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Network Coordinator’s Note

Recommended as foundational reading. This chapter remains one of the most comprehensive treatments of healthy soils policy available, providing a practical "legal playbook" for policymakers and advocates seeking to strengthen state and federal support for soil health. Rather than proposing a single model bill, it surveys dozens of legal and policy pathways that can be adapted to different jurisdictions, making it an invaluable resource for designing legislation, programs, and implementation strategies.

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Originally published as standalone article in 2017 and revised and republished in 2019 as a chapter in Book - Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States | Environmental Law Institute, 2019, this work by Nathan A. Rosenberg and Peter Lehner examines how law and public policy can accelerate the adoption of agricultural practices that increase soil carbon sequestration while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The chapter explores opportunities to:

• Expand public agricultural research, development, extension, and technical assistance.
• Reform conservation, commodity, crop insurance, tax, and trade policies to better support climate-smart agriculture.
• Develop financing mechanisms and market incentives for carbon farming.
• Improve grazing management on public lands.
• Reduce emissions throughout the agricultural supply chain, from farm inputs through food waste.
• Encourage climate-friendly food choices through procurement policies, dietary guidelines, certification programs, and private-sector initiatives.

Rather than advocating a single policy solution, the authors present a broad menu of legal strategies that can be tailored to federal, state, and local contexts. As a result, this chapter has become one of the National Healthy Soils Policy Network's most frequently recommended references for advocates developing healthy soils legislation and policy frameworks.

Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States_Ch. 30 - Agriculture-2.pdf

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