NSAC Archives for the 'Conservation / Land Stewardship' Category
House Sets Government Funding Allocations
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
On April 19, we reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee had approved discretionary spending allocations for the coming 2013 fiscal year. The size of the total spending pie, as laid out by the Committee, was completely consistent with the levels set by law in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Today, the House Appropriations Committee Read the Rest…
Former NRCS Chiefs Support Conservation in Crop Insurance
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
On Friday, April 20, four former Chiefs of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) wrote a letter to the leadership of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees in support of reattaching highly erodible land and wetland conservation requirements to federal crop insurance subsidies. This letter comes nearly one month after two former U.S. Secretaries of Agriculture Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Local Food and Rural Development Drilldown
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
Agricultural policy that bolsters community economic development serves as a cornerstone of NSAC’s advocacy. Within this framework, we support strong Rural Development programs that target small business development and job creation. Similarly, NSAC recognizes the economic opportunities inherent in food produced for local markets and thus urge Congress to address infrastructure and information barriers to Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Beginning Farmer Drilldown
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
Overall, while beginning farmers did not fair too poorly in the Senate draft farm bill that was released by the Senate Agriculture Committee last week, they were certainly far from being the highlight of this legislative package. There were some small wins for beginning farmers in the draft conservation and credit titles, which included provisions Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Organic Drilldown
Monday, April 23rd, 2012
The Senate’s draft farm bill released on Friday builds on the what we know was included in the Super Committee farm bill proposal from last fall with a few but not all important funding and policy improvements. The Good The best news on the organic front is that the draft farm bill provides mandatory funding Read the Rest…
15 National Organizations Deliver Conservation Compliance Letter
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
On Monday, April 16, a group of 15 national conservation, agriculture, wildlife, and renewable energy organizations sent a letter to the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees in support of reattaching conservation compliance requirements to federal crop insurance subsidies. In the letter, the 15 organizations urged Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Writes a Farm Bill
Friday, April 13th, 2012
The Senate Agriculture Committee is on track to meet its timeline for marking up a farm bill later this month. Agriculture staffers in the Senate have been meeting throughout the two-week Congressional Easter recess to discuss issues and proposals. The Senate Agriculture Committee leadership is writing a draft of the farm bill – known as Read the Rest…
Loan Programs that Help Farmers Bridge the Conservation Cost-Share Gap
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Background – Why there is a Gap USDA’s conservation programs, as well as numerous state conservation programs, provide financial resources for farmers to implement conservation practices that protect natural resources and the environment. Many of these programs fund only a share of the cost of implementing the practices, and hence are referred to as cost Read the Rest…
Conservation Loan Program Final Rule Shows Need for Revisions in the Next Farm Bill
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Conservation Loan Program Final Rule This month, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) issued a final rule, effective May 18, 2012, for the Conservation Loan Program (CLP). The CLP was included in the 2008 Farm Bill as a stand-alone program to provide guaranteed and direct loans to farmers and ranchers to implement conservation practices. It has Read the Rest…
Shifting Ground for Water Quality Regulation Demonstrates Need for Conservation in California’s Salinas Valley
Wednesday, April 4th, 2012
By Gary Peterson (Editor’s note: We thank Gary Peterson, Development and Communications Director with the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), an NSAC member organizations, for reporting on recent developments concerning agriculture and water quality in California’s Salinas Valley and Monterey Bay region. ALBA brings a unique perspective to this issue with its mission to Read the Rest…
