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

Legislation Drafted

Activity

Related Policy

No Known Activity

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

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In 2021, 31 states had Healthy Soils legislation on their dockets, with resolutions passing and bills becoming law in 14 states.  The total number of states with Healthy Soils resolutions and laws is now 20, with 10 of those in 2021 (4 of the 14 were in states that had passed resolutions or laws in previous years).

These 20 states include 47.5% of U.S. farm acreage (427,242,872 of 900,217,576 acres, based upon 2017 National Agricultural Statistics Service Agricultural Census), and 49.6% of U.S. state population (164,100,406 of 330,759,736 people, based upon 2020 Census).

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Related Resources

• CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURE LEGISLATION ROUNDUP
  Compiled in October 2020 by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)
  
• CLIMATE SOLUTIONS FOR FARMERS: INVEST IN PROVEN FEDERAL PROGRAMS
  Report on carbon markets by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)
  

• BRIDGING NON-TRADITIONAL STAKEHOLDERS
  
  • From Farm to City: Bridging the Urban-Rural Divide with Farmer-Friendly Climate Policy Advocacy, CalCAN 
  • Healthy Soils, Healthy Communities: Opportunities to Bridge Environmental Justice and Soil Carbon Sequestration, Food First, Silvestri Strategies, Carbon Cycle Institute
• POLICY GUIDANCE
  •   Article: Farming for Our Future: Six Critical Findings on Climate Change and Agriculture, Peter H. Lehner & Nathan A. Rosenberg, Center for Health, Law and Policy at Harvard Law School
    • Book: Farming for Our Future: The Science, Law, and Policy of Climate-Neutral Agriculture, Peter H. Lehner & Nathan A. Rosenberg, ELI Press 2021
  • Soil Health Policy Guidebook: Developing Community-Driven State Soil Health Policy and Programs, Yale Center for Business and the Environment’s Regenerative Agriculture Initiative, November 2021. With accompanying social media toolkit.
  • Innovative State-Led Efforts to Finance Agricultural Conservation, EDF and NASDA
  • Soil Health Policy Resources, the Soil Health Institute 
  • State & Local Soil Health Strategies: Building Soil Health Policy from the Ground Up,  Izaak Walton League of America
  • United States Mid Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization, The White House November 2016
  • Healthy Soils Law Project, Farm and Energy Initiative, Vermont Law School
  • Progress Report on the California Healthy Soils Program and accompanying webinar, December 2020
  • Organizing for Soil Health: A Project of the Northeast Organic Farming Association April 2020
• FINANCE & AGRICULTURAL MARKETS
  • Cost Model for Carbon Farm Plans, David Krevitt Nerds for Earth
    
  • Farmland Access Decision Making Tool, Land Stewardship Project
  • Finding Farmland Calculator, a mortgage calculator by National Young Farmers and USDA
    
  • NRCS and Investment Capital: Investing in America Together, A report by Encourage Capital 
  • Whole Farm Planning Model, Ohio State University Extension
    
• SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
  
  • The Regenerative Agriculture and Human Health Nexus: Insights from Field to Body, David LeZaks and Mandy Ellerton, Croatan Institute
  • Negative Emissions and Land-Based Carbon Sequestration Implications for Climate and Energy Scenarios, Aman Chitkara, Emily McGlynn
  • Pesticides and Soil Health, a scientific brief by Friends of the Earth
  • The potential of agricultural land management to contribute to lower global surface temperatures, Allegra Mayer, Zeke Hausfather, Andrew D. Jones, Whendee L. Silver
• TECHNICAL GUIDANCE
  • CARBON FARM PLANNING: Step by Step Guidance, Lynette Nieburgge Marin RCD and Jeff Creque Carbon Cycle Institute
  • COMET PLANNER: Carbon and greenhouse gas evaluation for NRCS conservation practice planning,  Amy Swan Colorado State University
    
  • A Soil Health Champion’s Guide to Virtual Farm Tours, New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group
• COMPOSTING
  • US Composting Council
  • Institute for Local Self Reliance
• MOVIES
  
  • Gather
  • Kiss The Ground Movie
  • Farmer’s Footprint –Short Film
  • Grass Farmers –Short Film

Maps

• US House and Senate Committee Maps –Use these maps to see if your elected US House or Senate representative serves on the Agriculture or Natural Resources Committee.
• Adoption of Soil Health Systems Based on Data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, prepared by the Soil Health Institute

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

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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.