NSAC Archives for the 'Risk Management' Category
USDA Announces Improvements to Organic Crop Insurance
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
This week, USDA Secretary Vilsack announced additional crop insurance options for organic farmers available in 2014. Earlier this year, USDA made progress on organic crop insurance options by removing the premium surcharge for organic producers and making other adjustments. In this week’s announcement, Vilsack discussed plans for releasing additional organic price elections as well as Read the Rest…
USDA Makes Progress on Improving Crop Insurance for Organic Farmers
Friday, March 1st, 2013
USDA’s Risk Management Agency this week announced the removal, starting in 2014, of the five percent premium surcharge assessed against all organic farmers seeking federal crop insurance. This penalty against organic farming has been an issue NSAC has campaigned against for nearly a decade and we are delighted to finally report significant progress. The change Read the Rest…
Natural Disasters Spur Crop Insurance and Farm Conservation Discussion
Thursday, February 14th, 2013
On Thursday, February 14, the Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing on “Drought, Fire, and Freeze: The Economics of Disasters for America’s Agricultural Producers.” The first panel of witnesses consisted of Dr. Joe Glauber, USDA’s Chief Economist, and Dr. Roger Pulwarty, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought Information System. The Read the Rest…
For Immediate Release: NSAC Endorses Protect Our Prairies Act
Thursday, February 14th, 2013
For Immediate Release February 14, 2013 Contact: Greg Fogel, 202-547-5754 NSAC Endorses Protect Our Prairies Act Washington, DC – On Thursday, February 14, Representatives Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Tim Walz (D-MN), along with six additional cosponsors, introduced bipartisan legislation that would protect our nation’s remaining native prairies and prime grasslands. The Protect Our Prairies Act creates Read the Rest…
USDA Releases Results of 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey
Friday, October 5th, 2012
On Thursday, October 4, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the results of its 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey. NASS conducted the survey in conjunction with USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) in order to collect data that RMA requires to develop certain organic crop insurance products. The survey focused on some — but not Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Farm Bill Expires on Monday — What Does It Mean and What Happens Now?
Friday, September 28th, 2012
We have been fielding lots of questions in the past few weeks following the congressional meltdown on the new farm bill. This is not surprising, given Congress’ failure to date to either pass a new farm bill or to enact a short-term extension of the existing farm bill before the farm bill expires at midnight, Read the Rest…
Revised Version: Obama Administration Details Sequestration Cuts
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
On Friday, September 14, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a preliminary outline of how it would implement automatic budget cuts (known as sequestration) across government programs, as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). In early August 2012, Congress passed the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, which forced the Obama Read the Rest…
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Congress Returns to DC with No Clear Path Forward
Thursday, September 6th, 2012
Earlier this month, when Congress left the heat and humidity of the DC summer to go on August recess, the fate of the 2012 Farm Bill remained unclear. (If you need a refresher on where we are in the process, recall that the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the bill in July, but Read the Rest…
USDA Launches Organic Literacy Initiative
Thursday, September 6th, 2012
On Tuesday, September 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a series of resources as part of its new Organic Literacy Initiative, an effort to help connect current and prospective organic farmers, ranchers, and processors with the USDA resources available to them. The purpose of the Organic Literacy Initiative is to provide USDA staff as Read the Rest…
Glickman, Moseley Urge Conservation Compliance in Farm Bill
Friday, August 3rd, 2012
On Thursday, August 2, two former senior-level Administration officials penned an op-ed in The Hill urging Congress to reattach basic soil and wetland conservation requirements to federal crop insurance premium subsidies. Dan Glickman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton, and Jim Moseley, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under President George W. Read the Rest…
