and regeneration—rebuilding the
soil’s ability to function as a living
system. Despite that, soil is still
one of the great mysteries of the
natural world, as unknown as the
deepest oceans. After generations
of thinking about the soil primarily
from an agricultural nutrient
perspective—how to add the right
amounts of N, P and K to grow a
crop—farmers and scientists are
beginning to recognize the biological
complexities and ecological
synergies that make soil not just
a substrate for production, but a
holistic, multi-dimensional entity
that can, when managed well, lead
to increased profitability and resilience
for farms, multiple environmental
benefits, and even potential
mitigation of climate change.
The Million Acre Challenge,
a collaborative project funded in
2019 by a grant from the Edmund
Stanley Heroic Futures Initiative
of the Town Creek Foundation,
seeks to work with farmers across
the state of Maryland to build the
health of their soil over the next
decade. Its founding partners, the
Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Future
Harvest, Fair Farms (a project
of Waterkeepers Chesapeake), The
Hatcher Group, the Institute for
Energy and Environmental Research,
and the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance, recognize the real
opportunity that exists in this moment
for farmers to develop the
capacity of their soil to improve
regional water quality and biodiversity,
reduce inputs to increase
profitability, improve both drainage
and water holding capacity
to reduce the impacts of severe
weather events, and recapture
atmospheric carbon.
Maryland farmers have been
national leaders in conservation
for more than thirty years in their
efforts to better understand the
health of the Chesapeake Bay,
adopting cover cropping and tillage
reduction strategies known
to be key contributors to healthy
soils at rates far beyond those of
the rest of the nation’s farmers.
Because of its geographic and soil
diversity, Maryland also boasts a
diversity of farming methods and
products that mirror the nation’s,
from orchards and dairies to vineyards,
diversified vegetable production,
pastured livestock, largescale
poultry, and traditional row
crop farms. Each of these types of
farms has the potential to implement
practices particular to their
own soil types and production
methods that will benefit them in a
wide variety of ways. From simply
adding a cover crop or eliminating
a tillage pass to more complex and
extensive combinations of silvopasture
or grazing annual cover
Plant diversity, continuous cover, and
reduced soil disturbance help promote
soil health statewide.
crops, every step counts, and every
step brings us closer to one million
acres of healthy soil in Maryland,
and to a healthy, resilient agriculture
that fosters a positive connection
with the land.
The Million Acre Challenge’s
Soil Health Benchmark Study, now
preparing for its second year of
research in Maryland, identifies
soil health benchmarks that will
help farmers determine whether
their management practices are
achieving the desired results and
where improvements may be possible.
The study also helps farmers
learn from each other and collaborate
on innovative solutions to
soil health management problems
through regional hubs, workshops,
webinars, and Future Harvest Field
School programs. Study collaborators
will contribute to a growing
body of soil health data that farm-
plenty I summer growing 2020 37