Soil Health Institute
The Soil Health Institute’s mission is to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soil through scientific research and advancement. The Institute is leading a collaborative, comprehensive, and multi-stakeholder coalition of public and private sector partners to systematically tackle the financial, social, technical, and educational barriers that farmers and ranchers face when deciding whether to adopt soil health/ regenerative agriculture systems. That approach is outlined in this 5-minute video (https://soilhealthinstitute.org/strategy/) and summarized in the figure below:
In 2021, the Soil Health Institute will:
- Recommend a standardized set of the most effective soil health measurements and methods for all farmers, ranchers, consultants, U.S. government programs, scientists, and others to use based on a 3-year $6.5M continental study with over 100 public and private partners.
- Expand adoption by widely disseminating economics fact sheets showing increased on-farm profitability based on 125 farmer interviews in 20 U.S. states.
- Demonstrate and widely disseminate information on how soil health management systems increase soil carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on at least 90 sites covering 37 states.
- Provide soil health trainings to approximately 13,000 Certified Crop Advisors that work directly with farmers on approximately 260 Million acres.
- Provide strategic and technical assistance to 25 State Departments of Agriculture for helping their states adopt appropriate soil health measurements and practices.
- Improve a USDA decision support tool to help farmers across the entire U.S. make management decisions that build drought resilience in their specific soils on their farm.
- Demonstrate in at least 3 states how “soil health targets” can be established for the entire U.S. so farmers can set realistic goals and select management practices for improving the health of their soils on their farm.
The Soil Health Institute’s team is based throughout North America and holds PhDs in soil science, agronomy, microbiology, and agricultural economics. We invite you to contact us to learn how soil health can de-risk your investments in regenerative agriculture.
