Land Core Newsletter - September 2022
Photo courtesy of Fibershed.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
We hope you are having a great start to fall. September has been an enormous month for soil health and agriculture, from the first ever Congressional hearing explicitly on soil health and regenerative agriculture, to the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities projects announcement, to attention turning toward implementation of $20 billion for conservation in the Inflation Reduction Act. As ever, soil health continues to create meaningful common ground amongst a diverse set of stakeholders.
This heightened attention on "climate-smart agriculture" means we need to be discerning about how funds are spent. As we move forward, it is crucial that the funds and work remain farmer-centered, soil-based, and provide boots on the ground support for farmers to adopt soil health systems that create more resilience for American agriculture.
Learn more and find ways to get involved below - and if you’d like to support our work, consider making a donation, or share our job postings with your network.
With gratitude,
The Land Core team
On the Hill for Soil Health Hearing
Finian Makepeace (Kiss the Ground), Aria McLauchlan (Land Core), Carol and Rick Clark (Clark Land & Cattle), and Lisa Gonzalez (Kiss the Ground) at the Capitol advocating for support for soil health.
Land Core’s ED, Aria McLauchlan, was in DC this month with Regenerate America members and farmer leader Rick Clark to support his testimony during the House Ag Committee hearing on “Soil Health Practices and Programs that Support Regenerative Agriculture”, and advocating for policies that will help more farmers adopt soil health practices and build resilience in the 2023 Farm Bill and beyond.
Above: Aria, Rick, and team attending meetings with Congressional members to discuss opportunities to support producers in adopting soil health and building resilience.
“Regenerative agriculture can be incorporated into any farming operation and be far better for your bottom line.”
Rick testified on behalf of Regenerate America, sharing how he has rebuilt soil health, increased water infiltration rates, mitigated flood and drought impacts, eliminated synthetic inputs, saved almost $2 million annually on input costs, and improved yield stability and ROI on his 7,000 acre row crop operation in Indiana. "Our farm is more resilient against flood and drought,” Rick shared, “we are more resilient to supply disruptions, and we have a systematic approach that will be economically profitable and viable for generations to come." Check out a testimony recap here →
More Policy News
USDA Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities Announcement:
On September 14, USDA announced up to $2.8 billion in investment in 70 selected projects under the first pool of funding. This marks a historic investment in projects, including many that will change the landscape for producers looking to improve soil health, result in expanded markets and revenue streams, new collaborations, advanced monitoring and verification, and greater outreach to underserved communities. Due to the overwhelming demand, the Biden-Harris administration increased the total funding allocation to more than $3 billion, with projects from a second funding pool to be announced later this year. Take a look at the selected projects here →
White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health:
This Wednesday, September 28, the highly anticipated second ever conference took place at the White House. The focus was on expanding nutrition assistance programs and recovering from pandemic economic conditions to help meet the administration’s goal to end hunger in America by 2030. While the national strategy calls for USDA to research the intersection of climate change, food security, and nutrition, there’s still more work to be done on recognizing the links between soil health and resilient agricultural systems as a key step towards securing food access and nutritional security. In advance of the conference, a set of considerations for the conference was released by the Meridian Institute, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Bread for the World, World Wildlife Fund; Farm, Food, Environment Policy Consulting and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, calling for incentives for producers to restore soil health. Read it here →
Land Core Bill Tracker Highlights:
In recent months, several bills have been introduced that would impact soil health and family farmers. These include the Conservation Opportunity and Voluntary Environment Resilience Program (COVER) Act (to offer a permanent and nationwide $5 insurance premium discount for planting cover crops), the North American Grasslands Conservation Act (to create a voluntary, incentive-based grant program to support the restoration of America’s grasslands through activities like managed grazing), the Small Family Farmer and Rancher Relief Act (to support the viability of small cattle ranchers), the Agricultural Management Assistance Modernization Act (to update the Agriculture Risk Management Education Partnerships Program to focus on soil health, and other provisions), and more. Sign up for our bill tracker alerts to receive monthly updates on soil health legislation in Congress!
We're Hiring!
Are you or someone in your network interested in our mission of advancing soil health policies and programs that create value for farmers, businesses and communities? Join our small but mighty team working to spread the adoption of one of the most hopeful, inspiring and pragmatic solutions of our time - rebuilding soil health. We’re currently hiring for two positions:
Senior Manager, Policy: 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.
Operations Manager: A detail-oriented systems thinker to manage various part-time operations/administrative duties for the organization.
Soil Health Risk Model Updates
We are preparing a presentation for model development partners, including modeling process/results and a prototype tool interface, next month. Stay tuned for more in our next newsletter! This is a milestone for the risk model project, and will help to guide next steps in terms of further model development, pilot testing of the tool, and the development of economic incentives to encourage soil health practice adoption.
This month, we also submitted a grant application to USDA-AFRI (the nation's leading competitive grants program for agricultural sciences), which would expand and expedite our modeling work.
Edible Planet Summit Recap
From September 16-19, our Executive Director, Aria McLauchlan, participated in the Edible Planet Regenerative Retreat in Italy. The summit brought together industry leaders, activists, visionaries, and change-makers to “set the table for a radically different food system” and to address silos across the various parts of the food system.
Aria stressed the importance of focusing on soil health and regenerative agriculture as a global solution to food sovereignty and security, farmer and rancher livelihoods, biodiversity restoration and climate change, and cautioned against reductionist solutions in agriculture that shift control of our food system out of the hands of farmers.
The summit will lead to a co-created Edible Planet Charter, a “comprehensive solutions catalog that will guide policymakers and decision-makers on how to act to effectively make strides towards planetary and societal regeneration”. Stay tuned for more.
What We're Reading
Topsoil protection should be stressed in the next farm bill, U.S. House Ag panel told
Review of Sept 14 hearing, where witnesses stressed the need for the U.S. House Agriculture Committee to support regenerative agriculture farming practices in the upcoming farm bill in order to protect topsoil.
September 14, 2022 | By: Ariana Figueroa, Successful Farming
What Farmers Really Want From the 2023 Farm Bill
Common themes among groups and coalitions include making crop insurance more accessible, centering climate action, helping the hemp industry, and advancing local food systems.
September 19, 2022 | By: Emily Baron Cadloff, Modern Farmer
Widespread push for sustainability gains traction ahead of next farm bill
A review of the House Ag Committee hearing, Climate-Smart Commodities funding, and live debates as we move towards the 2023 Farm Bill
September 28, 2022 | By: Karl Evers-Hillstrom
The farmers trying to restore life to America’s stressed soils as climate change bites
The regenerative agriculture movement in the U.S. has “never had more momentum” says a report.
September 14, 2022 | By: Saraah LaBrecque, Reuters
Federal Government’s $20 Billion Embrace of ‘Climate Smart’ Farming
Conservation funds in the Inflation Reduction Act are a key part of the government’s approach to addressing climate change, but it is unclear whether the funds will truly achieve these goals.
September 26, 2022 | By: Linda Qiu, The New York Times
USDA to Invest $8 Million to Expand Monitoring of Soil Carbon
NRCS is now requesting proposals for regional projects focused on soil organic carbon stock monitoring, which are due Nov. 28, 2022.
September 27, 2022 | By: Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA
This Company Is Sowing the Seeds for a Scalable Regenerative Ag Revolution
“Regrow’s climate-smart digital platform is making regenerative farming accessible and scalable for scientists, farm advisors, growers and conservationists, while pushing food giants toward their net-zero goals.”
September 22, 2022 | By: Scarlett Buckley, Sustainable Brands
Get Involved
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