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Click to play video. In the second video of the sustainability series, we learn more about the process of adopting
cover crops into production systems and how carbon is measured in the soil.

former officials, including Bonnie, who served Nature Conservancy and the Environmental
as undersecretary of natural resources at USDA Defense Fund.
during the Obama administration.
The partnership is involved in field trials in
The research on the impact of climate-friendly more than 16 states, involving more than 200
practices will take several years to complete but farmers.
is moving along with the help of millions of “If you have to go out to every single farm
dollars in grants from the federal government, field and dig a meter soil core to quantify the
private foundations and private industry, not to change in carbon, that’s really expensive,” said
mention the driving force of billions in corpo- Kris Johnson, The Nature Conservancy’s dep-
rate wealth tied to carbon commitments. uty director of agriculture for North America.
“We’re kind of in this no man’s land, so to Cost estimates for soil sampling can vary
speak, where we can’t measure everything widely. Some scientific data suggests that soil
fast enough or efficiently enough to quan- samples may need to be a meter deep to show
tify in real terms what’s going on, because the changes in carbon content, but that would
it’s just too much — you don’t have enough require more expensive equipment, Johnson
people with enough money to go out and said. Also, if a farmer’s land has multiple types
take all those measurements,” said John of soil, more samples may have to be taken.
Mesko, senior director of the Soil Health
Partnership, a research group backed by the Ultimately, testing requirements are likely to be
National Corn Growers Association, Bayer based on the standards of the credit program.
AG, the National Wheat Foundation, The “The more rigorous the standard, the higher

22 www.Agri-Pulse.com