February 13, 2009
THIS WEEK Economic Recovery Bill About to Become Law – Scorecard on Our Issues: The House approved on a party-line vote the conference report for the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill Friday afternoon, with the Senate following Friday evening. Early Friday morning the conference report became public and we quickly assessed our wins and […]
February 7, 2009
THIS WEEK Senate Continues Economic Recovery Bill Debate: As we go to press, the Senate is still debating the economic recovery or stimulus bill. Many major amendments to the bill have been and will be debated, none of which are getting more attention than the efforts of a handful of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans […]
January 30, 2009
Come to the Summit Make Organic History! Five years of grassroots dialogue to shape a National Organic Action Plan (NOAP) for the U.S. will culminate in La Crosse, Wisconsin on February 25th and 26th when farmers and organic activists gather for the NOAP Summit. Summit participants will prioritize the many objectives that emerged from the […]
January 24, 2009
THIS WEEK NSAC Urges Vilsack to Rescind Misleading “Naturally Raised” Meat Claim: As we reported last week, the Bush Administration went final on a new “naturally raised” meat marketing label claim on its final day in office. The new rule appeared in the Federal Register this Wednesday, the first full day of the Obama Administration. […]
January 17, 2009
THIS WEEK House Releases Draft Stimulus Bill: On Thursday, House Democratic leadership unveiled their 2-year, $825 billion draft economic recovery and reinvestment bill, consisting of: $275 billion in tax cuts $87 billion for temporary increase in Medicaid matching grants to states $79 billion in state fiscal relief $43 billion for increased unemployment benefits $41 billion […]
January 14, 2009
Written by Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) The Senate Agriculture Committee held a two and a half hour confirmation hearing with USDA Secretary-nominee Tom Vilsack Wednesday morning in the cavernous auditorium in the Senate office building basement. The session was efficient and without any major fireworks. The former Iowa […]
January 14, 2009
The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition recently presented a set of policy briefing papers to members of President-elect Obama’s Transition Team. The briefing papers lay out SAC’s recommendations for addressing the most urgent priorities of the sustainable agriculture movement. This is second in a series of blog posts that features some of those policy recommendations. All of […]
January 9, 2009
Change is in the Air: A new Congress, a new Administration, and a new National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition! On January 1, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) launched as the new home for grassroots organizations engaged in sustainable agriculture policy at the federal level. NSAC will build upon and integrate the work of the Sustainable […]
January 6, 2009
Jim Worstell has helped farmer groups develop locally-owned, value-added enterprises in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta and many other third world areas. He was a member of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development during the Clinton Administration and has been Director of SAC member group Delta Land & Community since 1995. Everyone is excited about the […]
January 3, 2009
THIS WEEK Payment Limitation Loophole Remains: Sadly, after vetoing the 2008 Farm Bill twice under the banner that it did not include enough reform to commodity programs, the Bush Administration punted on its opportunity to administratively enact real reform. As we reported in the December 19 version of the Weekly Update, USDA issued a press […]