Sustainable Agriculture in Ohio

Regenerating Soil on Farms

TNC supports farmers shifting to management systems that work in harmony with nature to restore and protect the soil’s long-term health. Regenerative farm systems use cover crops and diverse crop rotations to cover bare soils and provide a living root in the soil for all or much of the year. They also utilize the 4Rs of nutrient stewardship and rotational grazing to manage fertilizer and manure and reduce or eliminate tilling the soil. The benefits of these practices include increased profits through sustained or better yields with fewer inputs, enhancing the soil’s ability to store water, nutrients and carbon and improving the farm’s overall resilience to climate change.

Achieving this shift across a large landscape means many farmers and their trusted advisors must rethink their farming operations. Making such changes requires patience, trust and resources, which is why TNC is helping farmers and their advisors adopt these practices in Ohio and beyond.

Managing Water on Farms

Nutrients are an essential part of crop production. But after a heavy rain, nutrients that should stay on the farm can be washed away downstream, leading to harmful algal blooms that are toxic to people and wildlife.

Two-stage ditches, controlled drainage structures, phosphorus removal filters, cascading waterways, prairie strips and vegetative buffers are all examples of edge-of-field solutions. Strategically introducing one or more of these into a landscape can help farmers better withstand climate change-related impacts of flooding and drought and improve field conditions to support food production. This provides system-wide benefits. Edge-of-field practices help recharge waterways, reduce nutrient loss, protect the carbon stored in soil and create wildlife habitat.

Public Private Partnerships: Work with Trusted Farm Advisors

TNC is working with The Ohio State University and the Ohio 4R Nutrient Stewardship Council to create public-private partnerships between conservation professionals and 4R-certified agribusinesses. We work with farmers to conduct soil testing and identify farms with high phosphorus levels, which may be at a greater risk for nutrient loss. Our goal is to pair 4R nutrient stewardship with edge-of-field practices to manage and treat phosphorus before it leaves the farm.

Supporting a More Equitable Food System

Importantly, TNC acknowledges that we need to build trust and address historical racism and inequities in agriculture as well as past harms caused by our actions. While we don’t have all the answers, we believe that we can begin by working in partnerships across all sectors of the food system to remove systemic barriers facing young and first-generation farmers and black, Indigenous and farmers of color.

Regenerative Farmer Fellowship Program

In 2021, TNC partnered with Agraria Center for Regenerative Practice and Central State University to launch an on-farm training program for small-scale, historically underserved growers. In its first year, the program trained six fellows using regenerative agriculture practices and building local business enterprises. The fellows represented both rural and urban growing sites, four being in areas considered food deserts by the USDA. TNC contributed to the partnership by securing public and private grant support to fund the program in its first year and support paid fellowships and program expansion in its second.