When Cover Crops Canada founder Kevin Elmy toured farms across central and western Ukraine, the biggest shock wasn’t the scale — it was the soil. Plowed 12 inches deep, table-top smooth, stripped of fungi and that earthy smell of life, most fields looked dead beneath the surface. Out of 28 sites, just one carried the scent of healthy biology. The problem isn’t just Ukraine, though. From North America to Australia, the same patterns repeat: over-tillage, heavy synthetic nitrogen, compacted soils, poor water infiltration. The result? Weaker crops, more disease pressure, more pesticides — and the cycle continues. But Elmy insists there’s a way forward: cover crops and the five soil health principles. Keep living roots in the soil. Feed the biology. Break the addiction to excess nitrogen. Build aggregation that stores water and resists compaction. Even in Ukraine, where challenges abound amid the Russian invasion, farmers began asking: “How do we start?”