Setting and Exceeding Benchmarks for Soil Health on Diversified Organic Vegetable Farms.

Soil health is the foundation of sustainability on any farm, and farmers need a clear understanding of the status of their soil resources to manage for the future. The Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is working to document and improve soil health outcomes through farmer-generated data. In 2016, we worked with twelve diversified organic vegetable farmers across Pennsylvania to quantify soil health using field samples and farm records for practices including cover cropping and reduced tillage. We found that these farmers increased organic matter an average of 2.3 times over NRCS ratings for their soil types, maintained living cover on their fields an average of 225 days, and obtained average soil health scores of 71, an “excellent” score in the Cornell Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health. We also found that many farmers were able to maintain high soil health scores and organic matter levels while continuing to use intensive tillage practices, although aggregate stability levels were typically lower on these farms. Within this sample, we found several examples of very high performing farms, where soil health scores were above 80 and organic matter was as much as 3.4 times higher than ratings for their soil types. We have been featuring these leading farmers in field days and workshops that use these data to guide discussions and collaboratively generate new ideas for improving soil health. In order to continue advancing soil health, farmers need to capture economic rewards for improved stewardship. Beginning this summer, we are helping PASA farmers communicate positive soil health outcomes to customers and stakeholders through infographic fact sheets and other marketing tools. We are expanding this benchmark study to a larger sample of farms for 2017, and we plan to continuously move the dial forward for organic soil stewardship through data-driven education and marketing.