"FRENCHMANS BAYOU, Ark. — Will Tipton’s farm, not far from the Mississippi River, has been in his family since 1836. For the past eight generations, his family mostly planted one crop per field per year — and that was it. “Straight soybean, soybean, soybean,” Tipton says.
In recent years, Tipton’s been trying something new. He leans over the field and picks up a mass of green leaves. “This is definitely a turnip,” he says, and then picks up a white flowering vegetable. “Daikon radish out here as well.”
These are cover crops. Tipton now plants them instead of letting his fields lie fallow after the harvest. Tipton lets some soil come apart in his hands. Inside is a pink earthworm.
“It's a sign of life,” he says. “They're growing around, happy, got plenty to eat.”
Worms can be a sign of healthy soil — and a sign of carbon in soil. When carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, it heats the planet. When plants and their roots pull in that carbon dioxide, or CO2, they help turn soil into a big carbon reservoir. “That CO2 is no longer in the atmosphere where we don't want it,” says Matthew Hayek, professor in environmental studies at New York University."
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