Department of Agriculture this week announced a $300 million investment to monitor agricultural emissions, including by creating a research network to monitor carbon in soil. It's an area getting more attention from lawmakers, researchers and industry professionals. “Because you’ve stored carbon that would have been emitted (into) the atmosphere.” “The more carbon you store from the atmosphere with your crops, and the more crops grown throughout the year, you offset some of your waste, your wasted energy,” said Shalamar Armstrong, an associate professor of agronomy at Purdue University. That can mean money for participating farmers in the form of carbon offsets - payments that companies can make that support carbon storage in farms and, in theory, balance out their emissions elsewhere. More plants take in more carbon dioxide, and soil microbes breathe out less carbon when undisturbed. There's one more big payoff that benefits everyone: tilling the soil less, and growing more cover crops, can help farmers store more planet-warming carbon in fields. He got those benefits and saw his soil change for the better, too: dark, chunky, richly organic matter that he said feels like “chocolate cake.'

When Al Schafbuch cut back on plowing his Iowa fields decades ago and later began growing cover crops, he was out to save money on fertilizer and reduce erosion.

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