Land Core Newsletter - November 2021 + Giving Tuesday
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It has been an incredible year for soil health!
We have seen unbelievable growth in the soil health/regenerative ag movement, with new producers, businesses, farm organizations, policymakers and the public, not just acknowledging the importance of soil health but actively contributing to scaling it in unprecedented ways.
Land Core is proud to be at the forefront of this movement. Here are just a few of our 2021 highlights (stay tuned for a full impact report!):
Policy: Engaging federal lawmakers, partners & the public to develop economic incentives for widespread soil health practice adoption
Held over 50 meetings with Congressional offices
Submitted five sets of recommendations on soil health and agriculture, including to USDA, the House & Senate Agriculture Committees, and the Biden-Harris Administration
Tracked over 70 bills and resolutions in Congress that could impact soil health in our federal bill tracker, and provided 10 in-depth reports to our bill tracker alerts list
Successfully advocated alongside a broad coalition to include an unprecedented $28 billion for climate-resilient ag and soil health in the Build Back Better Act (passed in the House), which would nearly double the current funding for conservation on working lands
Additionally advised lawmakers on the development and revision of soil health legislation
Participated in key coalitions, advised on soil health & ag policy
Helped in the development of “Regenerate America’s” policy platform for Kiss the Ground and the launch of this unprecedented soil health campaign (more below!)
Risk Model: Developing a predictive model of the risk mitigating benefits of soil health, as a tool to inform lenders, insurers & investors to create market-based incentives for producers
Built our core modeling team and launched model development
Secured a first of its kind partnership with Compeer Financial, the third-largest Farm Credit lender (with $25 billion under management)
Expanded our cross-sector working group and advisory of leading experts in statistics, agroecology, ag tech and finance
Finalizing model MVP for MN and IL, working towards testing new incentives for soil health practice adoption with Compeer Financial in early 2022
Engaged in thought leadership and advocacy for risk mitigation approaches to ag finance, including with USDA and FSA leadership
Education: Building common ground and coalitions, educating key stakeholders about the importance of soil health, and amplifying the most opportune calls-to-action
Presented at, moderated, and helped to develop 11 speaking events and panels
Featured on 4 podcast episodes
Contributed to several research reports on soil health and regenerative ag
Published 11 (and counting!) monthly newsletters including updates on the state of soil health across the country with reading references as well as specific calls to action
Your donations and ongoing support have been instrumental in making this work possible, and we’re incredibly grateful to each and every one of you. We invite you to continue on this journey with us by making a tax-deductible donation to Land Core today.
Together, we can help farmers improve their livelihoods and revive rural communities, become more resilient to floods and drought, impact the climate in a positive way and restore biodiversity, and improve the health of our waterways and the food we eat.
With thanks and gratitude,
The Land Core team
Policy Updates
Land Core advising the “Regenerate America” campaign!
We’re thrilled to introduce “Regenerate America”, a new campaign, building unprecedented grassroots support for regenerative agriculture in the 2023 Farm Bill and beyond. Led by Kiss the Ground, 501(c)3, the campaign will direct the growing momentum from their award-winning documentary film, toward paradigm shifting policy change. Land Core is advising on the federal policy strategy, communications and coalition-building support. We are excited to see so many exceptional individuals and organizations already lending their exceptional expertise and support to this new campaign dedicated to our shared belief, that “Soil is Our Common Ground”.
Stay tuned →
Land Core & OpenTEAM submit comments to USDA:
We applaud USDA’s recent announcement of a new Climate-Smart Agriculture & Forestry (CSAF) Partnership Program, and its broader leadership on supporting producers in their transition to a more resilient and regenerative agriculture. We teamed up with OpenTEAM to submit recommendations on how its CSAF Partnership Program can be designed to support whole ecosystem function, advance an integrated data strategy and leverage existing conservation programs, in order to maximize benefits to producers using climate-smart practices.
Read our full comments here →
2021 Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) On-Farm Trials awarded!
USDA recently announced it is awarding $25 million to conservation partners across the country for 18 new projects under the NRCS-CIG program’s On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials. The program supports the widespread adoption of conservation approaches, and the Soil Health Demonstration Trial (SHD) component of On-Farm Trials focuses exclusively on conservation practice implementation and systems that improve soil health. Land Core helped to establish the SHD trials in the 2018 Farm Bill and are pleased to see the program’s expanding impact in encouraging soil health practice adoption. Congratulations to this year’s grantees!
Learn more about these new innovative projects →
Risk Model Team Expansion
We have added one new modeler - Ben Goldstein, PhD Candidate at UC Berkeley in ecological and applied statistics - who is bringing his expertise in spatial analysis to support our modeling team. Welcome Ben!
In Case You Missed It
Land Core Presents on Financing Resilient Ag During OpenTEAM In-Depth Learning Series
Our co-founders, Aria & Harley, joined OpenTEAM to give an overview of our modeling initiative to harness the economic power of risk to tackle the widespread challenge of funding the soil health transition. The In-Depth Learning Series provides more information about organizations and companies within and outside of OpenTEAM that are working on topics around technology and regenerative agriculture.
Watch the recording →
Upcoming Events
2021 Emerging Leaders in Food & Ag Awards
December 15, 2021 | 3 - 4:30pm ET
Aria & Harley are finalists in this year’s Emerging Leaders in Food & Ag Awards! Thanks again to our community for your support and votes. The top 10 awardees will be announced during a virtual awards ceremony, which is free and open to all.
Register now →
Opportunities in Policy & Ag
A few job postings from our partners and collaborators for those interested in deepening your commitment & lending your talents to the regenerative movement:
Policy Director - Climate Safe Lending Network (CSLN)
Green America is hiring a Policy Director to manage the development and implementation of the Climate Safe Policy Initiative, which aims to inject thought provocation into the debate on financial regulation to reframe the design of the financial system consistent with societal and environmental objectives.
Learn more and apply →
Director of Agriculture Strategy - Environmental Initiative
This role provides vision, strategic direction, subject-matter expertise, and a network of relationships to advance strategic objectives, guide the development of new work, and strengthen alignment and coordination across all agriculture-focused work streams. This position will contribute to leadership of the Midwest Row Crop Collaborative (MRCC).
Learn more and apply →
What We're Reading (& Watching)
Open Rivers Navigator Podcast Season 3
This podcast features experts working across diverse fields such as data, technology, conservation, soil health, climate change, and the environment. Aria was featured on the last season (listen back here).
Released November 2021 | By: Open Rivers Consulting
House advances $1.7T Build Back Better bill, climate-smart ag funding
Bill clears House with historic $28.29 billion in funding for voluntary conservation programs (including EQIP, CSP, as well as a new fund to pay farmers up to $25/acre for establishing cover crops), which has been called "the largest investment in conservation since the dust bowl".
November 19, 2021 | By: Philip Brasher and Steve Davies, Agri-Pulse
Keeping Cattle on the Move and Carbon in the Soil
An in-depth on regenerative grazing as a climate solution & promising way to restore grasslands.
October 31, 2021 | By: Benjamin Ryan, New York Times
Cover Crops Meet Big Data in New Program
Environmental Defense Fund and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Farm Financial Management have partnered to establish a new financial data gathering process for cover crops within the FINBIN database.
November 2, 2021 | By: Corn + Soybean Digest
Banks take major step to turn climate commitments into action for global agriculture sector
New initiative seeks to accurately account for greenhouse gas emissions associated with agricultural sector loan portfolios, supporting banks to collaborate with their clients to transition to climate-smart solutions.
November 8, 2021 | By: Maggie Monast, EDF
Farmers will change if politicians let them
A look at farmer demand for support in implementing soil health practices, and current policy opportunities.
November 17, 2021 | By: Art Cullen, The Storm Lake Times
Soil health keeps family farm in business
Practices like cover crops and no-till are tools, not goals, for Blioux River Ranch’s soil health mission.
November 15, 2021 | By: Kevin Schulz, Dakota Farmer
What’s needed in USDA’s climate-smart ag program
Ag stakeholders identify suggestions for USDA’s Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Program.Nov 9, 2021 | By: Jacqui Fatka, Farm Progress