July 25, 2014
There has been a lot of attention lately on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as it engages with the farming community on the proposed rule to define “Waters of the U.S.” The so-called WOTUS rule would define which bodies of water fall under EPA’s Clean Water Act jurisdiction. In an accompanying post, we provided an update […]
July 25, 2014
There has been a lot of attention lately on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as it engages with the farming community on the proposed rule to define “Waters of the U.S.” The so-called WOTUS rule would define which bodies of water fall under EPA’s Clean Water Act jurisdiction. In this post and the related Q&A, […]
July 25, 2014
On Wednesday, July 23, 2014, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing entitled, “Meeting the Challenges of Feeding America’s School Children,” which examined the challenges and successes in serving healthier school meals across the country, as mandated by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, also known as the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act […]
July 24, 2014
Funding available to support programs for minority, tribal, and veteran producers
July 22, 2014
Yesterday, July 21, 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) released a Request for Applications from states interested in participating in the Pilot Project for Procurement of Unprocessed Fruits and Vegetables authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. Kevin Concannon, the USDA Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, announced […]
July 22, 2014
On Tuesday, August 5, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) will hold a webinar about the previously announced Grass-Fed Program for Small and Very Small (SVS) Producers. The webinar will be held from 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Eastern Time. During the webinar AMS will provide an overview of the USDA […]
July 18, 2014
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the availability of approximately $13 million in Farm Bill funding for organic certification cost-share assistance for organic producers and handlers. Payments for certification-related expenses incurred from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014 can cover up to 75 percent of an individual producer’s or handler’s certification costs, […]
July 18, 2014
On Tuesday, July 15, 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) released its Draft Supplemental Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (SPEIS) for Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The draft SPEIS seeks to assess the ways in which changes made to CRP in the 2014 Farm Bill will impact vegetation, wildlife, protected species, soils, surface […]
July 16, 2014
On Wednesday, July 16, 2014, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its final rule, “Nondiscrimination in Programs or Activities Conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture.” It follows the proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on December 27, 2013 for public comment. The USDA regulation on nondiscrimination was last revised in 1999. […]
July 11, 2014
Farmers and ranchers who enrolled in the the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) in 2010 can re-enroll their farms for another five years by submitting a renewal application to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation (NRCS). The window to apply to re-enroll extends from July 11 to September 12. CSP is a comprehensive working lands […]
