Soil is Vital to Mitigating Climate Change in Minnesota
Did you know that addressing soil health is crucial in the fight against climate change?
Healthy soil plays a vital role in mitigating the impacts of climate change by sequestering carbon, storing water, and making land more resilient. On the flip side, degraded soil actually exacerbates climate change. That’s why restoring and maintaining soil health is a powerful climate solution.
One of the ways in which Great River Greening works to restore and maintain soil health is through our sustainable agriculture project in Southern Minnesota.
We work with farmers to provide education, training, and technical assistance around sustainable agricultural practices such as silvopasture, planting cover crops, and planting perennial grains like Kernza® and winter camelina.
These practices, which are outlined in our Vision for 2030, all help to improve soil health and water quality in the region.
We are thrilled to share that Cargill has awarded Great River Greening with a generous $150,000 grant to expand our sustainable agriculture work and promote continuous living cover (CLC) crops. These funds will help us reach more farmers and community members, provide expert consultation and technical assistance to farmers interested in adopting CLC, and raise community awareness on the many economic and environmental benefits of CLC crops.
“Funding from Cargill is a timely and crucial support for the efforts to promote regenerative and sustainable agricultural systems in southern Minnesota,” said Dr. Brad Gordon, Great River Greening’s Southern MN Program Manager, “Many of the continuous living cover crops we are trying to pilot are still fairly new, so people showing support for the farmers in their communities can alleviate many of the concerns that farmers have, and it also drives markets forward. The more demand there is for these new grain crops, the more sustainable they will be economically for farmers.”
Want to learn more?
Join us for our Kernza® & Continuous Living Cover Field Day on Monday, July 10th, 2023 in St. Peter, MN. You’ll hear from vendors and learn the latest on CLC crops, their benefits, and how farmers can get paid to store carbon. Plus, you’ll get to taste delicious CLC crop samplings, like bread, beer, cookies, and more!
Photo Credits: Blue sky over a Kernza field (Lawrence Cosslett); Ben Penner and Dr. Brad Gordon check on Farmer Penner’s Kernza field (Brad Gordon); Delicious Kernza baked goods at a previous field day (Brad Gordon).
Thank you to our partners and funders: Cargill