Food Solutions New England (FSNE) is a regional food systems learning-action network dedicated to advancing a sustainable New England food system. The FSNE network is organized around four interrelated activities:
A New England Food Vision, a bold vision that calls for our region to build the capacity to produce up to 70% of food that is produced in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, that promotes health and is accessible by all New Englanders by 2060; New England state food planning initiatives; annual New England food summits and topical workshops; and related analysis, communication and visualization.
The UNH Sustainability Institute serves as the backbone organization for FSNE. Since its inception in 2006, FSNE has advanced its mission by linking a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and synergestic activities.
I have been working with some of the folks at the Cornell Soil Health Lab on this. There has been some discussion about how to incorporate low cost indicators into the soil test. There are several options currently being explored. Dan Moebius Clune, who is now working on some of the new indicators for the Cornell soil health test ( http://soilhealth.cals.cornell.edu/ ) just finished his doctorate looking at the exchange of nitrogen for energy that happens at the plant root level. The exchange is facilitated through the microryza community. He was focusing on the bean and corn interaction, but the microryza community is key in other legume non-legume exchanges. I know there is also work on how various cover crops effect this community positively or negatively - for example many of the brasicas like canola and mustard are very hard on microryza community. I certainly agree that understanding these systems are key to water management, root health, and resilient agriculture in general.