S. 2582 — Advancing Research on Agricultural Soil Health Act of 2025

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture, not later than 270 days after enactment, to develop a standardized methodology for directly measuring soil carbon for research and conservation purposes—after reviewing existing methodologies and consulting agricultural producers (including socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers), soil carbon experts, nonprofits, academic researchers, and other stakeholders—and requires the methodology to meet specified standards (e.g., usable at any location, measuring to a standard soil depth using best available science, interoperable with USDA data, accounting for testing variations and measurement uncertainty). This section further directs the Natural Resources Conservation Service to provide technical assistance and multilingual guidance (in digital and analog formats) to enable producers to voluntarily measure, monitor, and report soil carbon data using the methodology, applicable to recipients of grants under conservation innovation grants (16 U.S.C. 3839aa-8), the sustainable agriculture research and education program (7 U.S.C. 5801 et seq.), the organic agriculture research and extension initiative (7 U.S.C. 5925b), Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grants (7 U.S.C. 3157(b)), or other appropriate programs, as well as any other electing producers. This section requires the Secretary to update the methodology and guidance as needed to reflect best available science while ensuring data interoperability and authorizes $2 million for each fiscal year to carry out these activities.

This section expands the priority areas eligible for competitive grants under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)—which supports fundamental and applied research, extension, and education in food and agricultural sciences—by adding research on measuring, monitoring, reporting, and verifying soil carbon sequestration and emissions to the natural resources and environment category.

This section revises the on-farm conservation innovation trials program by expanding eligible soil health management systems to include (1) systems to maintain or increase soil carbon levels and (2) cost-effective tools to measure, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration; and by extending the duration of such trials to 5 years (from 3 years) each place it appears. The section further directs the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program—which supports farmer- and rancher-led research and education on sustainable agriculture practices—to conduct on-farm demonstration projects for soil carbon sequestration.

This section establishes the Soil Carbon Inventory and Analysis Network program to inventory, monitor, and analyze soil carbon changes—including soil organic carbon across space, time, and depth—on eligible land (i.e., public and private cropland, rangeland, pastureland, and wetlands in the United States). The program, administered jointly by the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service, requires (1) selection of sufficient sample sites across regional resource areas (i.e., contiguous areas with similar geographic, weather, soil, and other resource characteristics), preferring previously tested sites; (2) preparation of a soil carbon inventory every five years, using methodology from section 3(a) of the Advancing Research on Agricultural Soil Health Act of 2025, with measurements documenting soil type, land use history (including conservation activities), environmental factors, and other characteristics; (3) consultation with the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Forest Service, Chief Data Officer, EPA Administrator, Secretary of Energy, and others; and (4) maintenance of a soil characteristics inventory, potentially in partnership with 1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grant institutions, other universities, and federal research centers. Program purposes include assessing impacts of land management strategies, including conservation activities, on soil carbon sequestration and related outcomes (e.g., weather resilience, reduced farm inputs) and informing USDA predictive tools. Participation is voluntary, requires landowner authorization for sampling, cannot be conditioned on other USDA benefits, and protects data privacy by excluding identifiable, proprietary, or personal information.

This section directs the Secretary of Agriculture to develop and maintain a modeling tool (or tools) that predicts the impacts of land management practices, including conservation activities, on atmospheric carbon, methane, nitrous oxide, and soil carbon sequestration across the United States. (As background, such tools support agricultural conservation efforts and emerging carbon markets by quantifying greenhouse gas reductions and soil carbon storage from practices such as cover cropping or no-till farming.) The tool must be developed in consultation with the Secretaries of Energy and Agriculture, the EPA Administrator, agricultural producers (including socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers), experts, nonprofits, researchers, private companies, and other stakeholders; be anchored in direct soil measurements (e.g., under existing USDA conservation programs); account for variables including soil type, crop type, geography, weather patterns, operation size, and existing conservation; enable users to estimate changes and uncertainty from specific activities; and be user-friendly and multilingual for producers and researchers. The section requires annual reviews with updates within one year if needed; authorizes partnerships with 1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grant institutions, other higher education entities, and federal research centers; directs annual reports to Congress beginning not later than two years after enactment describing progress, accuracy for permanence and additionality, data sources, updates, and efficacy; and authorizes $500,000 for each fiscal year.