SOIL Act

The Saving Our Interconnected Lives Act (SOIL Act) would amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to better reward and prioritize farm conservation practices that benefit both soil health and wildlife habitat. It creates a strong incentive in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by allowing payments equal to 90% of the cost for implementing eligible practices that address both soil and wildlife habitat concerns. A long list of practices is identified as eligible for these increased payments, including methods such as alley cropping, cover crops, wetlands restoration, riparian buffers, windbreaks, hedgerows, no-till farming, crop rotations, and more. The bill also tightens how projects are evaluated and prioritized to ensure dual soil-wildlife benefits are a central consideration. In the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the bill adds emphasis on dual-benefit projects when evaluating and ranking offers, and it expands supplemental payments to cover “co-benefit activities.” A new definition of co-benefit activity is introduced, describing practices that simultaneously address soil and wildlife habitat concerns and, when implemented, improve wildlife habitat and increase soil carbon sequestration while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The bill broadens CSP payments to include these co-benefit activities alongside existing resources for resource-conserving crop rotations and advanced grazing management. Overall, the SOIL Act aims to align farm conservation incentives with soil health, wildlife habitat, and climate benefits.