Yesterday’s Federal Register announced* the availability of grants to fund projects designed to help rural communities create wealth, repopulate and become self-sustaining. Projects can receive up to $250,000 across a period of up to two years and there is a total of $2.48 million available in 2010. These Regional Business Opportunity Grants (RBOG) give preference […]
Archives for March 2010
USDA Releases Request for Applications for AFRI Competitive Grants
This week, USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (formerly, the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service) released the long-anticipated 2010 Request for Applications (RFAs) for the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). Significantly overhauled and with more funding to award than ever, the AFRI RFAs define a substantive portion of USDA’s research agenda, […]
USDA Women and Working Lands Panel and Discussion
March is National Women’s History month, making yesterday (March 25) a fitting date for the USDA “Women and Working Lands: Past, Present, Future” forum held at the USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C. The forum celebrated the hard work and achievements of women farmers, ranchers and foresters across the nation, and was moderated by USDA Deputy […]
Action Alert: Help Make Next Generation Biofuels Sustainable
The addition of an Energy Title to the 2008 Farm Bill was an important acknowledgment of the critical and emerging role for agriculture in the production of renewable energy. Particularly promising was the creation of the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to provide incentives to farmers and foresters for the production of energy efficient and resource […]
Senators write in support of funding for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Thanks to the leadership of Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Max Baucus (D-MT), and to calls and visits by NSAC members and supporters, a group of senators has delivered a letter to the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee in support of funding for beginning farmers and ranchers. Last Wednesday, Senators Klobuchar and Baucus and 12 other […]
Food Safety Action Alert
If You Value Safe, Local, and Healthy Food Please Make a Call! Food Safety legislation headed for the Senate floor would considerably ramp up regulation on farms that even minimally process their crops and sell them to restaurants, food coops, groceries, schools and wholesalers. The new regulations could erect new barriers to these important markets […]
Op-Ed in SF Chronicle urges investment in beginning farmers
We are excited to share this op-ed by beginning farmer, Rebecca King, who participated in the NSAC beginning farmer fly-in earlier this month. The article addresses the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Individual Development Account program, which would provide matched savings accounts and financial training to beginning farmers to help them get started. Click here for […]
Senate Agriculture Committee Reports Child Nutrition Bill: Farm to School Included; Conservation Cuts Major Point of Contention
On Wednesday, March 24, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved the child nutrition reauthorization bill (Healthy Hunger-Free Kids’ Act of 2010) by unanimous consent. The bill increases spending on nutrition programs by $4.5 billion over the next ten years and includes several important school meal program improvements including improved access, nutritional standards, and per meal federal […]
Senate Child Nutrition Bill Includes Agreement on “Competitive Foods”
On Wednesday the Senate Agriculture Committee will mark up Senator Lincoln’s Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, the proposed legislation to reauthorize child nutrition programs including school meals and the Women, Infants and Children’s (WIC) nutrition program. The bill includes new national nutritional standards to be applied to all foods sold in school, including food […]
Clean Water Network’s “March Madness” DC Gathering
The Clean Water Network, a coalition of over 1,000 organizations working together to protect the nation’s waters, held a “March Madness” fly-in in Washington D.C. on March 14-16. NSAC and many of our member organizations are Network members. Key fly-in events had an agricultural focus. A congressional briefing on March 15, entitled “The Mississippi – […]
House Passes Agriculture Credit Act of 2009
This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Agricultural Credit Act of 2009, approved for consideration earlier this month by the House Agriculture Committee. The Agricultural Credit Act of 2009 (H.R. 3509) would reauthorize funding for the USDA’s State Agricultural Mediation Program, which administers grants for certified state agricultural mediation programs. These programs help […]
Organic Standards Board Meeting Announced
The National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) will be holding its next meeting in Woodland, CA, from April 26 to 29. The NOSB was established by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and is charged with making recommendations on allowed and prohibited substances in organic production and handling, assisting in the development of standards […]
Antibiotic Use Facing Growing Scrutiny by FDA, Congress
The widespread use of antibiotics in livestock production, and the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, is a topic of increasing interest among policymakers. After delving into the topic less than a week before at the Atlantic Food Summit, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg returned to the antibiotics question again during the House Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee hearing […]
Lincoln Introduces Child Nutrition Bill for Markup
This morning, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) unveiled her “markup vehicle” for Child Nutrition Act reauthorization and scheduled Committee markup of her draft bill for next Wednesday, March 24. The proposal is titled “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010.” Farm to School would receive just $25 million in the current Lincoln draft. However, […]
Farm to School Bill Introduced in Senate
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) today introduced the Growing Farm to School Programs Act (S. 3123), a popular proposal to authorize $50 million to USDA to provide start-up funds to communities across the country linking farmers and ranchers to the school lunch program. Senator Leahy’s bill is designed to improve the quality of school lunches while […]
Farmers Seek Justice in the Heartland
We are thrilled to feature this blog post written by Kristina Hubbard, board member of NSAC member group, the Alternative Energy Resources Organization (AERO). Kiki attended the first in a series of hearings sponsored by the USDA and Department of Justice about concentration in the agriculture industry. Kiki is the author of a recent report, […]
USDA Adds Pork to Existing Poultry Loan Rules Aimed at Preventing Contract Abuse
On Thursday, March 11, USDA announced that Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm loan policies already in place for contract poultry production will be extended to contract pork operations as well. The aim of the guidance is to try to put an end to the practice of FSA financing new hog or poultry operations in cases […]
Organic Initiative Sign-up Extended in Certain States
The cut-off date for the 2010 Organic Initiative sign-up was last Friday, March 12, in most states. At least eight states, however, have extended the 2010 sign-up period. These include: Colorado: April 16, 2010 Illinois: March 26, 2010 Louisiana: March 26, 2010 Missouri: March 19, 2010 Nebraska: April 1, 2010 Nevada: March 19, 2010 Ohio: […]
10 Days of Sustainable Ag Advocacy: An Intern’s Perspective
by Kara Slaughter, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute “With reference to individual or national welfare, agriculture is of primary importance.” -George Washington So reads one of the three quotations at the top of the stone edifice at the U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters in Washington, D.C. Part of what prompted me to quit my “real job” […]
FDA Commissioner Hamburg Fields Questions About Food Safety Fees
At a hearing on March 10, members of the House Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee had high praise for the FDA’s stepped-up food safety enforcement efforts during Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s tenure. Inspection efforts will undoubtedly increase even further if Congress moves forward with pending food safety legislation. Hamburg thanked the House members for their passage of food […]
Individual Development Accounts to support Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Last week’s Drake Forum on America’s New Farmers addressed a myriad of opportunities and challenges that face the new generation of farmers and ranchers: big, small, and mid-sized, urban and rural, all across the country. In particular, access to land, access to capital, new market development, and education and training, particularly financial education, surfaced again […]
Perspectives on Policy from a Beginning Farmer
We are excited to have Sarah Brown, beginning farmer at Diggin’ Roots Farm in Milwaukee, Oregon write a reflection on her experience at NSAC’s beginning farmer fly-in and Drake University’s Forum last week. If you, like Sarah, have suggestions for federal policies to support beginning farmers and ranchers, please email them to us at beginningfarmer(at)sustainableagriculture.net. […]
Vilsack and Merrigan At Senate Agricultural Appropriations Hearing
Appropriations season is in full swing in Washington, and appropriators are deciding which programs to fund and which to cut. Hearings on funding levels for 2011 are occurring almost daily, as the House and Senate Appropriations Committees begin the annual process that generally results in markups in late spring, floor votes in the summer, and […]
Speed Up the 2010 CSP Sign-up
Please join the more than 60 organizations who have signed on to our letter urging Secretary Vilsack to make critical improvements to the Conservation Stewardship (CSP) Program and to initiate a 2010 Sign Up as soon as possible. The letter urges Secretary Vilsack to: • ensure that the program effectively rewards sustainable and organic farming systems • […]