Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Major Factors Influencing the Debate
February 3rd, 2012
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. This first post in the series discusses the major factors influencing the 2012 Farm Bill timing and process. With the failure of the Super Committee process last fall, Agriculture Committee leaders now resume work on Read the Rest…
Farmers Speak to the Value of Their Value-Added Producer Grants — USDA Announces Awards Today
February 3rd, 2012
For Immediate Release February 3, 2012 Contact: Helen Dombalis 202-547-5754 Farmers Speak to the Value of Their Value-Added Producer Grants – USDA Announces Awards Today — Washington, DC February 3, 2012 – Today USDA announced the recipients of the most recent rounds of Value-Added Producer Grants. The awards, which cover two funding cycles, span 298 Read the Rest…
Lenders Learn how to Bank on Small Farms, Local Food
February 2nd, 2012
Financing team offers training as part of healthy food initiative By Patty Cantrell Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land. His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many Read the Rest…
Update: Agriculture & Animal Welfare
February 2nd, 2012
U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down California Law on Downed Animals Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case National Meat Association v. Harris that strikes down a California law with requirements for how slaughterhouses handle pigs that cannot walk, referred to in the law as “nonambulatory.” The California law requires slaughterhouses Read the Rest…
Chairwoman Stabenow Announces Farm Bill Hearings
February 1st, 2012
SPECIAL UPDATE: The Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on conservation, Strengthening Conservation through the 2012 Farm Bill, which was originally scheduled for February 29, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 28. Today, Chairwoman Stabenow announced four Senate Agriculture Committee hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill in February and March. The hearings will focus on the following Read the Rest…
EPA Releases Water Pollution Data Tool
January 31st, 2012
The EPA has just released the Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool, an online database system that allows users to track polluters included in the database. Under the Clean Water Act, facilities with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits report discharge data to the EPA. The EPA has pooled and classified some of this Read the Rest…
FY 2012 CRP General Sign Up Coming Soon; Preliminary FY 2012 CSP Sign Up Results – UPDATED February 1, 2012
January 31st, 2012
UPDATED February 1, 2012 Since our blog post on January 31, USDA announced that the FY 2012 Conservation Reserve Program general sign up period will be March 12-April 6. According to today’s press release, “contracts on an estimated 6.5 million acres will expire on Sept. 30, 2012″ and this sign up will attempt to fill Read the Rest…
NSAC Members Set 2012 Agenda
January 27th, 2012
A movement-building haiku from NSAC’s grassroots planning session Earlier this week, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) held its semi-annual member meeting near Reisterstown, Maryland. Every winter, NSAC members discuss, debate, and vote on the coalition’s priorities for the year. In the coming year, NSAC will work with Congress and the Administration to: Create jobs Read the Rest…
Office of Advocacy and Outreach Launches New Website!
January 27th, 2012
This week, USDA’s Office of Advocacy and Outreach launched their website located at www.outreach.usda.gov. The Office of Advocacy and Outreach (OAO) was established in the 2008 Farm Bill in order to increase access to USDA programs and to improve the viability and profitability of small farms and ranches, beginning farmers and ranchers, and socially disadvantaged farmers Read the Rest…
U.S. Conference of Mayors Establishes Food Policy Task Force
January 27th, 2012
At its January meeting in Washington, DC, the U.S. Conference of Mayors established a food policy task force to be headed up by Mayor Tom Menino of Boston and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore. The group will spend the next six months collecting information and drafting a report for consideration at the Conference of Mayors’ Read the Rest…
