On Tuesday, September 28th, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced close to $20 million in grants from the Rural Business Development Grant (RBDG) Program to support the start-up or expansion of rural small businesses. The program provides competitive grants to governmental entities, Indian tribes, and nonprofit organizations for planning, technical assistance, job training, and […]
NSAC’S Blog
Organic Production Survey: A Deeper Dive
This blog explores several areas of the 2014 Organic Production Survey that have not been extensively covered already. The areas include: demographics and income, crop insurance use, USDA conservation program participation, and the source of the overall loss of organic acreage…. Read More →
Additional Support Needed for Veteran and Minority Farmers
This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded over $8 million in grants to provide outreach and technical assistance to minority, tribal, and veteran farmers and ranchers. These grants were funded through the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program, also known as the Section 2501 Program. In total, roughly […]
New Initiative to Fight Rural Child Poverty
As a follow-up to recent announcements by the White House on efforts to combat rural child poverty, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week announced the selection of ten communities for the Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children to Thrive (Rural IMPACT) Demonstration project. […]
Shutdown or No Shutdown: What Does it All Mean for Agriculture?
As Congress begins to recover from Pope Francis’ visit to the Capitol and process Leader Boehner’s (R-OH) announcement that he will leave Congress in October, it will once again be facing the task of how to fund the government and prevent a shutdown with only days left before the end of the fiscal year…. Read More →
New Publication Highlights Opportunities and Challenges for Organic Transition
Farmers and ranchers transition to organic production for a wide range of environmental, economic, and production reasons, but throughout the transition process, they may also encounter challenges regarding labor requirements, input supplies, weed management, yields, or cash flow. A new publication, Making the Transition to Organic: Ten Farm Profiles, highlights organic opportunities and offers strategies to […]
Who is Subject to FDA’s New FSMA Food Facilities Rule? – Part 3
This is the final post in our multi-part series analyzing FDA’s recently released Preventive Controls Rule for Human Food, and the rules and requirements for farms and facilities that may fall under its purview. The first post analyzed those farms and food enterprises that are exempt from the rule. The second post looked at exemptions […]
The Role of Publicly Funded Plant Breeding in the Future of Food
On September 21, one of the leading plant breeding experts in the country came to Washington, D.C. to discuss the importance of public funding for plant breeding research during two Congressional briefings for Senate and House staff. Dr. William (Bill) Tracy is a professor and chair of the Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he leads the […]
Who is Subject to FDA’s New FSMA Food Facilities Rule? – Part 2
This post is the second in a multi-part series analyzing FDA’s recently released Preventive Controls Rule for Human Food, and the rules and requirements for farms and facilities that may fall under its purview. The first post analyzed those farms and food enterprises that are exempt from the rule. This post explores exemptions from certain […]
What We Can Learn from the 2014 Organic Production Survey
Last week the National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) released the results of the 2014 Organic Production Survey. This is the first comprehensive survey of the organic industry since 2008…. Read More →
Who is Subject to FDA’s New FSMA Food Facilities Rule? – Part 1
This post is the first in a multi-part series analyzing FDA’s recently released Preventive Controls Rule for Human Food, and the rules and requirements for farms and facilities that may fall under its purview. This first post addresses those farms and food enterprises that are exempt from the rule. Subsequent posts will look at facilities […]
Treasury Awards Announced to Help with Farm and Food Business Financing
Last week the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund announced its latest round of awards for three programs: the CDFI Program, the Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA) Program, and the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI). The $224 million awarded to the 206 CDFIs around the country invests in and builds the capacity […]
Who Owns U.S. Farmland, and How Will it Change?
Earlier this month, USDA released new findings that shed some light on who exactly owns the 911 million acres of farmland in the U.S. (excluding Alaska and Hawaii), and how they are managing that land now and in the future. USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the Economic Research Service (ERS) jointly conducted the […]
RELEASE: New Data Shows Organic Farmers Continue to Expand Markets and Increase Sales
Contact: Paul Wolfe or Juli Obudzinski, 202-547-5754 New Data Shows Organic Farmers Continue to Expand Markets and Increase Sales Washington, D.C., September 17 — Today, The United States Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service (NASS) released results from the 2014 Organic Production Survey. This is the first comprehensive snapshot of organic agriculture since 2008. “This survey is […]
Over 100 Organizations Deliver Letter Opposing Cuts to Conservation
On Thursday, September 17, more than 100 organizations from around the country delivered a letter urging the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to “protect mandatory funding for farm bill conservation programs, support robust discretionary funding for Conservation Technical Assistance, and reject any attempt to undermine highly erodible land and wetland conservation compliance” in fiscal year […]
USDA Seeks Input on New Report on Climate Change and Food Security
On Tuesday, September 8, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a draft of the interagency assessment report, “Climate Change, Global Food Security, and the U.S. Food System” in the Federal Register. USDA is requesting input from the public through October 8, and will publish the final report online when it becomes available. While the […]
Bringing the Farm to the Kids in Georgia
“We can’t always get the kids to the farm, but we can bring the farm to the kids!” — Cleta Long, Nutrition Director, Bibb County School District From school gardens to farmer talks, more and more students in Georgia are learning where food comes from in school classrooms and cafeterias. The luckiest even get to […]
Child Nutrition Act Markup Postponed – Time for Renewed Action!
The highly anticipated Senate markup for the Child Nutrition Act Reauthorization (CNR) that was scheduled for Thursday, September 17th, has been postponed. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS), announced the postponement yesterday, September 14, 2015, noting in a statement that he is “continuing negotiations with ranking member [Debbie] Stabenow [D-MI] to get a bipartisan, […]
USDA Announces $20 Million in Awards for Innovative Conservation Projects
On Tuesday, September 15, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will award $20.5 million across 45 conservation projects through the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program. The CIG program supports the development and testing of promising new conservation technologies and approaches, with the goal of making them available for use as quickly as […]
USDA Launches First Non-GE/GMO Weekly Report
This month the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published the first non-GE/GMO weekly report. AMS publishes the new report every Wednesday to provide prices for non-GE/GMO corn and soybeans. The non-GE/GMO weekly report aims to help producers that are thinking about transitioning to organic production, according to Craig Morris, Deputy Administrator of the Livestock, Poultry and Seed Program […]
New Report Highlights Successes of Farm to School Grantmaking
On Friday, September 11, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the release of a new report on the USDA Farm to School Grant Program, highlighting the successes of the program over its three year history. Authored by the USDA Farm to School Team, with assistance from PEER Associates and the Center for Rural Studies […]
FDA Releases Final FSMA Food Facilities Rule
FDA issued the final Preventive Controls Rule establishing new food safety standards for food processing facilities…… Read More →
Release: FDA Facilities Rule Contains Significant Improvements, But Concerns Remain Regarding Impacts on Farmers
Washington, DC, September 11, 2015 – On September 10, 2015, FDA released the much-anticipated final rule detailing preventive control standards for facilities producing food for human consumption. Once officially published in the Federal Register – scheduled for September 17, 2015 – the rule will go into effect in sixty days and compliance clocks will start […]
Good News for Organic Farmers: RMA Announces More Organic Price Elections
The US Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) has announced 14 new Organic Price Elections to be added to the 28 that are already available, expanding crop insurance options for organic farmers. These new organic price elections will be available for the 2016 crop year. Organic price elections allow organic farmers to insure their […]