Skip to main content

For the climate Minnesota needs a Healthy Soils Law

Eight U.S. states have Healthy Soils laws. Minnesota is not among those select eight, although so called conservative states such as Oklahoma and Utah are. The Utah law, passed in 2015, Calls on all agencies “with authority to manage
lands to increase soil carbon sequestration”. The Oklahoma law, passed in 2001, Creates advisory committee to identify and support practices through research and development as well as education. The 2017 Hawaiian law is somewhat more ambitious. It requires the state to identify, measure, and encourage soil health practices and promotes carbon  sequestration, compost, and agroforestry. Hawaii provides a small amount of money for this work. California, which passed its law in 2016 and strengthened it in 2018, provides technical assistance and seven and a half million for soil health programs and demonstrations.

In 2019 there were nine states that introduced Healthy Soil legislation. Minnesota was not among that select nine. The Washington state bill, for example, defines carbon farming as activities that “increase the quantity of organic carbon in topsoil” and would provide grant funding for on-farm efficiency, regenerative agriculture practices that enhance soil health, and agroforestry.

The organization Earth Justice, which provided this synopsis, says that a Healthy Soils law should have as its goals: The reduction of greenhouse gases and the increase of soil carbon. The legislation should support healthy soils practices such as: maximizing the coverage of soil surface by vegetation, minimizing soil disturbance, maximizing above and below ground biological diversity, maintaining living roots in the soil, incorporating livestock on crop land, and reducing chemical inputs to the soil.

Minnesota needs to create legislation that would reduce greenhouse gases and increase soil carbon on its farms and forest lands. We need to make our land healthier so it can help us mitigate the worst of climate destruction. Minnesota can no longer be a leader on this but 2020 is the year for the legislature to act. We need a Minnesota Healthy Soils law.

 You can view the Earth Justice synopsis here  https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Summary-State-Soil-Health-Initiatives.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let us all walk in the foot steps of John Lewis

By John King In Selma, Alabama, on Sunday, March 7, 1965, John Lewis, standing in the lead of a long line of marchers, looked down from the crest of The Edmund Pettus Bridge at the line of police armed with clubs, whips and truncheons and said, “I am going to die here.” Lewis intended to lead the marchers from Selma to the capital Montgomery, to demand access to voting for Black people in Alabama. Sheriff Jim Clark lowered his gas mask and led the deputies, some on horseback and some on foot, into the line of marchers. Under swinging clubs and hooves trampling, Lewis was the first to go down. Women and children were not spared. Choking and blinded by tear gas, they were struck by clubs and truncheons wrapped with barbed wire. Lewis, with a fractured skull and a severe concussion, almost did die. The nearby Good Samaritan Hospital did not have enough beds to care for the injured marchers. A nation watched in horror as news footage of that bloody day appeared on T
2 comments
Read more

More Republican dirty tricks

  As a Blue Dog Corporate Democrat, 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson’s votes in Congress go against the beliefs and convictions of progressive voters in our district. I’m one of those progressive 7th District voters. Like most average voters I rarely actually encounter my Member of Congress. However, I recall three encounters with Rep. Peterson over the many years I’ve been stuck with him. I met him at Mikey’s Restaurant, on Main Street in Long Prairie, when he was first campaigning for a seat in Congress. We were both young then and he was full of energy and inspired in me a sense of hope for positive change. Besides, I’d met the Republican incumbent. He was an older man who, it seemed, was operating on dead batteries. I was happy to vote for the energetic Peterson. Some years later I was a delegate to the DFL District convention in Bemidji. Peterson opposed a woman’s right to choose abortion. He was being challenged by a woman who supported the right to that choice. I gave my
Post a Comment
Read more

Step aside Republicans; Minnesotans want electric vehicles

Late last month Senator Paul Gazelka, the Republican leader of the Senate, told the Minnesota Reformer that the Republican controlled Senate would likely fire the acting Commissioner of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Laura Bishop, if the Agency, at the behest of the Governor, went ahead with the Clean Car Rule. The rule would require automakers to increase the number of electric vehicles they deliver to Minnesota auto dealers. Gazelka told The Reformer that he’d had “a conversation” with Bishop about the rule. Bishop has not been confirmed by the Senate. Gazelka, and his Republican colleagues, claim that electric vehicles are too expensive and that the rule would be a burden to Minnesotans. Gazelka, and the rest of his Party are wrong. They aren’t paying attention to the economics of EV ownership and they are not paying attention to consumer preferences. Way back in September 2019, Consumer Reports reported on a study of Minnesotans they had done in collaboration with the
2 comments
Read more