Cover Crop Bill Could Turn Over a New Leaf in Sustainable Agriculture | Article

In July 2022, Representative Sean Casten (D-Ill.) introduced the Conservation Opportunity and Voluntary Environment Resilience Program (COVER) Act (H.R.8527) to increase the adoption of cover crops. Cover crops are not harvested for sale or consumption, but instead grown for their environmental benefits. They reduce soil erosion, absorb greenhouse gases, and build resilience to climate change impacts, especially when used in tandem with other sustainable practices like no-till farming.

Cover crops mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon and storing it in the soil as they grow. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 11 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions came from agriculture in 2020, which means cutting emissions from the agricultural sector is critical for meeting climate goals. Some cover crop varieties also capture nitrogen from the air and store it in the soil, reducing the need for nitrogen fertilizers that release the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. Furthermore, cover crops increase resilience to climate impacts like extreme heat, drought, and flooding by increasing the soil’s ability to hold on to moisture and absorb intense rain.

To incentivize the adoption of cover crops, the COVER Act would create the Good Steward Cover Crop Program, which would provide a $5 per acre discount in crop insurance premiums to farmers planting cover crops. The COVER Act mirrors the successful Pandemic Cover Crop Program, which also provided a $5 per acre discount on crop insurance premiums and enrolled 12.2 million acres in 2021, an area nearly twice the size of Vermont. While the Pandemic Cover Crop Program was extended through 2022, it is ultimately a temporary program designed to encourage agricultural producers to adopt and maintain cover crops only for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVER Act would make the program permanent and would set aside a further $5 million for outreach and technical support to assist agricultural producers, especially underserved producers, access the program. It would also establish the Soil Health Pilot Program to study how insurance discounts could be offered for other sustainable practices that bolster soil health.

Providing insurance discounts for planting cover crops has proven to be an effective way to increase adoption. For example, Fall Covers for Spring Savings, an Illinois state program, enrolled 50,000 acres in 2021, thereby preventing 3,612 truckloads of sediment from contaminating local waterways and removing carbon emissions equivalent to those of 5,359 passenger vehicles. Due to high demand for the program, funding was doubled to $600,000 – enough to enroll 100,000 acres in 2022. Similar state programs have been deployed in Indiana and Iowa.

The Federal Crop Insurance Program is a trusted safety net largely subsidized by taxpayers for farmers to manage risks, such as those posed by extreme weather. More frequent and severe droughts and flooding due to climate change are leading to increased crop insurance payouts, which is unfortunately increasing the cost of the program according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service. The USDA Risk Management Agency has identified expanding the adoption of cover crops as a top priority for adapting to climate impacts and reducing the cost of the crop insurance program.

“We are already seeing how the climate crisis is increasing the cost of the federal crop insurance program, and we know that it will continue to do so as more extreme weather events grow more frequent in the future,” said Rep. Casten in a press release. “I’m pleased that my home state of Illinois has recognized the importance of cover crops with its own state cover crop discount program. The COVER Act is critical to providing farmers across the nation the tools they need to make their land more resilient in the face of climate-related risks.”

EESI has endorsed the COVER Act.

Authors: Elina Lingappa and Savannah Bertrand