Our Impact

Discovered the following average net income increases from sustained adoption of regenerative soil health systems across 163 farms:

Results from these national-scale assessments have been shared through videos, webinars, factsheets, and narratives, reaching over 35,000 views and 4,000 downloads.

Our work identifies effective measurements and benchmarks to empower growers, advisors and industry to set achievable soil health goals and assess progress. Impacts include:

• Evaluated more than 30 soil health indicators at 124 long-term research sites across North America and recommended three cost-effective, widely available measurements for scaling soil health assessment. Drawing on this research, USDA-NRCS now provides financial assistance to landowners in all 50 states to measure soil health using SHI’s essential indicators.
• Provided guidance on sample collection, preparation and analysis to ensure data quality and interoperability through the creation of seven laboratory SOPs, delivered in a webinar to 830 individuals representing more than 350 organizations, 49 states and 50 countries.
• Recognized with a 2023 Conservation Innovation Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society for our work to identify effective measurements as “a scientifically rigorous yet practical approach for assessing soil health.”
• Launched Slakes, a free phone application to measure aggregate stability, one of SHI’s recommended soil health indicators. The app, which has more than 2,000 downloads, gives growers equitable access to information they need to improve their soil without a laboratory.
• Established soil health benchmarks on more than 7 million acres in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, New York, Texas, Wisconsin, and Ontario, showing growers how healthy their soils can become.

Results from this work have been shared through peer-reviewed publications with more than 400 citations, webinars totaling more than 2,500 views, and more than 500 individual farmer reports.

Our business case and measurement work is not complete until it reaches those who can benefit from it. SHI’s education and outreach activities provide the tools and information needed for profitable, resilient, and environmentally sound regenerative soil health systems. Impacts include:

• Conducted over 80 virtual and in-person soil health education programs and listening sessions across 35 states and three provinces.
• Delivered more than 90 invited talks, including virtual and in-person keynotes, panel discussions, conference sessions, and lectures.
• Established farmer-to-farmer networks across seven states and one Canadian province, facilitating mentorship among farmers, local technical specialists, and SHI educators to promote regenerative soil health management systems.
• Shared educational resources for farmers and their advisers on YouTube, where more than 31,000 subscribers and other viewers can find farmer-to-farmer videos, virtual field days, farmer panel showcases, webinars, and presentations totaling more than 250,000 views.
• Convened experts in agriculture, soil science, environmental science, and policy via virtual and in-person annual meetings engaging more than 6,000 farmers, advisers, scientists, food and beverage companies, and others from 1,800 organizations and 67 countries.
• Produced the Living Soil documentary, which has been viewed over 4.2 million times and translated into over 20 languages, with accompanying lesson plans for high school and college.
• Communicated SHI findings, opportunities and activities to LinkedIn and Facebook audiences totaling more than 24,000 followers.

Alongside public and private partners, we conduct soil health science and translate it into action to benefit farmers, the environment, and society. Impacts include:

• Discovered that approximately twice as much water can be stored in soils by increasing carbon than previously reported and integrated this work into COMET-Farm, the USDA’s carbon and greenhouse gas accounting system.
• Assessed the impacts of tillage on the soil microbiome across North America, discovering that reducing tillage resulted in soil microbial communities more capable of thriving under diverse environmental conditions, rendering these communities better able to perform key soil functions amid climate extremes.
• Discovered that soils across North America under reduced tillage had approximately 12% higher levels of total nitrogen compared to soils under conventional tillage.
• Creating innovative tools to enhance drought resilience, leveraging our work to assess improvements in water storage and availability due to soil health practices.
• Evaluating the greenhouse gas footprint and soil health of dairy farms in response to soil health and manure management, in collaboration with the U.S. Dairy Net Zero Initiative, dairy research institutions, and private organizations.
• Supporting education efforts and the quantification of economic and environmental benefits through seven USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Grants.
• Developing a rapid, in-field system for measuring deep soil carbon stocks, alongside industry and university partners.

SHI provides sound scientific guidance to inform governmental recommendations and decisions with broad impact across North America. Impacts include:

• Analyzed the 2018 Farm Bill, identifying 60 provisions that impact soil health, as documented in the Impact of the 2018 Farm Bill on Soil Health report in partnership with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
• Delivered a congressional briefing on soil health during 2018 Farm Bill deliberations; and a 2024 briefing to the Canadian Senate, resulting in the inclusion of SHI’s essential indicators of soil health in the Senate report.
• Convened more than 180 attendees from 120 organizations to identify 10 recommendations for advancing science and policy connecting soil health and human health. Following this report, Congress allocated $1M for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to assess the state of knowledge on linkages between soil health and human health.