Many in the farm community see soil health as a priority for American Ag to enjoy an edge. Count Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack as one of them.

"We lose 4.5 tons of topsoil every single year," Vilsack noted. "We only replace it naturally with about a half a ton."

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"We have to understand and appreciate that not only are we faced with a climate issue with weather patterns that are just absolutely as Tom Freeman said today in the New York Times said downright weird, that have profound impacts on our ability to raise what we need to raise for our own food security needs as well as the global food economy."

Vilsack added that USDA will support pilot programs to demonstrate best practices and potentially establish something like a carbon bank.

"When you lose topsoil at that rate that's the asset upon which agriculture depends. So I think it's important and necessary from a soil health perspective to do what we can as quickly as we can to being the process of beginning to reverse those trends and to restore of the health of our soil."

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