News

Dear friends and colleagues, 

The team at Land Core has been actively monitoring legislative developments from the 119th Congress, with reconciliation and its impact on critical agricultural programs at the forefront. While a variety of proposals have emerged, the path forward still remains complex. Nevertheless, we remain hopeful that some progress will be made to support soil health priorities.

Internally, we are continuing our outreach to congressional members interested in advancing soil health practices to help farmers build farm resilience and access greater economic opportunities in the process. 

Dear friends and colleagues,

Happy Spring!

Last month was a busy one. In addition to speaking engagements and conferences, Executive Director Aria Mclauchlan also traveled to Washington to meet with legislative offices, working to advance key Land Core priorities for the year. While news from DC can sometimes feel overwhelming, there are still consistent opportunities to champion soil health by highlighting the economic benefits for farmers, producers, and taxpayers alike.

As in-person and online activities ramp up for the year, we’re excited to be re-engaging with colleagues, policymakers, and coalitions to share the developments of our policy work as well as the Risk Model Project.

The year is back in full swing here for the Land Core team as we set our sights on new opportunities within the current administration to advance soil health practices, programs, and policies. We’ve been closely following cabinet nomination hearings and recent confirmations, preparing outreach to new appointees and stakeholders who share our mission of creating value for farmers, businesses, and communities.

It’s with pride and gratitude that we look back and take stock on another momentous year for soil health. Although political deadlock in 2024 pushed the Farm Bill out another year, there is no denying that on the issue of soil health, we saw an exceptional year of growth, including unprecedented bipartisan support for federal policies, as well as increased adoption of soil health practices on farms and ranches across the country.

In 2025, with a new administration and Congress, Land Core remains focused on the unifying goal that soil is our common ground. We are looking forward to working with stakeholders across the country to unlock greater long term, systemic protections for farmers and ranchers against volatility and extreme weather events, ensuring the stability of American agriculture long into the future.

We are inspired everyday by the potential of healthy soils. From healthier food and cleaner water, to creating more resilient farms that can better weather floods or drought, soil is the key to a thriving future. At Land Core, we’re fueled by the conviction that rebuilding our nation’s soils will foster resilience and profitability of US agriculture and strengthen our communities more broadly.

Many of you know that Harley and I co-founded Land Core in January of 2017, fueled by the conviction that building our nation’s soil health could help expand the resilience and profitability of US agriculture and strengthen our communities more broadly.

We hope you’re having an excellent end of summer, and are looking forward to the fall. Given the roller coaster of politics we are all on with this election season, some policy work is on pause, waiting to see how things shake out. That said, we are still tracking Farm Bill & Ag Appropriations news, submitting comments on agency actions like input on the 2027 Census of Agriculture to USDA NASS, and engaging in strategic planning to ensure soil health is recognized, valued and advanced across a wider breadth of agencies at USDA and beyond.

We hope you had a fun and safe Fourth of July holiday! Land Core was back in DC this month for a busy week of meetings on the Hill continuing to focus on soil health as a central need for US agriculture. We also hosted our first virtual informational session about the Soil Health Risk Model and accompanying online tool for policymakers! Additionally, Land Core recently submitted comments to USDA based on a Request for Information about biofuel feedstocks.

We hope your summer is off to a good start! In the past month there has been more Farm Bill activity, including the release of the Senate Ag Minority leadership framework. The House Appropriations Committee also released the Ag-FDA spending bill and held a markup. Below you can find an overview of this recent activity, as well as a summary of our latest Federal Bill Tracker alert, including some new tracker features!

It has been another busy month here! Let’s start with an overview of some significant political activity. Following the release of a detailed Farm Bill proposal by the Senate Agriculture Committee earlier this month, the House Farm Bill was introduced on the 17th and went through markup on the 23rd, including some progress on our SOIL HEALTH Practices bill, which is now officially on the record for consideration in the final farm bill!

We have quite a bit of news to share from this past month! First, Farm Bill proposals are (finally) being released, which is creating renewed momentum and opportunity. Below, we've provided an overview of the Senate and House versions of the bill, as well as Land Core's soil health-related priorities that were included in the Senate leadership bill. We’re also pleased to share our recently submitted FY25 Agriculture Appropriations request.

Happy Spring! Land Core recently spent National Agriculture Week (March 17-23) in DC discussing soil health legislation and ag-appropriations priorities. How did you celebrate National Agriculture Week? Send us an email or tag us in your posts to let us know!

It's been another busy month here at Land Core. With a recent trip to DC, uncertainty around the Farm Bill, and the upcoming National Ag Week in March, we've been heads down with policy and advocacy work. We have also shared some takeaways from the recent House Agriculture Committee hearing and the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture.

We hope you are having a great start to the new year! 2023 was pretty momentous for Land Core and the soil health movement in general. In case you missed it, we are excited to share highlights from this past year, and our goals for 2024, in our year-in-review which you can find below.  That said, the Farm Bill, which will set the legislative framework for the next five years of US agriculture, is still in limbo. While farm groups advocate for the importance of a bipartisan Farm Bill to be passed prior to the ramp up of this year’s general election, there is also the need for continued outreach for other top soil health priorities.

Happy New Year! We are pleased to share Land Core’s 2023 year-in-review, highlighting organizational accomplishments and progress for the soil health movement. We are immensely grateful to all the farmers, partners, coalition groups, and funders who make this work possible, and we look forward to all 2024 has to offer.

As the holiday season kicks off, we are reminded of how thankful we are to be able to do this work and to do it alongside such a remarkable community of friends, farmers and colleagues. As a relatively small organization, your presence here is incredibly meaningful to us and your support has been critical in advancing our mission and goals.

Fall may be winding down but there’s been no shortage of activity here at Land Core. This past month has been full of policy and educational work, including a trip to DC to meet with policymakers to discuss ways to support the expansion of soil health in the upcoming farm bill, and to share, for the first time, our promising, preliminary findings from the risk model!

As the fall season kicks off, we’re happy to share an update from the annual Regenerative Food Systems Investment Forum in Denver, CO, where a network of investors, philanthropists, farmers, “capital activators” and NGO support groups gathered to discuss and advance new flows of capital to support producers in adopting soil health practices and advancing more resilient or regenerative agricultural systems.

We hope you all had a great summer! The Land Core team, as well as our risk model partners, have been working hard on a number of items. This past month has seen a lot of press and some exciting new developments with the risk model tool, as well as a huge influx of new bills introduced in the 118th Congress hoping to make it into the Farm Bill. We have a fantastic new Land Core team member that we are excited to introduce to you, as well as two postdoctoral research associate positions that we are still looking to fill as we continue to grow our work. Read on to learn more!

It has been another month of major activity here at Land Core. We have seen nearly 40 bills introduced this month that we are in the process of adding to our Soil Health Bill Tracker, we have begun expanding our work with Schmidt Center for Data Science and the Environment (DSE), and we have more truly excellent news on the Land Core Risk Model. So without further ado, enjoy this joyful update for July!

As Summer heats up, we’re excited about all of the opportunities (see below) emerging to further the mission of expanding the scope and scale of soil health-focused agriculture in the US. We hope you will join us in raising awareness and sharing the momentum building in the lead up to the Farm Bill!

Sign on deadline for the DEFER Act (one of our top Farm Bill priorities) extended to Monday, June 5 - join over 155 farming groups, businesses, and nonprofit orgs in supporting access to credit for conservation. Sign (or share) the letter of support! Read on for more updates, hiring opportunities, educational events and more.

We’ve had a busy and very successful spring so far, and it’s only just getting started! We are happy to report that several of the policies that we’ve helped shape over the last year have been included as priorities for the 2023 Farm Bill by members of the Senate Ag committee. Read on for sign on letters, updates on additional policies, job opportunities, and more.

February was a big month for Land Core, with new team members, new updates to the Land Core Bill Tracker, and some wonderful new funding partners! Read on for details.

This edition of our newsletter includes some good news to start the year from a new report, a big design update to our soil health bill tracker, policy news and calls to action as we enter a farm bill year, your regular list of soil health reading materials, and more!

In the past year, we expanded our staff and modeling team members, and deepened our influence in exciting and impactful ways, shaping both the actions and narratives that have focused soil health as being at the center of an independent, resilient agricultural economy.

Thank you for supporting our work in 2022. Here you’ll find a few highlights of what we’ve accomplished together this year!

A big thanks to each of you who supported our work on Giving Tuesday. Your support and encouragement is incredibly meaningful and helpful to us as a relatively small organization, and together, we’ve had a huge year helping to push the soil health movement forward. Wishing you well as many of us gather for the winter farm conference season.

We invite you to be part of our work in 2023 by giving this Giving Tuesday! Your gift will help us continue to be an innovative, consistent, pragmatic voice in D.C. and across the country.