For Immediate Release February 29, 2012 Contact: Helen Dombalis, 202-547-5754 Washington, DC, February 29, 2012 – Today USDA released a comprehensive report on its Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, launched in 2009 to enhance coordination among federal programs that in various ways help to build local and regional farm and food systems. “This […]
Archives for February 2012
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Agriculture Committee Highlights Conservation Programs
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. On Tuesday, February 28, the Senate Agriculture Committee held its second Farm Bill hearing of the year. The hearing, entitled “Strengthening Conservation through the 2012 Farm Bill,” brought together three farmers, representatives from three national […]
Conservation Reserve Program’s Transition Incentive a Success
For Immediate Release February 29, 2012 Contact: Ferd Hoefner, Martha Noble 202-547-5754 Conservation Reserve Program’s Transition Incentive a Success Washington, DC February 29, 2012 – USDA’s Farm Service Agency this week announced it has allocated all the funding provided in the 2008 Farm Bill for the Conservation Reserve Program – Transition Incentives Program (CRP-TIP). The […]
NSAC Comment on Conservation Letter to Congress
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition For Immediate Release February 27, 2012 Contact: Ferd Hoefner 202-547-5754 NSAC Comment on Conservation Letter Washington, D.C. February 27, 2012 — Today over 600 farm and conservation groups wrote to the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees urging support for a strong conservation title in the 2012 Farm Bill. […]
USDA Announces Two New Conservation Initiatives
USDA recently announced two new initiatives, the Highly Erodible Cropland Initiative within the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the expanded On-Farm Energy Audits Initiative within the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The Highly Erodible Cropland Initiative, which USDA Secretary Vilsack announced Tuesday, will enable producers to plant wildlife-friendly, long-term cover on cropland with an erodibility […]
Senate Committee Reschedules Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production, and Nutrition Hearing
The Senate Agriculture Committee’s Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production, and Nutrition hearing, initially scheduled for March 14th, has been moved up to March 7th. The March 7th meeting will be held in 216 Hart Senate Office Building at 9:30 am. More information on the Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production, and Nutrition hearing can be found […]
President’s Proposed EPA Budget and Agriculture
President Obama’s FY2013 EPA budget proposal targets nutrient pollution, sedimentation and loss of shoreline vegetation as major water quality concerns, with a focus on agriculture as a major contributor to water degradation. To address this problem, the proposal directs USDA and EPA to increase their coordination using Clean Water Act Section 319 nonpoint source grants […]
USDA Announces Website to Support Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Yesterday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the launch of an online tool to support beginning farmers and ranchers. Start2Farm.gov, a collaboration between USDA’s National Library and the American Farm Bureau Federation, provides information on funding, training, networking, and legal and technical assistance. The site also chronicles beginning farmer and rancher success stories. Congress has defined […]
Addressing Equity and Fairness in the 2012 Farm Bill
On February 1st and 2nd, NSAC was one of 30 farm, food security, and environmental groups that participated in a two day summit held in Washington, D.C. to exchange policy ideas about the farm bill. The primary goal of the summit was to identify specific areas of collaboration to move forward collectively in the 2012 Farm […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Kicks Off Hearings
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. On Wednesday, February 15, the Senate Agriculture Committee held its first in a series of four hearings for the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill. Hearings are an important part in the farm bill process because they […]
European Union and U.S. Agree to New Organic Trade Partnership
Today, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced that open trade of organic products between the United States and the European Union will begin June 1, 2012. The U.S. and the E.U. are the world’s two largest organic markets, with a combined market value of $50 billion. The new partnership will eliminate the double fees, inspections, […]
2011 Community Food Projects Awardees Named
On Wednesday, February 15, USDA announced the 2011 recipients of the Community Food Projects grants. Community Food Projects, a USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) program, seeks to fight hunger and food security through community-driven food systems, specifically in low-income communities. The year’s 27 grants totaled $4.8 million. Projects funded include a teen-run […]
New Ally for Sustainable Agriculture in the Finance Department
Non-profit, community lenders get involved in healthy food supply chain by guest bloggers Nessa Richman, Brightseed Strategies and Patty Cantrell, Regional Food Solutions Loan funds, credit unions, community development corporations—these mission-driven organizations traditionally provide credit and financial services to poor and underserved urban and rural areas. Yet food and farming rarely registered on their radar […]
Obama’s FY 2013 USDA Budget Request
On Monday, February 13, President Obama submitted his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. For sustainable agriculture interests, the budget proposal is a mixed bag, with big cuts to working lands conservation programs, and both cuts and increases to discretionary spending accounts for sustainable agriculture programs. As far as the upcoming 2012 […]
NSAC Comments on Obama Ag and Farm Budget Proposals
For Immediate Release February 13, 2012 Contact: Ferd Hoefner, Greg Fogel 202-547-5754 Washington, D.C. February 13, 2012 — President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget request sent to Congress today includes a smattering of 2012 Farm Bill proposals, including most prominently the same $32 billion in 10-year farm bill cuts he issued last September and a […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Let’s Make It One
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. In a letter delivered today to Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow, Chairman Lucas, and Ranking Members Roberts and Peterson, NSAC joined farm and commodity, conservation and environment, rural development, specialty crop and organic, crop insurance, research, […]
ERS Publishes New Conservation Compliance Diagram
On Thursday, February 9, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) published a graphic that displays new information on farm program enrollment and conservation compliance. The Venn diagram shows the number of farms and farm acres that received conservation payments, direct commodity payments, and crop insurance in 2010, where those groups do and […]
USDA Solicits Applications for Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has announced this year’s request for Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP) proposals. FSMIP promotes research projects that advance the marketing, distribution, and transportation of U.S. agricultural products both domestically and internationally. Under this program, USDA matches grant funds for qualified state agencies such as state departments of agriculture and state agricultural […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Major Factors Influencing the Debate
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. This first post in the series discusses the major factors influencing the 2012 Farm Bill timing and process. With the failure of the Super Committee process last fall, Agriculture Committee leaders now resume work on […]
Farmers Speak to the Value of Their Value-Added Producer Grants — USDA Announces Awards Today
For Immediate Release February 3, 2012 Contact: Helen Dombalis 202-547-5754 Farmers Speak to the Value of Their Value-Added Producer Grants — USDA Announces Awards Today — Washington, DC February 3, 2012 – Today USDA announced the recipients of the most recent rounds of Value-Added Producer Grants. The awards, which cover two funding cycles, span 298 […]
Lenders Learn how to Bank on Small Farms, Local Food
Financing team offers training as part of healthy food initiative By Patty Cantrell Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land. His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many […]
Update: Agriculture & Animal Welfare
U.S. Supreme Court Strikes Down California Law on Downed Animals Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in the case National Meat Association v. Harris that strikes down a California law with requirements for how slaughterhouses handle pigs that cannot walk, referred to in the law as “nonambulatory.” The California law requires slaughterhouses […]
Chairwoman Stabenow Announces Farm Bill Hearings
SPECIAL UPDATE: The Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on conservation, Strengthening Conservation through the 2012 Farm Bill, which was originally scheduled for February 29, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 28. Today, Chairwoman Stabenow announced four Senate Agriculture Committee hearings on the 2012 Farm Bill in February and March. The hearings will focus on the following […]