In their least productive areas, farmers could shift acres from growing a crop to storing carbon by establishing a wetland, planting trees or creating pollinator habitat .

We think small and midsize farms should be compensated at a higher level. Larger farms are important because of scale and because they are great at adapting technology for efficiency, but smaller farms are more capable of innovation, as groups like Practical Farmers of Iowa have proved. Provide smaller, midsize family farms incentives that reward innovation, and they will creatively stack multiple practices in ways larger farms are not capable of doing.

Nearly all of these smaller farms have both on-farm and off-farm income — i.e., someone has a job in town. These multiple income streams create resilience and an ability to innovate. These farms exist in nearly every county in America.

By utilizing public policy to reward innovation focused on ecological solutions, we create an additional source of income for farmers. Our small and midsize farms in particular are disappearing from rural America, and with them our small towns are toppling like dominoes.

Paying farmers like this would create numerous collateral benefits: improved water quality, increased biological diversity, the need to use fewer pesticides and herbicides, and rural economic development (carbon farming requires higher levels of management and labor).

We’re not the first to bring this up. A small but growing number of farmers, agriculture scientists and farm organizations believe a voluntary solution where farmers are compensated is the key. With incentives, American farmers will lead the way in protecting ecosystems as they produce our food and fiber. It might also offer a global model as the world develops land management strategies to fight the climate crisis.

Current federal efforts are just the opposite of what’s needed, like bailouts instead of investments. Several of the Democratic presidential candidates we have spoken with recognize that paying farmers is a key to the solution. In a recent visit to Coyote Run Farm, co-owned by one of us (Mr. Russell), Beto O’Rourke advocated paying farmers for environmental services. We have also discussed the idea with Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Tim Ryan.