Resources

Climate-Smart agriculture is defined as agriculture that sustainably increases productivity, resilience (adaptation), reduces/removes Green House Gasses (GHG) (mitigation), and enhances achievement of national food security and development goals (FAO 2010).

Check it out here!

This project is being funded by the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant, a historic multibillion-dollar investment by the USDA to expand markets for America’s climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture. Rodale Institute was honored to receive $25 million for this critical 5-year project that provides over $6 million to southeastern farmers, including small and underserved farmers.

Yes! There are various other USDA-funded climate-smart projects spanning across different fields of agriculture; check them out here!

The Southern Piedmont is a 64,395 square mile, USDA designated Major Land Resource Area (MRLA 136) that extends through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. It lies as a plateau between the Appalachian Mountains and the Coastal Plain.

Counties include:
Alabama – Calhoun, Chambers, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Lee, Macon, Randolph, Shelby, Talladega, Tallpoosa

Georgia – Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Bibb, Butts, Carroll, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Cobb, Columbia, Coweta, Crawford, Dawson, Dekalb, Douglas, Elbert, Fayette, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Glascock, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Hancock, Haralson, Harris, Hart, Heard, Henry, Jackson, Jasper, Jones, Lamar, Lincoln, Lumpkin, Madison, McDuffie, Meriwether, Monnroe, Morgan, Muscogee, Newton, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Paulding, Pickens, Pike, Poke, Putnam, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Stephens, Talbot, Taliaferro, Taylor, Troupe, Upson, Walton, Warren, White, Wilkes

North Carolina – Alamance, Alexander, Alleghany, Anson, Burke, Caharrus, Caldwell, Caswell, Catawba, Chatham, Cleveland, Davidson, Durham, Franklin, Gaston, Granville, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Iredell, Johnston, Lee, Lincoln, McDowell, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange, Person, Polk, Randolph, Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Rutherford, Stanly, Union, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wilson

South Carolina – Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Cherokee, Chester, Chesterfield, Edgefield, Fairfield, Greenville, Greenwood, Kershaw, Lancaster, Laurens, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Richland, Saluda, Spartanburg, Union, York

Virginia – Albemarle, Amelia, Brunswick, Buckingham, Caroline, Carroll, Charlotte, Culpeper, Cumberland, Danville, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Goochland, Greensville, Hanover, Henrico, Louisa, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Orange, Powhatan, Prince Edward, Richmond City, Roanoke County, Spotsylvania, Stafford, Sussex

Please see the territory outlined in the map below:

This is a five year project. We will perform research on farms for 4 years.

Rodale Institute is partnering with Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Clemson University, Emory University, Georgia Organics, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, North Carolina State University, Soil Health Institute, The Connect Group, University of Georgia, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin, and Virginia Association of Biological Farming.

Climate change and reduced soil health is a large-scale, global problem. To make meaningful change, we need to work with a variety of partner organizations with a wide range of expertise to the table to generate actionable plans that can be implemented across a large scale. Each of the partners on this project have specialized expertise that connects the dots between greenhouse gas emissions, soil health, farming, economics, social barriers to change, technical assistance, and marketing.

Eddy Covariance towers are structures of scaffolding that hold research instrumentation which collect data on greenhouse gas emissions coming from the soil. Our towers will take data on carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia, and weather data such as: precipitation, air temperature, wind speed, soil temperature, etc. This is the first time that all four greenhouse gasses will be monitored continuously at the same time in the field, so we are excited to see what this work will show us about farming’s impact on the climate.

Any vegetable farmer (organic or conventional) and farmers markets located in the Southern Piedmont.

Yes, we are performing consumer messaging campaigns at markets.

Yes, diverse vegetable farmers will fill out Farm2Facts Ecosystems Services Tool, and post their results at the market. Market farmers can also enroll in our soil health study if they are located in the Piedmont.

We will be enrolling a total of up to 500 farmers: 50 naturally grown/organic and 50 conventional farms will be part of the greenhouse gas and soil health study, and up to 400 farmers will be part of the marketing campaign.

Check out our Farmers Information Sheet here!

Yes, we have over $6 million dollars in cash and non-cash incentives that will go to farmers and farmers markets who participate in the project.

Yes

2 years

Yes

No problem! You’ll learn about cover cropping and how to manage and terminate the crop.

You have to plant cover crops (a mix of winter pea, daikon radish, and oats) on the enrolled acreage, using a roller crimper on 1/2 of the enrolled acreage and using plastic on the other half. If you are organic/naturally grown, you will be terminating your cover crops with a roller crimper, and conventional farmers will be terminating with herbicide. Everything that you plant on the enrolled acreage (both cash crop and cover crop) will come from a predetermined rotation.

Yes!
$1500/acre of rolled cover crop/year
Up to $1100/year for input reimbursement on enrolled acreage
$150/year to complete survey questions
$100/year to participate in farmer focus groups
$50/year to complete Farm2Facts
$500 to host a Farmer Field Day at your farm
$50 (20 miles or less) or $100 (21+ miles) to assist moving project equipment to your farm as needed $500/year/tower for farms housing two Eddy Covariance Towers on their property

Crops will be decided by a farmer focus group. You’ll split your enrolled acreage in two, and those two sections will mirror each other with a multi-species crop rotation. Your cover crop mix will be winter pea, daikon radish, and oats, and your cash crop rotation will be a slicer tomato, leek, cabbage, and winter squash.

Yes, you’ll be planting a mix of winter pea, daikon radish, and oats.

Yes

No

Within 1 year. Fallow or new land cannot be used.

No

No

Yes

No

We will provide a plastic mulch layer.

Yes. The data will be based upon the two enrolled fields. You’ll receive weekly questions in survey form that will take no longer than 10 minutes to complete. The majority, if not all, will be data you already collect for your farm.

Through an app that is being specifically designed for this project; survey-style data input.

Yes

Yes