Nathan Brown always keeps a shovel in the bed of his truck. That’s a sure sign a farmer is serious about soil health, he said.
“In the spring and the summertime, I’m always digging,” Brown said as he shoveled some dirt from his 1,200 acre farm in Hillsboro into his gloved hands on a warm November afternoon.
Brown inspected the dirt from his farm in southwest Ohio closely, searching for hints that his soil will be resilient against extreme weather events.
“You see all this little white hair looking stuff on there?” he said. “That's your fungi and stuff on the root structure. There's a worm.”
These are all signs of good soil health, which he believes is a result of the way he farms. He doesn’t till his land before planting seeds, which improves soil structure. And he plants so-called cover crops like rye and barley on top of his cash crops to protect his soil from eroding.
Last week, environmentalists and farmers alike attended workshops, farm tours, art exhibits and rallies – all aimed at highlighting how producers can implement regenerative ag practices, like the ones that Brown uses, to protect the foundation of their farm: their soil.
The state’s inaugural Soil Health Week, organized by the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), emphasized the common ground between climate activists and small family farm operations.
Avoiding polarization
Brown plants cover crops and no-till practices because they means better yields and a longer lifespan for his farm.
But they also have broader benefits for the environment: they can help prevent nutrients from flowing into our waterways and allow soil to capture more carbon. Both of which, environmentalists say, are important wins in the fight against climate change.
For many producers, though, climate change is still a “touchy subject”, according to Ohio State University researcher Robyn Wilson.
Wilson surveyed Midwest farmers on their perceptions of climate change. Overwhelmingly, they acknowledged that weather patterns are changing, but they were less likely to see it as caused by humans – something that the vast majority of scientists agree on.
When farmers do use climate-smart practices, Wilson said, for the most part, it’s not out of concern of changing weather patterns.
“Their motivation is not really climate change,” Wilson said. “From our data, it didn't seem like they were framing traditional conservation practices as climate resilience strategies.”
Yet farmers have long been invested in keeping Ohio lands productive. That’s why Milo Petruzziello, director of policy with the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, focuses on a different two-word phrase with less political weight: soil health.
“This is a common language that we can talk about how they can both benefit their farm business and benefit their broader community,” Petruziello said.
Money talks
Instead of hammering on the wider environmental impact of regenerative ag practices, Petruziello first talks with farmers about profitability.
He connects producers to federally funded programs that compensate them for planting cover crops. He answers questions about how no-till practices could impact their bottom line. It’s all about showing farmers the small steps they can take to protect soil health, he said.
“Not being told what they shouldn't do or pitting different farming systems against each other,” Petruziello said. “But what can we all do to be better on our own farms?”
He hopes OEFFA’s soil health week helped more farmers consider that question. Especially since many of the conservation practices are still a rarity. Only around 8% of Ohio farmers plant cover crops, according to data from the Soil Health Institute. Randall Reeder, president of Ohio No-Till Council, estimates farmers practicing continuous no-till is also in the single digits.
“We've been tilling and plowing for 150 years or more,” Reeder said. “So, it's a reluctance to change.”
Saving soil
Brown was hesitant to bring regenerative ag practices to his farm in southwest Ohio at first. Now, he’s been using them for more than a decade.
“We all know and realize that as farmers, we depend on the top six inches of topsoil,” Brown said. “And we have always wanted that to be the best that it can be to pass on to the next generation. Cause there’s not one farmer that I know that doesn’t want to pass their farming operation onto the next.”
Like Petruziello, he sees soil as a legacy.
