Foodprints for the Future
Let’s Make Our Soil Great Again
December 5, 2025
If I told you that most of the world’s food supply is grown on just 3-6 inches of dirt, you’d probably think that I was crazy. But that’s exactly why our top soil is so important. Top soil is the rich, fertile upper 3-6 inches of soil, and it’s where you can find most of the essential nutrients, microorganisms, and moisture that plants need to thrive.
Throughout history, topsoil has been a key factor in the development of human civilizations. That’s why you have probably heard of “the Fertile Crescent.” This region in the Middle East was a hotspot for early civilizations because access to water and rich topsoil provided a perfect recipe for settled agriculture.
However, our topsoil is disappearing. In 2024, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), issued a press release raising concern that, without action, 90% of soils could be degraded by 2050. Degraded soils have a loose texture, lack vital nutrients, and fail to perform important ecosystem services, like growing our food. In other words, soil degradation causes less plants and crops to grow, which in turn means there is less for us all to eat.
Making our soils healthy again is a goal we all need to rally around. But how exactly can we fix our top soil problem and still meet the intense demand for commercial agriculture?
In the United States, one emerging solution is growing cover crops. Cover crops are grown in the off-season between cash crop harvests, but they aren’t meant to be harvested, they’re grown to support soil health. Planting them helps to improve soil organic matter, cycle nutrients, limit weeds, prevent compaction, and maintain the soil’s microbial ecosystem.
The United States is the second largest agricultural exporter after the European Union, accounting for a staggering $176 billion in trade in 2024 alone. But this extensive production has led to 1.7 billion tons of soil eroded annually in the U.S. Now farmers are trying to identify low-cost, effective ways to reverse the damage and improve soil health. Cover crops are increasingly part of the solution. From 2017 to 2022, the land used to grow them has expanded by 17% across the U.S. In some states, it’s double that; in Texas, cover crop acreage grew by 50%. Cover crops can help heal our soils and boost agricultural yields however, not all cover crops are created equal. Meet the heroes of the cover crop movement!
“Peas” Help Me!
There’s no denying the impact that these little green guys have on soil. As a member of the legume family, peas are nitrogen-fixers. They house special bacteria (rhizobia) in nodules on their roots that can take nitrogen gas from the air and “fix” it into a plant-available form in the soil.
This natural process reduces the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizer when growing a commercial crop, which both saves farmers money and helps to minimize the environmental impact of fertilizer runoff, which can cause harmful algal blooms in lakes and rivers. As a cool-season annual, peas also help to keep the soil covered and protected from erosion during colder months.
“Rye” Not Improve Your Soil?
Cereal rye is a common choice for cover crops, especially in cooler climates; that’s probably why rye is the most widely used cover crop in Pennsylvania. Rye is also an excellent crop for suppressing weeds and preventing soil erosion during the winter.
Rye’s extensive, fibrous root system helps preserve soil structure since it physically holds the soil in place, protecting it against erosion by wind and water. Rye also feeds soil microbes, which are tiny living organisms like bacteria and fungi that are vital for plant growth.
When cereal rye dies off in the spring, the large amount of biomass (organic matter) left behind on the surface forms a thick “mulch.” This mulch reduces water evaporation and increases soil organic matter.
“Radish”-ally Effective!
Don’t let their small size fool you… tillage radishes (a member of the Diakon family) are champions of soil improvement. Their distinctive large taproot acts as a natural “bio-drill.” As the root reaches into the soil, it breaks up compacted layers, naturally improving the soil’s aeration and water infiltration. During the colder months, the plant dies and the taproot decomposes, leaving behind a deep channel. These channels create pathways for the roots of the next cash crop to be grown and help rainwater soak into the ground instead of running off.
“Bean” There, Done That
Faba beans are another excellent cool-season cover crop. Like peas, they “fix” atmospheric nitrogen, adding crucial natural fertilizer to the soil. If you prefer a late spring or summer cover crop, planting warm-season beans, like mung beans, quickly produces a massive amount of biomass. This high biomass increases soil organic matter, which enhances the soil’s water-holding capacity.
“Oat”-side the Box
Like cereal rye, oats are a cool-season cover crop that are popular for their ability to suppress weeds, scavenge nitrogen, and limit erosion. Unlike beans, oats do not “fix” atmospheric nitrogen in the soil. Instead, this crop stores excess soil nitrogen until it decomposes, preventing nitrogen losses from the soil. With careful management to avoid soil compaction, an oat cover crop can also be used for livestock grazing, killing two birds (weeds?) with one stone!
A Global Benefit
Looking beyond the United States, cover crops are being adopted across the world, including the European Union (EU) which has kept cover crops as a component of their 2023 – 2027 Common Agricultural Policy. This has led some EU nations, like France, to adopt compulsory cover crops with rules that mandate growing cover crops after summer harvests, a time when land would usually be left fallow, or unplanted.
In China, cover crops are being promoted as a technique to improve main crop yield. This aligns with overall Chinese agricultural goals which prioritize high agricultural production due to growing population and limited arable land per capita. In 2015, the Chinese government enforced the “Zero-Growth Action on Fertilizer” which greatly reduced use of synthetic fertilizers.
As a result, producers are turning to cover crops to improve soil health. So far, the shift seems to be working; despite being below the global average, a 2023 study found a 6.2% yield benefit in China after using legume cover crops. A 2021 study, found yield benefits around 12% when winter cover crops were added to subtropical rice systems.
Even though cover crops are usually used by commercial farmers, the same benefits apply when you plant cover crops in your garden. So as you prepare for the next planting season, consider saving yourself a trip to buy potting soil or weed killer, and try out some of these cover crops. I promise your soil will thank you.
If you’re looking for other ways to preserve our shared soil, consider supporting EARTHDAY’s Canopy Tree Project to reforest our planet; like some cover crops, tree roots improve soil stability and act as natural carbon sinks.
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