On July 1, 2021, New York State’s Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act (S.4722A), sponsored by State Senator Hinchey (SD-46), took effect just one month after its passage. Informed by the 2020 NYS Soil Health Characterization Study, the bill aims to reduce the effects of farming on climate change and to enable farmers to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change by focusing on sustainable water management and soil health on farms. It establishes the Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act, the Soil Health Program, and the Climate Resilient Farming Initiative.
The Act does not, however, provide a clear mechanism for how the state will provide assistance to farmers. For instance, no funding is explicitly allocated to achieve the Act’s ambitious goals. Thus, it will be up to legislators to determine how to effectively carry out these soil health programs.
Soil Health and Farmers
The bill defines soil health as “soils that have the continuing capacity to function as a vital, living ecosystem that sustains plants, animals, and humans.” New York acknowledges the wide array of benefits of healthy soil, including:
- supporting resource production (food, feed, fiber, and fuel),
- strengthening water management systems and protecting water quality,
- enhancing the ability of soils to hold and cycle nutrients,
- supporting soil biodiversity,
- enhancing resilience to climatic changes,
- breaking down harmful chemicals,
- reducing agriculture’s impact on climate change, and
- sequestering carbon.
The bill defines soil health practices as follows:
“”Soil health practices” means agricultural and land management practices that improve the function of soils through actions that follow the principles of: minimizing soil disturbance from soil preparation; maximizing soil vegetation cover; maximizing the diversity of beneficial soil organisms; maximizing presence of living roots; and integrating animals into land management; and in support of such principles, include such practices as conservation tillage or no-till, cover-cropping, precision nitrogen and phosphorous application, planned rotational grazing, integrated crop-livestock systems, agroforestry, perennial crops, integrated pest management, nutrient best management practices, and those practices recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and that are supported by the state soil and water conservation committee.”
The 2020 NYS Soil Health Characterization Study noted compost as an important element in building soil organic matter and maintaining soil fertility. And, according to the 2019 New York Soil Health Roadmap, farms that practice application of compost to soils benefit from improved soil structure, water holding capacity and drainage, and nutrient retention.
“Agriculture can give us what no other industry can when it comes to mitigating the climate crisis and sustainably feeding our communities. The Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act is designed on the very premise that we can reduce our emissions, improve water quality, and build up the resilience of our soils for the next generation if we bring New York’s soil health laws to 21st-century standards.”
-NY State Senator Hinchey
The Soil Health Initiative
By adding article 11-B: “Soil Health and Climate Resiliency” to the Agriculture and Markets Law, this act establishes the Soil Health Initiative to assist farmers in improving the health of their soil. The Initiative’s main goal is to improve and maintain the health of farm soils by:
- “managing and optimizing soil health to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and improve water quality while improving long term soil productivity, efficiency, resiliency and profitability of farming;
- ensuring that soil is conserved as a living ecosystem managed to provide nutrients for the growth of agricultural plants and animals and a healthy, affordable food supply; and
- addressing such environmental impacts from farm operations, including, but not limited to absorbing and holding rainwater for use during dry periods, filtering and buffering potential pollutants from leaving fields, improving climate resiliency, and providing habitat for beneficial soil microbes to flourish and diversify.”
To achieve this, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets will encourage soil health practices, including:
- “(a) improving, enhancing, or otherwise maximizing soil health and quality, and minimizing soil erosion and sedimentation;
- (b) improving, enhancing, or otherwise maximizing water infiltration rates and water holding capacities of soils for improved stormwater management and flood control, drought resilience, and groundwater supply; and
- (c) managing and enhancing the healthy cycling of nutrients within fields, to minimize nutrient runoff and reduce downstream nutrient loading, improve watershed health and reliable water availability, restore and enhance wildlife habitat, and manage water runoff and drainage water for improved local and downstream water quality.”
Another important element of this amendment is the provision of public stakeholder meetings, written public comment, and consultation with stakeholders as key informative resources for the Department.
The Climate Resilient Farming Initiative
The Agriculture and Markets Law amendment also establishes the Climate Resilient Farming Initiative, which will work to reduce the effects of farming on climate change and adapt to mitigate the impacts of climate change by improving and maintaining water systems management and soil health and resiliency. The NY Department of Agriculture will also promote best management practices for climate mitigation and soil resiliency, including composting.
The initiative shall be coordinated with the Agricultural Environmental Management program, which is sponsored by the Department, American Agriculturalist Magazine, and the Empire State Potato Growers.
More Information:
- Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act (S04722) [full text]
- New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets
- New York Soil Health Roadmap (2019) [PDF]
- NYS Soil Health Characterization (2020)
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Original post from September 16, 2021