State Healthy Soil Policy Map

The US State Soil Health Policy Map is a crowd-sourced policy tracker designed to support the growth of healthy soil and related policies by sharing frameworks and lessons learned. Click on a state and read below to learn more!

Legislation Passed through 2/10/2024Legislation Filed through 2023ActivityInterest


As a collaborative and “living” site, this map is updated by volunteers as policy is conceived, created, and moves forward.  

Information on each state is maintained by a “State Curator” or group of curators who serve to keep the space information based, clean and functional. If you are interested in adding information to the resource list below, or to a state page, please e

mail the state curator at <state>@healthysoilspolicy.org (ex: newmexico@healthysoilspolicy.org).


Legislative Status Update

Through February 10, 2024, 26 states have passed Healthy Soils legislation, and Pennsylvania is implementing a Soil Health Program through existing statute.

These 27 states include 57.1% of U.S. farm acreage (502,948,364 of 880,100,848 acres, based upon 2022 National Agricultural Statistics Service Agricultural Census), and 62.9% of U.S. state population (208,044,827 of 330,759,736 people, based upon 2020 Census).

Of these 27 states, all create or empower state agencies to create soil health programs with incentives for implementation, except:
     Hawaii (in 2022 legislation passed to create program, but vetoed), and
     Nebraska (technical, training and legal assistance program, but not incentives)

The states that have created state agencies to lead soil health programs are:
     CaliforniaColoradoConnecticutIllinois, Maine, Maryland, MassachusettsMichigan, MinnesotaNew Mexico
     New YorkOklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

The states that have empowered state agencies to create soil health programs are:
     ArizonaLouisiana, New Hampshire, New JerseyNevadaPennsylvania, South DakotaVermont, and West Virginia.

Note that though many of these states empower state agencies to create soil health programs, there are efforts to pass legislation to put such programs in state statutes and to establish reliable funding for those programs. Of the bills filed in 2023, the bills in 9 states (Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, and Oregon) create a soil health program or add soil health to existing programs.  Also, Kansas has effectively created and is funding the Kansas Soil Health Initiative in the annual budget, but has not yet established the program in statute.


Changes in Soil Health Policy from 2020 to 2023

Use the arrows below to see the evolution of Soil Health Policy in the United States.

For more information on each state, visit the individual state Policy Information in the next section. 


State-by-State Policy Information

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvania – South CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingPuerto Rico

Related Resources

Maps

Media

A new website promises to help rebalance our climate — using dirt By Carbon180

“A new website is tracking soil health policy across the US, with the goal of supporting state healthy soil activities and helping enact state policy. Launched by volunteer organization Nerds for Earth and climate-focused nonprofit Soil4Climate, and with support from the Carbon Project, the site is built on crowdsourced data, with curators from each state serving to update and maintain it. With the stroke of a mouse, one can find healthy soil and agriculture policies broken down by each state, a legislative database for the 2019 session, and other related resources — policy guidance, technical guidance, agricultural markets, scientific papers, grant funding, and more.

The timing of this new resource couldn’t be better. As the conversation about climate change gains momentum, regenerative agriculture is moving into the mainstream.”

Links

Soil4Climate Legislative Database

National Healthy Soils Policy Network


Last Update: 01/12/2024

This project was produced by a collaboration of  Tufts University, Soil4Climate, Nerds for Earth, and The Carbon Project at People Food & Land Foundation. Initial Funding was provided by Jena King.


Comments

5 responses to “State Healthy Soil Policy Map”

  1. Interesting . My state must do more than just BE INTERESTED.

    1. callarose Avatar

      If you find out anything, or others working on it, let us know!

  2. […] out the full text of the Colorado bill. Many other states also have healthy soils legislation and/or incentive […]

  3. Leah Shoot Avatar
    Leah Shoot

    Hey! I know this would involve a lot more work & research but it would be so awesome to see who voted for/against these measures!

  4. […] a measure this year to make healthy soils a priority in the state. It’s part of a wave of healthy soils initiatives being debated in 28 state legislatures this […]

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