The Nature Conservancy (TNC) provides technical support for the Soil Health Partnership (SHP), and it’s something that fits in well with the organization’s mission “to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends.”
“The Nature Conservancy has been working in agriculture for several decades,” says Larry Clemens, TNC North American Agriculture Program Director. “We’ve been wanted to scale up our partnerships and our collaborations, so when the Soil Health Partnership was forming it was a great opportunity … to get good information and good science out to growers in the Midwest about soil health practices.”
Clemens adds that soil health is a global priority for TNC. “We really see in the future that soil health is going to be key to increasing our production and feeding the world,” he said during an interview at the second Soil Health Summit this week in Indianapolis.
The SHP is a true partnership between environmental interests like TNC, farmers through the National Corn Growers Association, and industry with funding from Monsanto and The Walton Family Foundation, and Clemens says it has long term implications for the future. “As we think about feeding our world, soil is truly the foundation and when it’s not healthy, the rest of our ecosystem is likely not going to be healthy,” he said.
Listen to Chuck’s interview with Larry here: Interview with Larry Clemens, The Nature Conservancy