How does a purposeful mindset contribute to soil health and rebuilding soil fertility? What can we learn from culture, history, and mindset in storing our farm landscapes?

Rebekah Slabach recently became the associate director for the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture within Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Formerly, Rebekah was an extension agent for agriculture and natural resources with Virginia Cooperative Extension in Halifax County. Rebekah reminds us that culture and history are part of agriculture and that managing soil health through changing weather, markets, and environmental demands requires a purposeful mindset. In striving to keep the soil covered with more species of cover crops, Rebekah emphasizes that a planted cover crop is better than waiting to plant the perfect cover crop mixture and that something covering the soil is better than a bare fallow.

The Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture is a pilot program that seeks to incentivize and reward farmers and ranchers for adopting climate-smart agricultural practices. To learn more about the Alliance and Virginia Tech's role, please visit https://www.allianceforcsa.org/

The basic information and core principles of soil health, along with two years of the 4 The Soil: A Conversation podcast archives, can be accessed at https://www.4thesoil.org/. To pledge your support to 4 The Soil, fill out the form at https://www.4thesoil.org/take-the-pledge and tell us about your mindset for building soil resilience and health in your community.

4 the Soil: A Conversation is made possible with funding support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and The Agua Fund. Other partners include the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; Virginia Cooperative Extension; Virginia State University; Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation; and partners of the Virginia Soil Health Coalition.

Disclaimer: Views expressed on this podcast are those of each individual guest.

To download a copy of this, or any other show, visit the website 4thesoil.org. Music used during today’s program is courtesy of the Flip Charts. All rights reserved. 4 the Soil: A Conversation is produced by On the Farm Radio in collaboration with Virginia Tech. The host and co-hosts are Jeff Ishee, Mary Sketch Bryant, and Eric Bendfeldt.