# Plain Language Summary: Healthy Soils Healthy Climate Act of 2023

This bill is designed to help farmers improve their soil quality while fighting climate change. The basic idea is that healthier soil can store more carbon from the atmosphere, which helps reduce greenhouse gases. The bill would create programs and provide financial incentives to encourage farmers to adopt practices that build up soil health—things like reducing how much they till the land, planting cover crops during off-seasons, rotating what they grow, and adding compost or other organic materials to their fields. These practices help soil retain more water and nutrients, which makes farms more productive and resilient during droughts or extreme weather.

The bill would likely work by offering grants, payments, or other financial support to farmers who commit to using these soil-friendly practices. It might also fund research to better understand how different farming methods affect soil carbon storage and climate outcomes. Agricultural organizations, universities, and conservation groups could receive funding to help educate farmers about these techniques and provide technical assistance. The goal is to make it financially worthwhile for farmers to switch from conventional practices that can degrade soil over time to methods that build it up.

For everyday people, this matters because healthier soils mean more productive farms, which can help keep food prices stable and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides that can pollute water supplies. It also addresses climate change by essentially turning farmland into a carbon storage system. However, farmers would need to be willing to change their practices, and the bill would need adequate funding to make the financial incentives attractive enough to compete with traditional farming methods. The success of this approach depends on whether Congress provides enough money and whether farmers find the transition manageable for their operations.

Healthy Soils Healthy Climate Act of 2023

Wyden, Ron

Healthy Soils Healthy Climate Act of 2023This bill modifies the Environmental Quality Incentives Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide permanent incentive payments to producers to adopt practices designed to increase organic carbon levels in soil.USDA must<ul><li>conduct a study regarding changes in soil health and soil organic carbon levels as a result of the adopted practices;</li><li>develop ranking and scoring criteria under the program that prioritize soil health practices that score highest in soil carbon sequestration on eligible land;</li><li>create a soil organic carbon conservation activity plan under the program to measure and monitor sequestration and mitigation improvement levels from the practices;</li><li>provide for streamlined and coordinated procedures for the program and the Conservation Stewardship Program, including for contracting, conservation planning, conservation practices, and related administrative procedures; and</li><li>establish a program to provide grants to land-grant colleges and universities to conduct research relating to soil health and carbon science and to&nbsp;conduct research relating to soil health and carbon science at its agricultural research stations.&nbsp;</li></ul>