Improving Access to Soil Carbon Proxy Testing: Training Educators to Monitor Soil Health on Three Northeast Farms: Final Project Report

Improving Access to Soil Carbon Proxy Testing: Training Educators to Monitor Soil Health on Three Northeast Farms was a multiyear project evaluating soil carbon for farmers throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Staff at the Massachusetts Chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA/Mass) taught outreach and education staff at NOFA Chapters in New York and Connecticut the procedures for the soil Carbon Proxy Test (CPT). Farm-based adoption of healthy soils practices can lead to increased sequestration of atmospheric carbon and transition farms from carbon sources to carbon sinks for the betterment of the environment. The resultant implementation of soil health-building farm management practices can also improve crop growth and production and improve crop resiliency to the increasingly-common climate extremes such as drought, excessive rainfall, and high temperatures. The goal of this project was to scale-up on-farm soil carbon proxy testing, increasing farmers exposure to it in Massachusetts, and teaching our NOFA counterparts in Connecticut and New York on its practices to further expand its adoption within those states.