What’s The Connection Between Soils & Climate Change?

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Five years ago the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that human pressures on the systems of land, soils, and fresh water were intensifying, just when they were being pushed to their productive limits. The majority of pressures were derived from agriculture, including the increase in use of chemical (non-organic) inputs, uptake of farm mechanization, and overall impact of higher monocropping and grazing intensities are concentrated on a diminishing stock of agricultural land.

Those factors were producing a set of externalities that were spilling over into other sectors, degrading land and polluting surface water and groundwater resources.

“Inclusive forms of land and water governance will be adopted at scale only when there is political will, adaptive policymaking and follow-through investment,” the FAO authors outlined. “A primary focus on land and water governance is essential in creating the transformative changes needed to achieve patterns of sustainable agriculture that can enhance income and sustain livelihoods while protecting and restoring the natural resource base.”

Trump Administration Pilots USDA Farmers Program

Will the newest Trump subsidy actually help agriculture to be healthier and more sustainable? On December 20, 2025 the US Department of Agriculture announced a $700 million Farmers First Regenerative Agriculture Pilot. It is designed to cut administrative burdens for producers, expand access to new and beginning farmers, and boost yields and long-term soil resilience across operations. Its intention is to “leverage existing authorities to create public-private partnerships within NRCS conservation programs. These partnerships will allow USDA to match private funding.”

Yet many farmers and conservationists argue that support for agriculture needs to focus on soil health, water quality, and climate resilience. Stephanie Feldstein, population and sustainability director at the Center for Biological Diversity, was critical of the new Trump agriculture initiative, telling Common Dreams that “farmers trying to do the right thing for our environment need all the support they can get, but without clear standards, this ill-defined pilot program isn’t enough.”

“Regenerative agriculture needs to be more than just buzzwords Big Ag uses to greenwash business as usual,” said Feldstein. “While the Trump administration promises money for sustainable practices, it continues to cut conservation staff, support the pesticide industry, roll back environmental laws, and play trade war games that hurt farmers and our food system.”

The rub is in the details — or the lack thereof.

A Quick Primer on Soils

Healthy soils are the foundation of healthy communities, setting the foundation for agricultural development, food security, ecosystem functions, biodiversity, and resilience to climate change. Why is this?

• Soils provide food for urban and peri-urban population.
• Soils can reduce pollution, extreme weather events and temperatures in cities.
• Soils help boost human health and well-being.
• Soil health is a good driver for better city waste management.

Currently, about 35% of the world’s agricultural land is degraded. Soil organic matter consists of the remains of plants, animals and microbes. It supports the soil’s ability to capture water and prompts the growth of soil microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. The concept of soil health embraces the role of soil in the production of biomass or food, global ecosystems, and human health. Current modes of industrial agriculture employ farming practices that can be harmful to the soil. Examples include monocropping, where a single crop is grown repeatedly; over-tilling, where the soil is ploughed excessively; and, the use of heavy machinery, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

Food and animal feed demand has been forecast to grow more than 50% over the next three decades. This growth must occur on current crop-lands to avoid deforestation and other land-use changes that release additional CO2 to the atmosphere.

A 2025 Nature Climate Change study looked at greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and yields in crops through to the end of the century. The data analysis concluded that that grass cover crops with no tillage reduced 32.6 billion tons of CO2-equivalent emissions by 2050 but reduced crop yields by 4.8 billion tons. The lowest production losses were associated with “modest” mitigation benefits, with just 4.4 billion tons of CO2e emissions reduced.

The authors explained how certain factors, such as soil nitrous oxide, future climate change, and yields, were really important in combination for robust soil health. They also warned against popular ideas to use carbon removal methods as part of regenerative farming, saying the practice risks the release of emissions back into the atmosphere unless soil management returns to sustainable practices.

What does all this information boil down to? Any government program that seeks to address food insecurity must address a combination of factors: soil N2O, future climate change, and other dimensions of food production such as yield. There is a top-down opportunity to address growing food and animal feed demand with these practices over a carbon-first agenda, researchers suggest in a 2025 Nature Climate Change study. Adopting crop-land natural climate solutions can boost crop yields, but the result is a far lower climate benefit when balancing mitigation with the need for higher crop production for food and feed.

Modest GHG mitigation benefits may only amount to less than 10% of all annual GHG emissions in 2023 by 2030 after accounting for soil N2O and crop production impacts.

Better soil management will have larger benefits for food production and only constitute a fraction of food system decarbonization; reaching climate goals in the food system will entail closer scrutiny of GHG-intensive foods.

As many of us have been saying for a long time, it’s about the foods we eat.

Cities are Starting to Accept Municipal Roles in Food Security

Research has found that transitioning towards regenerative agriculture has economic benefits for farmers. Yet countries need to be increasing their rates of annual investment in agrifood research and development “just to sustain the current rates of growth in farm productivity,” a November 2025 study in Nature concludes. “It will take decades for the harmful consequences of current R&D spending slowdowns to be realized,” the authors explain. Hunger, malnutrition, civil or military strife, and degraded environment health could be the consequences of insufficient food research R&D, the authors continue, due to food instability.

Some cities around the US aren’t waiting for agricultural research funding to arrive. The hardship for many citizens during the 2025 federal government shutdown and temporary loss of SNAP benefits made many civic leaders realize that additional options were needed that could make healthy food access less pricey, easily accessible, and locally designed.

Recognizing the importance of the city’s role in fighting food insecurity, movements toward city-owned grocery stores have gained traction. It’s one mechanism to lower food costs, as municipal properties that house the stores wouldn’t have to pay rent — or even utilities. Tiny profitability of privately-owned city groceries has been a barrier for local shops.

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani ran a campaign that included the proposal to create a network of publicly owned grocery stores across New York City on city-owned property.

Boston is considering a comparable project. To fully address food insecurity, “political courage” is required from all levels of government, Councilor Enrique J. Pepén told the Boston Globe. “Our health care is at risk, our SNAP benefits obviously are at risk, our housing is at risk, our transportation grants are at risk,” he said. “But when you look at the agenda, it’s kind of all connected.”

Resources

• “Boston weighs city-owned grocery stores to combat food insecurity.” Katie Muchnick. Boston Globe. November 20, 2025.
• “Food will be more affordable — if we double funds for agriculture research now.” Pardley, et al. Nature. December 9, 2025.
• “Healthy soils for more resilient and greener cities.” FAO. May 2025.
• “Managing for climate and production goals on crop-lands.” Nature Climate Change. McClelland, et al. May 2025.
• “Q&A: The role of soil health in food security and tackling climate change.” Eco-Business. November 20, 2025.
• “Skeptics Warn of Greenwashing as Trump Admin Launches Regenerative Agriculture Pilot.” Jessica Corbett. Common Dreams. December 10, 2025
• “The state of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture.” FAO. 2021.
• “USDA launches new regenerative pilot program to lower farmer production costs and advance MAHA agenda.” USDA press release. December 10, 2025.