Partnering with the Soil Health Institute
In the last 10 years, “soil health” has evolved from an obscure concept to a central tenet that is the foundation for regenerative and sustainable agriculture. The Soil Health Institute champions the agricultural practices and systems that will provide nutritious food for a growing population, arrest climate change, conserve and enhance natural resources, and support the individuals who will achieve these benefits for the rest of us – our world’s farmers.
As a leading voice in this evolution, the Soil Health Institute is fortunate to partner with hundreds of individuals and organizations to address key barriers to widescale adoption of soil health systems. The Institute’s recent and forthcoming advances include:
- Providing a comprehensive strategy for advancing soil health
- Performing economic assessments of soil health systems on 125 farms
- Identifying the most effective soil health measurements for everyone to use across North America (and likely beyond)
- Offering on-farm and classroom soil health training programs for farmers and their advisers
- Creating new tools for building on-farm drought resilience
- Establishing locally relevant soil health targets for benchmarking current status and measuring progress
- Assessing the soil health impacts on greenhouse gas emissions at 90 sites in more than 30 states
- Launching online databases with more than 13,000 soil health references, almost 300 state-level programs and policies, and over 40 resources for K-12 educational programs
- Analyzing over 60 Farm Bill programs/provisions on soil health
- Briefing Congress to promote well-informed policies
- Conducting an assessment of soil health practice adoption across the U.S.
- Producing the Living Soil documentary, available for free on YouTube, with accompanying lesson plans
- Developing online resources for farmers and consumers on soil health practices, economics, ecosystem services, measurements, climate change, communications and others
These programs and accomplishments have provided the Soil Health Institute with the knowledge, experience and capacity to offer a range of partnership opportunities for advancing the science and practicality of soil health, including:
- Strategic planning and implementation on local to global scales
- Soil health measurements to establish baselines and achievable soil health targets
- Soil carbon measurement and interpretation that supports carbon markets
- Soil health training for farmers, consultants, government and private field conservationists
- On-farm economic assessments of locally relevant soil health systems
- Environmental assessments of conservation practices ranging from greenhouse gas emissions to water quality
- Providing evidence-based information for state and federal policies
- Conducting basic to applied research and development, ranging from the soil microbiome to decision-support tools and apps for farmers and many others
We invite agencies, businesses, farmers, and other interested parties to reach out today to explore how the Soil Health Institute can help integrate soil health into your agricultural and environmental goals. Please contact us here