Food, conservation groups collaborate on soil health

General Mills has made a three-year, $2 million commitment to The Nature Conservancy, Soil Health Institute and Soil Health Partnership to support the development of tools and resources for farmers, landowners, and supply chain leaders to achieve widespread adoption of soil health practices.

“Soil health is critical for everyone including farmers, farm communities, consumers and companies,” said Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer at General Mills. “We are grateful to partner with farmers in our supply chain in their ongoing work to build healthy soils, and welcome further collaboration with all interested parties in the value chain.”

Collaborating across business, science and policy sectors will help achieve meaningful soil health outcomes more quickly and at an unprecedented scale. Specifically, these organizations will partner to:

• Improve soil health measurements and standards;
• Increase support for soil health practice adoption by absentee landowners;
• Target, plan and expand the field network of on-farm demonstration sites;
• Coordinate soil health activities and communications for maximum impact;
• Mobilize and support diverse constituents in advancing public policy solutions.

“This commitment from General Mills will help us plan for strategic growth and expansion into new cropping systems, new partnerships and new geographies, both inside and outside the Upper Midwest where we have focused our efforts so far,” said Nick Goeser, director of the Soil Health Partnership. “It will also assist us in developing a framework to help others working on soil health efforts in the areas of research, education and networking.”

According to the organizations’ leaders, the scale-up of integrated research and soil health promotion is essential to enhancing global food production and protecting the ecosystem.