- Farmers used to plant “cover crops” to rejuvenate fields in the off season.
- As those were replaced with chemicals, the soil of America’s farms suffered.
- Bringing back the old practice has surprising benefits for the planet — and for farmers.
Fred Yoder in Ohio plants rye and winter peas he never harvests. Larkin Martin in Alabama plants radishes she’ll never eat. A.G. Kawamura in California plants barley that rots in the fields.
Each is part of a small but growing movement to bring back an ancient agricultural practice called cover cropping that was once used to rejuvenate soil but now also likely comes with the added benefits of both mitigating climate change and protecting against its ravages.