On April 2, USDA’s Grain Inspection and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) issued a final rule for its Swine Contract Library, which takes effect on May 3, 2010. The Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act of 1999 required GIPSA to establish and maintain a library of swine marketing contracts for the purchase of hogs between large hog packing […]
Archives for April 2010
NRCS Agricultural Water Enhancement Program Projects Funding
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced that it is taking applications for Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP) projects until May 17, 2010. AWEP was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill to replace the Ground and Surface Water Conservation Program, a component of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). AWEP expanded the […]
Target Date Passes for Black Farmer Settlement
The settlement reached between the government and black farmers denied USDA funding and services included a target date of March 31. That date has now passed, but the issue remains very much alive. The major remaining hurdle is for Congress to find a funding source or “offset” to allow it to provide the additional $1.15 […]
Can Bioenergy Production Be Sustainable?
The National Wildlife Federation has released a new policy paper, Growing a Green Energy Future: A Primer and Vision for Sustainable Biomass Energy, that concludes that the U.S. can do much more to improve the conservation and environmental performance of bioenergy production. The paper lays out the changes needed in U.S. policy for bioenergy production […]
Senators Support Continued Innovation in Agriculture
Eighteen Senators have signed-on to a bipartisan letter spearheaded by Senators Leahy (D-VT) and Specter (D-PA) in support of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program – USDA’s premier competitive research, education, and extension grants program advancing the development of sustainable agricultural systems. The letter was submitted to the Chair and Ranking Member of […]