Safeguarding Soil

The document highlights the critical role of soil health in the US food system and the negative impacts of decades of short-sighted farm policies. It details the economic and environmental costs of soil erosion and degradation, including water pollution and increased vulnerability to extreme weather. The brief proposes a transition to practices such as cover cropping and no-till farming to sequester carbon and improve resilience, while recommending specific policy shifts in financial incentives, research funding, and technical assistance.

• US agricultural land suffers from severe soil erosion, with estimates indicating a loss of more than 3 trillion pounds of soil annually.
• Agricultural nitrogen pollution imposes a significant economic burden on the United States, costing approximately $157 billion per year and creating environmental hazards like the Gulf of Mexico "dead zone".
• Degraded soil increases the financial risk to taxpayers through the federal crop insurance program, which paid $52 billion for flood- and drought-related claims between 2009 and 2018.
• The US agriculture sector is a notable source of greenhouse gases, accounting for roughly 9 percent of the nation's heat-trapping emissions, though it offers potential for carbon sequestration through improved soil management.
• Effective soil health practices—including cover crops, diversified rotations, perennial planting, low- or no-till systems, composting, and improved grazing—can reduce erosion and increase carbon storage, yet adoption remains low; for instance, fewer than 4 percent of cropland acres used cover crops as of 2017.
• There is significant support among farmers for policy changes; a 2018 poll of farmers in seven states showed that 75% support federal incentives to reduce soil loss and runoff, and 70% would prefer candidates favoring sustainable agriculture.
• Public sector spending for food and agricultural research saw a 20 percent inflation-adjusted decline between 2008 and 2013, leaving a gap in urgently needed ecological research for soil health.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2019). Safeguarding Soil. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/safeguarding-soil-policy-brief-2019-web-final.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Safeguarding Soil. 2019. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/safeguarding-soil-policy-brief-2019-web-final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Safeguarding Soil |date=November 2019 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/safeguarding-soil-policy-brief-2019-web-final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2019safeguarding, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Safeguarding Soil}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/safeguarding-soil-policy-brief-2019-web-final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }