 

Healthy soils are the foundation for restoring our land. Together, we can create a secure future for all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and help farmers and organizations meet production and environmental goals at scale. Visit www.soilhealthinstitute.org to learn more, and follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. 

Soil Hydraulic Properties for Measuring Soil Health

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

Healthy soils develop structural units that allow water to infiltrate into the soil, slowing surface runoff of water from rainfall, reducing erosion and loss of nutrients, and storing water for plants’ needs. Farmers, scientists, and other soil health stakeholders need indicators to measure and interpret how well a soil performs these water-related functions.  Selecting the right indicator has been difficult because:

  • There are many measurements to choose from and it is hard to compare different measurement methods;
  • The measurements can be highly variable across landscapes and time;
  • Local climate and soil characteristics affect the measurements; and
  • Soil health management systems take time to establish, so measurements taken in soils with newly established management will be different from those taken after the management has been in place for several years.

To address these issues, Soil Health Institute Scientists and their partners conducted a study to evaluate over 30 soil health measurements at 124 long-term agricultural research sites across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. We compared physical soil health measurements to determine which ones are most useful for characterizing the water cycle in soils. We assessed:

  • The relationship of each measurement to a suite of soil inherent properties and climate variables;
  • The response of each measurement to soil health management practices;
  • The effect that soil type and climate had on the soil health response to management practices; and
  • The relationships among soil health responses to management.

We concluded that “field capacity” measured on intact soil cores was the best measure of soil physical health as it pertains to the water cycle. Field capacity is the amount of water remaining in a soil after it has been saturated and allowed to freely drain for usually 1-2 days. Because a soil’s structure influences field capacity, it is most accurately measured in the laboratory using intact soil cores that preserve the soil’s structure. We found that field capacity responded to management, represented a direct measure of soil physical health, is easily interpretable, and its response to management was not significantly influenced by inherent and climatic variables. Other suitable physical measurements were bulk density and aggregate stability, which responded to management and may be more practical because bulk density and aggregate stability are easier to measure compared to intact field capacity. Learn more about this study by reading the peer-reviewed manuscript here: https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/saj2.20428

Soil Health Institute Announces Agenda for “Scaling Up Soil Health” Virtual Annual Meeting

Posted on by Soil Health Institute

For Immediate Release

Morrisville, North Carolina – July 28, 2022. The Soil Health Institute (SHI) has released the agenda for its upcoming annual meeting to be held virtually on Aug. 11-12. Attendees at this year’s annual meeting of the Soil Health Institute can expect a content-rich program ranging from scientific results to their translation and implementation, all designed to increase on-farm and environmental benefits by “Scaling Up Soil Health.” 

The keynote presentation for this year’s meeting will be provided by Jane Ewing, Senior Vice-President for Sustainability, Walmart. This presentation will be followed by a session entitled “Engaging Commodities for Scaling Adoption of Regenerative Soil Health Systems in Cotton.” In this session, which features three panel discussions, participants will learn about the tactics different organizations and individuals are using to bring on-farm and environmental benefits of soil health to scale. 

In the first panel, farmers will discuss the challenges they encountered and overcame when adopting regenerative soil health systems in different soils and climates. In the second panel, leaders from Ralph Lauren, Walmart Foundation, VF Corporation, and Levi Strauss & Co. will discuss how they are supporting farmers in adopting soil health practices to achieve societal, environmental, and other goals. Insights into supply chain standards to further connect the market for fiber grown using soil health systems will be provided by a third panel of leaders from the Textile Exchange; Cotton, Inc.; U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol; and 2050.cloud. 

Highlighting the afternoon of Aug. 11 is “Climate Change Mitigation through Soil Health,” a session that discusses current programs ranging from local to global initiatives. This session will include a presentation by SHI on comparing strategies for assessing soil carbon stocks. Lessons learned from implementing such strategies at a regional scale will be described by Truterra, while programs to address climate change through soil health at the national scale will be presented by leaders from USDA-NRCS and Dairy Management, Inc. The session will close with a presentation on the “4 per 1000 Initiative,” which uses soil health to address food security and climate goals at a global scale.  

Recommended Measurements of Soil Health for North America 

On Day Two of the meeting (Aug. 12), scientists from SHI will present results of a 3-year, $6.5-million project to assess and identify the most effective measurements of soil health. Management impacts on the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, water cycle, and soil microbiome will be presented, culminating in an announcement of the Institute’s recommended measurements for assessing soil health across North America and beyond.  

That afternoon, a panel on “Creating Impactful Learning Opportunities in Soil Health Education Programs” will be led by one of SHI’s soil health educators. Panelists ranging from a farmer to a university educator to a Regional Director of USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education program will share their experiences and creative techniques for increasing effectiveness of soil health education programs.  

Registration is free but required to participate. Continuing Education Credits will be offered. Register here. 

About the Soil Health Institute 

The Soil Health Institute is a global non-profit with a mission of safeguarding and enhancing the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement. Our vision is a world where farmers and ranchers grow quality food, fiber, and fuel using soil health systems that sustain farms and rural communities, promote a stable climate and clean environment, and improve human health and well-being. Accordingly, the Institute brings together leaders in soil health science and the industry to conduct research and empower farmers and other landowners with the knowledge to successfully adopt regenerative soil health systems that contribute economic and environmental benefits to agriculture and society. The Institute’s scientific team holds doctorates in various soil science and related disciplines, with specialties in carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, water cycling, nutrient management, soil microbiome, farmer/adviser education, ecosystem services, soil-plant relationships, on-farm economics, and others. The team follows a comprehensive strategy for advancing adoption of regenerative soil health systems. 

Healthy soils are the foundation for restoring our land. Together, we can create a secure future for all, mitigate the effects of climate change, and help farmers and organizations meet production and environmental goals at scale. Visit www.soilhealthinstitute.org to learn more, and follow us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.