The suite of interlinked on- and off-farm benefits from regenerative grazing in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
November 30, 2023 –
The New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group, responsible for creating and passing New Mexico’s Healthy Soil Act in 2019, is working on several new projects that bring regenerative agriculture and environmental restoration to New Mexico communities.
The Working Group was cofounded by Rob Hirsch and Isabelle Jenniches with the purpose of writing and passing the Healthy Soil Act, which was highly successful. The bill included input from a diverse group of stakeholders and was created to provide funds for those transitioning to regenerative agriculture.
“When we did our initial survey and interviews, what came out time and time again was access to capital and access to land, but also social networks. Making it socially acceptable to do this work because it’s a little different and might look a little different. Your field will look different. I think those conversations still inform our work to this day and so, now we have several different focus areas that correspond to those needs,” said Jenniches.
Regenerative agriculture refers to practices that not only provide bountiful yields but also serve to increase the health of the ecosystems in which they operate. The Healthy Soil Act focuses on the Soil Health Principles. These principles are:
- keep soil covered
- minimize soil disturbance on cropland and minimize external inputs
- maximize biodiversity
- maintain living roots
- integrate animals
- know your context
After the bill was passed, the implementation of the Healthy Soil Act was given to the New Mexico Department of Agriculture as their responsibility. The Healthy Soil Working Group has since been focused on education, outreach and collaboration.
They partnered with the National Association of Conservation Districts to create the Soil Health Champions network, which includes over 130 ranchers and farmers across New Mexico. They also organize field days where anybody can come, learn, and work together, and afterwards, share a locally-sourced meal.
“It’s kind of like barn raising. We work together to put some of that information into practice. That can be anything from earthworks, erosion structures, very often we build a compost. We might demonstrate seed coating and cover crop seeding with a no till drill,” said Jenniches.
The Working Group is also working on creating a New Mexico Agrarian Commons.
“People can donate land, or we can fundraise for acquisition of land, and that gets put into a trust. It gets put into the commons and we’ll find farmers or ranchers to lease that land for 99 years, basically as long as they wish, for a very fair price and that whole process prioritizes BIPOC and young farmers,” said Jenniches.
Other projects include a pilot program for statewide composting sites, connecting with John Romero, the Pueblo of Jemez’s Agriculture Manager to increase outreach in tribal agricultural projects, as well as beginning to explore regional land restoration through partnering with a Dutch NGO.
New Mexico Healthy Soil Working Group’s website has information on their upcoming field days and other events, as well as resources for those interested in soil regeneration.
