Land Core Newsletter - Fall 2022
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We hope you're enjoying the fall season. Here at Land Core, we’re excited to be growing our team - both internally, and by welcoming new collaborators to the risk model project. And our work is not done - we’re still hiring for a Senior Manager, Policy - see details below and apply!
We also want to remind you to vote today, if you have not already done so. With agriculture being so heavily impacted by federal policy, the infrastructure that supports positive soil health outcomes depends on our collective engagement in the political process (especially with the Farm Bill coming up next year!).
Regardless of party or politics, you can vote for representatives who are actively committed to advancing soil health and US farmer & food system resilience in the 2023 Farm Bill! Refer to the legislators feature of our bill tracker to see how your rep is supporting soil health.
Read on for more updates.
With gratitude,
The Land Core team
A Simple Way to Give
As we move towards the holiday season, should you be using Amazon.com, we would love to invite you to purchase through “Amazon Smile”. When you shop, the company donates 0.5% of your eligible purchases to the charity of your choice - and you can choose Land Core as your intended recipient! Just navigate to smile.amazon.com, sign in to your Amazon account, search for & select "Land Core" (then save the link to your bookmarks for easy future use), proceed with your shopping, and a portion of each purchase will be donated to us to support soil health! Thank you - we know this community understands that every little bit counts!
Policy News
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) Implementation:
Land Core has been working diligently with partners on a set of recommendations for USDA, prioritizing how the billions of dollars allocated to agriculture in the bill can be most impactfully used, positively supporting producers in building soil health and meeting the bill’s “climate smart” goals. We will be sharing these recommendations in the coming weeks.
Farm tours create “a-ha” moments about soil health:
We want to take a moment to highlight some of the work from the Regenerate America™ coalition, getting legislators from across the political spectrum onto farms that have healthy soil at the center of their farming systems.* These tours are giving lawmakers the first hand experience of seeing the myriad benefits of regenerative agriculture, and how these operations contrast with their conventional neighbors. From massive cost savings on inputs to increased yield stability and new market opportunities, we hope the takeaways are taken back to Congress. Check out: Grazing Field Day at Wilson Land & Cattle Co. Focuses on Improving Land, Lowering Costs
*If you have a local representative that needs to see soil health in action, let us know and we can work to get them onto a regenerative farm or ranch!
Soil Health Risk Model Updates!
Project Updates: A huge congratulations to our modeling team for getting the first functional beta of the Risk Model tool working! While we’re still presenting the model & associated tool and its progress with key development partners, we’re preparing to share preliminary findings – and takeaways for lenders, insurers, investors and policymakers – before the end of the year.
To be the first to hear about our risk model announcements, sign up here.
Land Core Available for 2023 Speaking Opportunities on Agricultural Risk Management through Soil Health: We will be sharing the early results from our risk modeling and the associated academic writing. Please contact us for talks, panels and Q&A sessions related to assessing risk through the lens of soil health; soil health as a scalable risk reduction tool, from the farm to the national level; and new quantification tools of the risk-reduction associated to specific soil health practices, unlocking the power of remote sensing and big data.
Risk News: More and more investment in and acknowledgment of the interconnectedness between finance and conservation and that the number of overlapping incentives for both sides is increasing, whether ESG commitments and looking to agriculture as partners (offsets, ecological benefits), and inversely on farmers’ side, to capitalize in those economic opportunities to invest in and build resilience to changing weather that they know is a need. There’s a need on both sides! Good example of overlapping and mutually beneficial partnerships. Read on here →
New Land Core Blog: Beyond Ag Tech Food Fixes
There’s been a lot of talk and movement recently on technology-based food systems innovations: cultivated meat (grown in labs from cells), plant-based protein alternatives, and more. While we believe in all-of-the-above solutions, we need to be clear-eyed about the collateral impacts of these new business ventures, and keep in focus the fundamental opportunity to build a truly resilient, diversified, independent, farmer-led system that fundamentally restores ecosystems, communities, farmer profits, soils, and security. Our piece calls for new technologies to support, not supplant, farmers in leading the way.
Upcoming Speaking Event: 2022 Eco-Ag Conference
Eco-Ag Conference & Trade Show by Acres USA | December 5-8, 2022
Aria McLauchlan & Harley Cross, co-founders of Land Core, will be hosting a session in the Farm Business track on “Creating Change in Agriculture Policy in 2023” on December 8 from 8:30-10am in Grand Ballroom D/E (Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Covington, Kentucky).
Session description: Engagement in policy that supports the adoption of soil health has taken a huge step forward in the last few years. This session will explore the most promising opportunities to further soil health at the federal level, including through changes to crop insurance and lending that remove barriers (or increase incentives) to adopt risk-reducing soil health-building practices. Learn how the recent midterm elections, the passage of $20 billion in new ag funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, and the rapidly approaching 2023 Farm Bill might shake up the landscape and provide important new opportunities for farmers. The session will also include a discussion on effective messaging and talking points for farmers and their allies to build support on both sides of the aisle and counter common misconceptions about the viability and profitability of building soil health. Join us for this lively and timely discussion!
We're Hiring!
Senior Policy Manager: We’re seeking a pragmatic and creative thinker who deeply understands American agriculture, to support our nonpartisan federal policy program and expand our capacity on several current opportunities including the 2023 Farm Bill.
What We're Reading
USDA-Wyoming agreement: A new chapter in conservation history
USDA and the state of Wyoming signed a partnership agreement to conserve wildlife and support working lands. If successful in this pilot initiative, the USDA hopes soon to expand the model to support landowners in other states.
October 10, 2022 | By: Lesli Allison, The Hill
Looking Ahead to More Resilient, Nourishing, and Equitable Food Systems
Recap of the World Food Day North America Celebration.
October 2022 | By: Elena Seeley, Food Tank
More farmers adopt conservation tillage
Survey reports no-till or mulch till used on the majority of US. cash crop acres.
October 25, 2022 | By: Rachel Schutte, Farm Progress
Sustainable Farming Has an Unlikely Ally: Satellites
Growers are using images taken from space to quantify how much carbon is stored in their soil and validate the credits they’re selling.
October 25, 2022 | By: Ben James, Wired
CDA finalizes historic USDA grant to fund up to $25M of soil health projects
Spotlight on a USDA Climate-Smart Commodities grant - Colorado Department of Agriculture will receive $25 million to more than double participation in the STAR (Saving Tomorrow’s Agricultural Resources) program for soil health across Colorado.
October 28, 2022 | By: Colorado Dept of Agriculture, The Fence Post
Meet the Midwestern Bakers and Farmers Working to Rebuild a Local Grainshed
Artisan Grain Collaborative, a network of farmers, millers, maltsters, brewers, bakers and distillers, is fostering a resilient and equitable regional breadbasket.
October 26, 2022 | By: Amber Gibson, Modern Farmer
Long-term Arkansas soil health study shows benefits of carbon sequestration
Implementing conservation tillage and not burning crop residue builds soil organic matter and nutrients over time in the upper level of the soil, and can save a farmer $275 per acre, researcher says.
October 28, 2022 | BY: John Lovett, U of A System Division of Agriculture, Magnolia Reporter
The Bottom Line to Soil Health Investments
Ag View Solutions farm business consultant, Shay Foulk, shares some tips for measuring and estimating returns on investment in soil health.
October 28, 2022 | By: Shay Foulk, Ag Web Farm Journal
Regenerative Agriculture Becomes a Global Priority
Excerpt from Meister Media Worldwide’s latest Global Insights Report on Soil Health
2022 | By: Meister Media Worldwide
No-Till Success, Improved Soil Health Means ‘No More’ Chemical Fallow
This northern Montana couple grazes beef and improves soil life with farm-produced microorganisms that they grow, extract and apply to eight different no-tilled crops.
October 24, 2022 | By: Martha Mintz, No-Till Farmer
'Soil is life': Why soil health is important in farm fields
Educators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are working with farmers to find ways to keep soil healthy.
October 24, 2022 | BY: Jorge Rodas, Spectrum News 1
Farm cuts diesel costs and improves yields in move to regen
Getting the basics right and changing systems slowly to get soil into the right place for direct drilling has been a successful strategy for UK Revesby Estate’s farm manager Peter Cartwright.
October 24, 2022 | By: Mike Abram, Farmers Weekly
Local scientists advance soil health evaluation
Panhandle Research, Extension and Education Center (PREEC) (at University of Nebraska-Lincoln) scientists proposed a new “Cropland Reference Ecological Unit” to compare soil health of croplands and reference sites in a natural boundary.
October 23, 2022 | By: Nicole Heldt, Star Herald
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