Archives for April, 2010
Small Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grants
Friday, April 30th, 2010
The USDA announced Wednesday that almost $3.5 million will be available for the Small Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant program (SSDPG) which provides competitive grant funds for cooperatives or an association of cooperatives to provide technical assistance to socially disadvantaged, small-scale producers.
Applications are due by July 27, 2010. Applicants may propose projects up to $200,000 for up to one year. No matching funds are required.
Projects must provide technical assistance to socially disadvantaged producers that have averaged $250,000 or less in annual gross sales in the last years. The applicant must be from a rural area, with a population less than 50,000 people; applicants from smaller towns are prioritized. The membership or board of the cooperative that is applying must be comprised of at least 75 percent socially disadvantaged producers.
Examples of eligible technical assistance under the SSDPG program are market research, business planning, legal advice, product development or improvement, and feasibility studies.
SSDPG applications are available online here, and on Grants.gov, or on paper at your local Rural Development offices. You are strongly encouraged to contact your local office for assistance with the grant. Click here to find your local Rural Development office. Or call for contact information: 1–800–670–6553
To download the full Notice of Funds Available (NOFA), click here.
If you need more information, contact the Program Manager, Gayle Auman, gayle.auman@wdc.usda.gov, 334-279-3620.
The Small Socially Disadvantaged Producer Grant program (SSDPG) is one of the many programs highlighted in NSAC’s newly released Guide to USDA Funding for Local and Regional Food Systems Development. Click here to download the full PDF, including short examples of groups who have received these grants in the past.
NRCS Funding Available for Great Lakes Conservation
Friday, April 30th, 2010
The Environmental Protection Agency has provided USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) with $34 million to provide additional FY2010 funding to Farm Bill conservation programs in selected watersheds of the eight Great Lake states. The funding is provided under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a collaboration of federal agencies, state and local governments, tribes, businesses, environmental organizations and others to restore and protect the Lakes. The Initiative includes an Action Plan that will help the U.S. achieve its obligations under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, an international agreement between the U.S. and Canada.
The NRCS funding targets selected watersheds included in Lakewide Management Plans, which are plans of action to assess, restore, protect and monitor Great Lake ecosystem health. Management Plans coordinate the work of all the government, tribal, and non-government partners working to improve the lake ecosystem.
The largest portion of the NRCS Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding for FY2010 is targeted to the Saginaw and Maumee River watersheds and other watersheds in Michigan and the Maumee River watershed in Ohio. The Fox-Green Bay River watersheds in Wisconsin and the Genessee River watershed in New York will also have significant funding available, with smaller amounts of funding for watersheds in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Illinois.
The funding has been allocated to by NRCS to conservation technical assistance, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program, and the Emergency Watershed Program’s Flood Plain Easements. It will be used to fund practices and easements that will address goals of the Initiative to control invasive species, increase near shore health, reduce nonpoint source agricultural pollution, and restore and protect wetland habitat.
From June 1 to July 1, 2010, NRCS State Conservationists in the Great Lake states will be taking applications from farmers and others to fund selected practices and easements under the conservation programs that can help achieve the goals of the Lakewide Management Plans for the targeted watersheds. For additional information on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, contact your NRCS State Conservationist Office or the NRCS Great Lakes Coordinator Vicki Anderson at Vicki.Anderson@mi.usda.gov or by phone at 517-324-5158.
USDA Rural Energy Grant and Loan Applications Open
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
USDA’s Rural Development Agency has announced that it is taking applications for Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants and guaranteed loans. A total of $87 million is available in FY2010 for projects to develop and/or construct renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements.
Applications for REAP grants and guaranteed loans must be received by 4:30 pm local time June 30, 2010 at the USDA Rural Development State Office in which the proposed project is located. A list of the state offices, with contact information for the state’s Rural Development Energy Coordinator, is provide in the Federal Register notice soliciting applications. Application materials may be obtained by contacting a Rural Development State Energy Coordinator or on the federal grants website.
A few highlights for this year’s notice for REAP grants and guaranteed loans include:
- At least 20 percent of the grant funding will be allocated for grants of $20,000 or less. But, unlike FY2009, smaller grant applications will not be assigned any additional priority points for ranking grant applications.
- For renewable energy systems, the minimum grant is $2,500 and the maximum is $500,000.
- For energy efficiency grants, the minimum grant is $1,500 and the maximum grant is $250,000.
- The minimum loan guarantee amount is $5,000 and the maximum amount is $25 million.
- Applicants may apply for both a grant and a guaranteed loan for a single project.
- Applicants for a grant or a grant and guaranteed loan must demonstrate financial need.
Later this year, the Agency plans to issue notices for $9.9 million in FY2010 funding for REAP energy audit and renewable energy development and assistance grants and for $2.4 million in FY2010 funding for REAP renewable energy feasibility study grants. The amount of funding available for these two REAP components may be adjusted depending on the quality of the applications for the grants and guaranteed loans.
NRCS Funding for Farm Energy Audits and Plans
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced an initiative to use $2 million in FY2010 Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding to help farmers and ranchers conserve energy and reduce energy costs.
Farmers and ranchers may apply for the funding in the following 29 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The State Conservationists in these states have chosen to provide EQIP resources in 2010 for the Conservation Activity Plan of Agricultural Energy Management.
The initiative involves two steps. The first is an energy audit to determine energy used in farm activities such as milk cooling, irrigation pumping, heating and cooling of livestock production facilities, manure collection and transfer, grain drying, and other common on-farm activities. The energy audit will identify activities where the farm could be more energy efficient. The second step is the development of an agricultural energy management plan for cost-effective implementation of recommendations for saving energy identified in the energy audit.
The 2008 Farm Bill authorized NRCS to cost-share of up to 75 percent of the cost of developing an Agricultural Energy Management Plan. Eligible farmers and ranchers apply for the funding at their local NRCS office and then enlist a certified Technical Service Provider who can help develop the plan. NRCS has a webpage with information on locating Technical Service Providers who can assist with agricultural energy management plans.
Farm Bill 2012: Additional Field Hearings Scheduled
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) described last Wednesday’s House Agriculture Committee Hearing on the Farm Bill as “two-and-a-half hours to kick off two-and-a-half years.”
The hearing was the first of Committee Chairman Collin Peterson’s (D-MN) meetings to get a head start on planning for the next Farm Bill, scheduled for completion in 2012.
Over the past few months, Rep. Peterson’s comments to the press have suggested that he is ready for change in all areas of the farm bill, but particularly to improvements in the structure of the farm safety net that dates from the Depression. He has questioned the effects of direct payments on increasing land values, which may make it more difficult for beginning farmers to get started. And on the issue of crop insurance, he has mentioned the possibility of whole-farm crop insurance policies tied to revenue rather than yield that could be more equitable for small and mid-sized diversified operations.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testified at the hearing and focused his opening statement on two priorities: creating more opportunities in rural America, and improving the farm safety net to bolster the number of farmers able to participate in production agriculture.
Additional field hearings have now been added to the schedule:
AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE SCHEDULE
April 29, 2010
Friday, April 30th – 1:00 p.m. CDT
Iowa State Fair Grounds
Penningroth Sale Center
Des Moines, Iowa
Full Committee on Agriculture – Public Hearing
RE: To review U.S. agriculture policy in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill.
Saturday, May 1st – 1:00 p.m. MDT
Northwest Nazarene University
Old Science Lecture Hall
Nampa, ID
Full Committee on Agriculture – Public Hearing
RE: To review U.S. agriculture policy in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill.
Monday, May 3rd- 9:00 a.m. PDT
Fresno City Hall Council Chambers
2nd Floor
Fresno, CA
Full Committee on Agriculture – Public Hearing
RE: To review U.S. agriculture policy in advance of the 2012 Farm Bill.
Tuesday, May 4th- 8:00 a.m. MDT
Laramie County Community College
Center for Conferences and Institutes
Centennial Room 130
Cheyenne, WY
(NEW)
Friday, May 14th – 1:30 p.m. EDT
National Archives Southeast Region
Morrow, GA
(NEW)
Saturday, May 15th – 1:00 p.m. CDT
Cattlemen’s Park
Pike County Cattlemen’s Association
Troy, AL
(NEW)
Monday, May 17th – 9:00 a.m. CDT
Texas Tech Museum
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX
(NEW)
Tuesday, May 18th – 8:00 a.m. CDT
2nd Floor Theater
Edith Mortenson Center
Augustana College
Sioux Falls, SD
New NSAC Guide to USDA funding for Food Systems
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
This week, NSAC is launching a new tool to help producers, community-based organizations, local governments, and other groups who are engaged in work to develop their local or regional food system.
The Guide to USDA Funding for Local and Regional Food Systems seeks to de-mystify some of the federal grant programs most likely to be useful to food systems’ development work and directs organizations to specific resources that can help in designing a project and writing a grant.
Applying for federal funding can be daunting, but these federal programs belong to you and we hope this guide helps you to take advantage of them and, in doing so, add to the vibrant movement to rebuild local and regional food systems.
We also appreciate any feedback or thoughts you have on this First Edition. Feedback can be directed at policyintern(at)sustainableagriculture.net.
From the Introduction to the Guide:
Around the country, farmers, entrepreneurs, parents, students, community organizers, and activists are coming up with novel ways to develop food systems that are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. From farm business incubation programs, to community kitchens, to “Buy Local,” campaigns, the initiatives led by these visionaries demonstrate that it is possible to re-envision the way food is grown, processed, distributed, and consumed in America.
Sometimes it takes crisis to elicit the best in us. Childhood obesity and diabetes, the economic hemorrhaging of rural communities with the loss of mid-sized family farms, the increase in urban and rural food deserts, rising energy prices, and environmental tragedy have all generated public awareness of the problems with our globalized, industrial food system. Increasingly, academics and practitioners are coming to recognize the potential in local and regional food systems to provide healthy, fresh, affordable food, preserve natural resources, and support vibrant rural communities.
The Guide begins with a general overview of the USDA’s structure, followed by descriptions and details of fifteen grants and programs that are relevant to local and regional food system development. Each program description also includes a case study of a real-world regional food system project that received program funding.
Groups Urge Ag Funding Fairness
Monday, April 26th, 2010
More than 100 national, regional, state and local groups have signed on to a letter urging President Obama to pay for proposed increases in child nutrition and to settle long standing claims stemming from systemic discrimination in USDA programs without cutting critical conservation programs.
The letter circulated by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the Rural Coalition, the Family Farm Coalition and other groups was delivered to the President today, April 26th.
The letter applauds the Obama Administration’s budget commitment to providing long overdue resolution to African- American producers under the Pigford late claims settlement.
The letter also lauds the Senate Agriculture Committee passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 that substantially increases support for child nutrition programs including a $40 million commitment for the Farm to School Program. If funded, Farm to School can put more local, fresh and healthy food on kid’s school lunch trays. NSAC continues to work with Senate leaders to increase Farm to School grant funding to $50 million. See our latest Farm to School action alert for more information.
Unfortunately, the Senate Agriculture Committee has voted to pay for part of its overall $4.5 billion funding increase for school meal programs by cutting $2.8 billion from a critical conservation program – the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). EQIP supports environmental stewardship on farms, including beginning and minority farmers and organic farming and organic transition.
The letter warns that these cuts to conservation will seriously impact the 2012 farm bill conservation baseline affecting conservation funding for years to come. These cuts are counterproductive. Healthy kids and healthy food require healthy soil and clean water. The letter urges that these spending priorities be paid for by closing tax loopholes or if necessary from a more diverse mix of revenue enhancements and smaller cuts to a wider range of agricultural programs.
You can stay on top of agricultural funding issues by signing up for NSAC action alerts.
Hungry for a Better School Lunch?
Monday, April 26th, 2010
ACTION ALERT!
You Can Help Put Local, Fresh and Healthy Food on School Lunch Trays
Call Your Senators and Representative Today!!
For many of America’s children, school lunch is the most important meal of their day— making up a third of their daily nutritional intake. As rates of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes skyrocket, we must reexamine what shows up in school lunches and explore ways of ensuring healthier, locally-grown foods are served to our nation’s children.
To get healthy food grown by local family farmers into school lunches, NSAC is urging Congress to include $50 million in mandatory funding over the next five years for the national Farm to School program as part of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. And we’re happy to report that we’re making progress!
Read on…
And We’re Off: Farm Bill 2012
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Ranking Member Frank Lucas (R-OK) described Wednesday’s House Agriculture Committee Hearing on the Farm Bill as “two-and-a-half hours to kick off two-and-a-half years.”
The hearing was the first of Committee Chairman Collin Peterson’s (D-MN) meetings to get a head start on planning for the next Farm Bill, scheduled for completion in 2012.
Over the past few months, Rep. Peterson’s comments to the press have suggested that he is ready for change in all areas of the farm bill, but particularly to improvements in the structure of the farm safety net that dates from the Depression. He has questioned the effects of direct payments on increasing land values, which may make it more difficult for beginning farmers to get started. And on the issue of crop insurance, he has mentioned the possibility of whole-farm crop insurance policies tied to revenue rather than yield that could be more equitable for small and mid-sized diversified operations.
Yet Wednesday’s hearing barely brushed on the issue of direct payments, except for some passing references to the ACRE program, established in the 2008 Farm Bill, as an alternative system to traditional subsidies. Crop insurance came up multiple times, but mostly in the context of ongoing crop insurance re-negotiations between USDA and the crop insurance companies, which could potentially impact the 2012 Farm Bill by reducing the amount of money in the baseline.
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack testified at the hearing and focused his opening statement on two priorities: creating more opportunities in rural America, and improving the farm safety net to bolster the number of farmers able to participate in production agriculture.
Ranking Member Lucas expressed concern at the Secretary’s first priority, suggesting that the focus on programs outside of traditional farm programs would “turn rural America into a bedroom community” where people would have to commute from the farm to the town. Vilsack responded that expanded opportunities in rural areas such as biorefinery jobs, the broadband which might allow for online entrepreneurship, and new income from expanded local and regional food economies, could revitalize struggling communities and give young people more incentive to stay on the farm.
In response to two questions, Secretary Vilsack hinted that he is trying to convince the White House to adopt some type of special budget rule that would allow USDA to reduce subsidies to crop insurance companies in the ongoing re-negotiations yet still credit the savings achieved back to Congress. Congress could then use the savings to help pay for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill being worked on this year and/or save it for the 2012 Farm Bill. Under normal budget rules, however, that is not possible, and the Secretary gave no further insight into how it might possibly work.
Four more field hearings are scheduled over the next few weeks:
- Friday, April 30th – 1:00 p.m. CDT, Iowa State Fair Grounds, Penningroth Sale Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- Saturday, May 1st – 1:00 p.m. MDT, Northwest Nazarene University, Old Science Lecture Hall, Nampa, ID
- Monday, May 3rd- 9:00 a.m. PDT, Fresno City Hall Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, Fresno, CA
- Tuesday, May 4th- 8:00 a.m. MDT, Laramie County Community College, Center for Conferences and Institutes, Centennial Room 130, Cheyenne, WY
A second set of field hearings in Georgia, Alabama, Texas and South Dakota will begin in mid-May.
Read Secretary Vilsack’s full testimony here.
Conservation Stewardship Program Update
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
This post provides some basic updates on the status of the nearly completed 2009 sign-up as well as the upcoming 2010 version of the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).
2009 Sign-up Nearing Completion
Despite sign-up coming late in the year and being rushed, some 21,000 farmers and ranchers applied to enroll 33 million acres in the 2009 iteration of the Conservation Stewardship Program. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is still in the process of finalizing contracts with those chosen to participate. To date, they have signed contracts with farmers and ranchers for over 11 million of the 12.8 million acres available in the 2009 enrollment. Their intent is to be finished with the 2009 sign-up process by the end of May, with signed contracts with approximately 10,000 farmers and ranchers for the full 12.8 million acres.
Final statistics on the 2009 sign-up cannot be known until the process is completed. However, based on partial and preliminary information, it appears that about 60 percent of total financial assistance in this round will go to assist farmers and ranchers actively manage and maintain their ongoing advanced conservation systems, with about 40 percent supporting the adoption of new conservation activities. That type of ratio was expected, especially in the early years of the program as it responds to pent-up demand from strong conservation farmers. Over time, as it reaches more farmers, the ratio will likely shift.
Water quality and wildlife were the top priority resource concerns nationwide, with soil conservation and soil quality a bit less frequent but still high, and water conservation, energy conservation, and air quality chosen as top issues in a significant, but minority number of watersheds and regions.
We look forward to reporting on a full array of initial sign-up data once the process is closed and detailed information becomes available.
2010 Sign-up Coming Soon
The Obama Administration made a decision to conduct the 2010 sign-up for CSP only after amending the CSP Interim Final Rule and making it a Final Rule. That process has greatly slowed the process for moving forward with the 2010 sign-up in a timely manner.
Word now is that the final rule is in the final stages of clearance within USDA and will soon be heading to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for their review. Once received by OMB, they are allowed up to 90 days for rule review, though often do not take that long.
A March sign-on letter to USDA Secretary Vilsack encouraged a faster timeline but also recommended significant changes for the 2010 and future sign-ups. Though the timeline has not speeded up, there are some tentative indications that some important changes are coming.
For instance, the letter recommended a stronger definition of resource-conserving crop rotations eligible for baseline and supplemental payments, one focused on perennials and forages. A new, stronger activity sheet for resource-conserving crop rotations along those lines is circulating to State Technical Committees for review. Discussions of a minimum payment level per contract to encourage small acreage farms to participate are also happening, another recommendation made in the letter. In addition, it seems likely that in future iterations of the program, income that a farmer chooses to forgo by maintaining conservation practices will be used in calculating CSP payment formulas.
A review of conservation enhancements also will likely eliminate some low cost, low benefit options that had been available in 2009 but detracted from the program. Whether ranking and payment points will be better calibrated overall to environmental benefits and cost of the activity, however, still remains to be seen.
Even though final decisions on the exact contours of the rule and the sign-up are not available yet, farmers and ranchers can still submit the application form for CSP at their USDA county office now. However, the more involved part of the sign-up process — filling out the Conservation Measurement Tool (CMT) that is used to determine eligibility, ranking, and payments — will not happen until after the program details are finalized.
Submitting the short initial application form will signal an interest and intent to participate. Given how late it already is in the fiscal year, it is advisable for farmers and ranchers to submit the application now so they are on the list to complete the CMT as soon as it becomes available. Once the rule and sign-up changes are announced, there will likely be a fairly short turnaround time for completing the application process before the agency begins the ranking process. Therefore, getting started early makes sense.
In future years, there will be more time for farmers and for agency staff to deal with enrollments, but this year, for the last time, the process will be squeezed for time.
We hope to be able to report in greater depth on the new, forthcoming improvements to the program in the near future. Stay tuned!