Damaged and biologically dead soils represent a major opportunity to store water if we can restore them to anything like a healthy condition. A project with the National Center for Appropriate Technology is taking full advantage of the water-holding capacity of soil as a water conservation strategy.

Extending the presence of living vegetative cover to more months of the year through the use of cover crops has several environmental benefits — for example, prevention of soil erosion and nutrient leaching, improvement of soil microbial habitat and weed/pest suppression. But how much does including cover crops on farms improve physical, chemical and biological indicators of soil health? Read more in this article from University of Nebraska Extension.

In this video from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, U.S. Senator Jon Tester from Montana, a third-generation farmer, discusses soil health policy under the Biden administration.

The speakers in this video explore the ways indigenous and traditional cultures have been “regenerating” the land for centuries. These practices can play an important role in today’s agricultural systems. Working together and learning from each other, all land stewards can regenerate soil health in the U.S.

Dan Kittredge, founder and executive director: Bionutrient Food Association's Real Food Campaign talks about ways the market farmer can take advantage of soil health innovations. This was a far-reaching exploration of agriculture’s sustainable future: on-farm practices, soil biology, carbon markets, and public policy.

In this video from the National Center for Appropriate Technology, hear from experts on soil carbon markets as they discuss how the agriculture industry can be more sustainable in the future, on-farm practices and soil biology, and carbon markets and public policy.

Determining how much nitrogen cover crops have captured in your soil is important for knowing how much fertilizer you may need to apply. In this video from University of Minnesota Extension, find out how to estimate how much nitrogen has been captured by cover crops.

This panel discusses the need for coordinating soil health data collection efforts. Innovations in soil health data can help catalyze innovations in healthy soil policy at the state and federal level. Unfortunately, soil health data are often siloed and there is currently limited coordination between public and private sector soil health efforts. This lack of coordination often ends up burdening farmers and ranchers with the arduous role of collecting and reporting different kinds of data for those public and private efforts.

This week’s podcast, sponsored by NewLeaf Symbiotics, features John Wallace, Assistant Professor, Weed Science, Penn State University. Wallace will discuss why interseeding might be better than fall cover crop establishment, cover crop establishment rates with interseeding, interseeding best management practices, and more.