Getting their hands dirty, Living Lab New Brunswick (LLNB) launched its Soil Your T-Shirt initiative for 2025. Staff and site contractors buried over 25 100% cotton T-shirts at living lab sites throughout New Brunswick.
Burying the T-shirts tests beneficial management practices (BMPs) being developed in the living lab to sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on farms in the following focus areas:
- enhanced pasture management
- enhanced forage management
- advanced nutrient management
- advanced cropping systems
- enhanced landscape functionality
Each focus area is practiced on five farms with one field chosen as the testing plot and further broken down into different practices being tested. The solutions from this project are expected to help protect biodiversity on farms, improve water and soil quality and, through the efficient management of resources, strengthen farmers’ bottom lines.
The Soil Your T-Shirt sites represent the innovation and scientific research activities into healthy soil with the goal of comparing different BMPs to visually measure differences in soil health. LLNB will dig up the T-shirts in early August and examine them – a degraded T-shirt means significant bacterial activity, which is an indicator of healthy soil.
Initiatives like Soil Your T-Shirt bring soil science to life, showing the tangible effects of sustainable practices. The degraded t-shirts are a reminder of the foundational role that soil health plays in supporting a resilient, sustainable future for farming and a healthier planet
