Last year, 22 partners hosted over 30 events during the 3rd annual Illinois Soil Health Week. This year’s Soil Health Week will take place March 3-9, 2025. Keep checking back for updates on statewide events that will help celebrate our state’s most precious resource — soil.

Soil enthusiasts had the opportunity to attend in-person and virtual farm tours, dive deep into climate discussions, and hear from experts across the U.S. on why soil should be protected and celebrated. 

Checkout and register for some of the great events that have been confirmed below!

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Friday, February 28th

Visit and tour Hempstock Pharms, a working hemp farm and craft cbd seed-to-label and cannabinoid formulator. We custom craft small-batch CBD topicals, tinctures, and smokables. There will also be a special showing of the NewsNation documentary titled Growing Broke. In this two-year investigation, NewsNation delves into the issue of the “forever chemicals,” (PFAS) contaminating American farmland, impacting our nation’s food, and in turn, all of us.

Monday, March 3rd

The IDEA Farm Network seeks to catalyze ideas and approaches that balance farm productivity, profitability and environmental health. Join our learning community for coffee and to share your diverse experiences, information and views that advance regenerative agriculture.

Learn about the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition’s diverse lineup of activities happening May 4 – 10, 2025 with the international compost community, United States Composting Council (USCC) and its Compost Research and Education Foundation (CREF). Sustainable Communities Begin with Compost will highlight Adventures in Composting, a Legislative Lunch & Learn, Compost Café and more to raise collective enthusiasm for soil health, compost and sustainable communities throughout Illinois.

Join The Land Conservancy of McHenry County and compost experts to celebrate Illinois’ most precious natural resource, virtually. The Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition (IFSCC) will provide an overview of why sustainable communities begin with compost, how to get started with DIY food-scrap composting, the importance of compost quality and more. Midwest Organics Recycling will hone in on how to use compost, as well as where to get beautiful, high-quality, finished compost for your projects. Please register for Zoom link to attend.

Tuesday, March 4th

Three Level 3 Conservation Planners from the Agroecology + Innovation Matters (AIM) Conservation Capacity Building Initiative will explain their work, how they collaborate with SWCD staff and other organizations, and how their efforts are improving soil health for producers in their districts. There will be time for questions from attendees.

DuChick Ranch, LLC has integrated many regenerative agriculture practices on our market garden and our pastures. We implement minimal tillage, cover crops, rotational grazing, and more. Not only have our practices improved our yields, plant health, and animal health, but recent soil tests prove they also have been a boon for soil health. At this event you can expect to learn how regenerative agriculture can be implemented on even the smallest of farms (1.7 acres) and the benefits of doing so.

Wednesday, March 5th

You’re invited to join us to advocate for a slate of issues that aim to protect our soil, climate, and water quality. Soil Health Advocacy Day brings together advocates and partners across the state, including our friends at the Illinois Environmental Council (IEC), Illinois Soybean Growers Association, and the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts. You will hear from inspiring speakers in the Capitol, meet with lawmakers, share your story, and connect with the wider community of folks who share a common goal of protecting soil for generations to come.

Hosting the event on the westside of Chicago at The Collins Academy with students in the Urban Innovators Program, we will be taking a deeper look at the soil in Chicago and the impact it has on urban farming. They will be performing soil testing on the garden they are using for growing food this summer. They will learn about the environmental impacts and things we can do to help clean up the soil and the environment. We will also discuss career options involving soil and how a job working with soil can provide them income with a possible guest speaker from a local urban farm.

Come along on the journey of love and exploration of the land and our sacred and cherished landscapes. Learn the techniques and strategies to create a robust and vibrant soil that will nourish your community and increase the health of the region. This talk will discuss the use of regional seed selection to the benefit of the soil and ways that you can rotate crops to increase soil diversity. Specialized topics will include the beauty of the seed sovereignty movement to increase economic growth, showcasing the biodiverse seed selection of regional seeds to create economic prosperity.

Thursday, March 6th

Learn about the importance of soil with this non fiction story centering on Hugh Bennett, the Father of Soil. This is a virtual event that the public and school classrooms are encouraged to attend. This book reading is approximately 10 minutes long.

Despite increases in soil health practices over the last decade, adoption rates remain low, with only a fraction of US acreage currently applying them. Two of the key barriers to adoption are the costs/risks associated with transition, and skepticism regarding the efficacy of specific practices on a given farm. Join soil health non-profit, Land Core, for a virtual session to provide producers, funders, insurers and the broader ag community with an overview of the Land Core Risk Model project – a statistical model and new tool looking at the risk-mitigating benefits of soil health practices (crop rotations, cover cropping, and reduced tillage). We’ll cover preliminary findings from research in hundreds of thousands of Illinois fields, and discuss the economic rationale to offer financial incentives to producers, such as lower rates/preferential loans or discounted insurance, when adopting these practices.

Join the Kendall County Soil & Water Conservation District in an online interview with a local landowner with more than 37 years of applying conservation on farmland in Illinois on 1400 acres. Learn about how they manage the land, balance their conservation efforts, and are growing to add more conservation on not a few but a few hundred more acres. Stay to the end to ask your own questions during the interview Q & A.

Southern Illinois University has been utilizing its Forced Air Compost Facility in one of its many efforts to become a more sustainable campus. This event is to educate participants on the compost cycle relating to how food comes from the dining halls and ends up on university farm fields. Staff from the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition (IFSCC) will join this compost facility tour and provide resources for compost and composting throughout Illinois. Registration is preferred but the event is open to all.

Join us for an informative workshop designed specifically for farmers and landowners interested in enhancing soil health and sustainability through the integration of cover crops into their crop rotations. Learn from an expert in sustainable farming practices on cover crop selection, planting & termination methods, and tips for maximizing effectiveness. Participants will also have the opportunity to network with fellow landowners, share experiences, and learn from local farmers who have been successful in cover crop adoption. Whether you’re new to cover cropping or looking to refine your current practices, this event will provide valuable insights and practical tools to make your operation more resilient.

Glaciers End and Food Works will be hosting the 3rd Annual Southern Illinois Soil Health Symposium on Thursday, March 6th from 5:30-8pm at Glaciers End. Similar to the previous 2 years, the Southern Illinois Soil Health Symposium will be geared towards educating and motivating people to learn more about and take action around soil and water health and the practices that forward these causes. The Soil Health focus this year will be centered around Composting and Agroforestry. This Symposium will be beneficial from gardens to farms, food forests and beyond. Our first speaker will be Amy Bartucci with the Illinois Food Scrap & Composting Coalition and she will be talking about Composting: Let’s Dig In! Our main speaker will be MJ Oviatt from Savanna Institute. She will be doing an introduction to Agroforestry and its benefits. Come gather and share with other individuals interested in promoting and building soil health in Southern Illinois!

Friday, March 7th

Understanding the WHY of cover crops is often more important than the HOW. Grab your cup of joe or morning beverage of choice and join AFT’s Midwest conservation agronomist, Torey Colburn, as he begins the conversation. The focus will be on the important role cover crops play in increasing soil health and much more. Participants are encouraged to share their experiences and questions to the cover crop discussion.

Visit the Enos Park Neighborhood Gardens just north of downtown Springfield to see how soils are nourished and compost is made.

Join this session to learn about the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership’s (ISAP) new Financial INcentives Database, or FIND Tool – an online, filterable database listing information for over 60 incentive programs available to farmers in the state. Hear how this tool can help farmers of all kinds of operation systems FIND funding to support their transition to a soil health management system.

Register to receive zoom information.
Why is soil, even though essential to our existence, under-appreciated compared to its food production colleagues air and water? Why has soil not been legally protected or socially valued to the same extent as other natural resources? Come learn, discuss, and hopefully take away several solutions so we can start to elevate soil to its deserving status.

Saturday, March 8th

Are you an urban gardener or small scale grower? Learn how you, too, can apply and benefit from the basic soil health principles to increase resilience, reduce inputs and work, and build healthy soil and a thriving ecosystem, all while helping the planet, protecting biodiversity, and fighting climate change.

Join Slum Busters for a discussion and live demonstration on how healthy soil can improve our overall lifestyle through our senses, On Saturday, February 8th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Each participant can expect their own planting equipment, soil, seeds, index card, and writing materials.

Sunday, March 9th

Join AUA as we gather and unite around a community round table to discuss our needs and challenges around soil fertility and soil health. We hope to invite as any growers, farmers, organizations who share interest in long term soil health to join us to talk soil!

A hands-on workshop/demonstration on how to create a compost area to turn your kitchen and garden waste into healthy soil. It will be held outdoors on the grounds of the Universalist Unitarian Church of Peoria, which has several acres of forested land and natural plantings, and will be led by members of the HOI Sierra Club and the Church education staff. The instruction will underscore the importance of composting in building and maintain healthy soil and reducing the need for climate-damaging chemical fertilizers that find their way into streams and rivers. The workshop will cover composting methods, from a simple on-the-ground compost area to a rotating drum device. It will include what material to compost and what to avoid. This is targeted to families (children and adults), beginners and experienced gardeners. We will be starting a composting area on church property. Participants will assist in setting this up and starting the composting process.

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