In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) revised the cover crop termination guidelines announced over the summer. USDA issued the original guidelines to address farmers’ concerns that normal cover crop management practices could render them ineligible for crop insurance coverage on subsequently planted cash crops. The guidelines provide information on when and how cover […]
Conservation, Energy & Environment
Organic, High Tunnel, & Nutrient Management Assistance Available for 2014
Last week, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provided its state NRCS offices with national guidance on when and how to administer 13 conservation initiatives for fiscal year (FY) 2014. The national guidance covers a number of initiatives that NSAC tracks closely, including the National Organic Initiative (NOI), National Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative (NSHTI), and […]
NSAC Delivers 2014 Sustainable Agriculture Funding Requests
On Tuesday, December 17, NSAC delivered a letter to members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, urging them to support sustainable agriculture priorities in the final fiscal year 2014 appropriations legislation. The Committees are currently working to finalize legislation that would fund the government for the rest of FY 2014. Both Committees passed their […]
Budget Deal Would Slash Farm Bill Direct Spending
On Tuesday, December 11, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) unveiled a compromise budget deal that would eliminate $63 billion in automatic sequestration cuts to discretionary spending programs in fiscal year 2014 and 2015. While a significant political breakthrough, the deal manages to reduce the total […]
Cover Crops and Crop Insurance: What’s the Connection? Webinar Announced
The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) will host a national webinar on January 23, 2014. The webinar will address the important question: when and how can you terminate your cover crops and not risk losing crop insurance coverage of cash crops that follow? Why is this important? […]
New Report Examines Impacts of Farm-based Conservation on Chesapeake Bay
On Thursday, December 5, USDA released an updated Assessment of the Impacts of Conservation Adoption on Cultivated Acres of Cropland in the Chesapeake Bay Region. The report is part of the USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). By combining edge-of-field and in-stream modeling along with farmer surveying, the report examines the impact that conservation practices […]
What’s At Stake? Water, Soil, Wildlife Conservation
In October of 2012, Congress allowed the Farm Bill to expire without a new bill to take its place. Instead, Congressional leaders cobbled together a temporary extension on New Year’s Eve that shut down a number of innovative programs indefinitely. On October 1 of this year, Congress allowed that farm bill extension to expire, and […]
Conservation Stewardship Program Sign-Up Begins – Farmer Applications Due by January 17
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced the start of the 2014 enrollment process for farmers and ranchers who want to participate in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). Producers interested in enrolling in CSP for the 2014 fiscal year must submit their initial applications to NRCS by January 17, 2014. […]
Bipartisan Letters Urges Farm Bill Conservation Linkage to Subsidized Insurance
Last week, Representatives Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) and Mike Thompson (D-CA) and Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Jon Tester (D-MT) delivered a letter to farm bill conferees urging them to reattach soil and wetland conservation requirements to the receipt of crop insurance premium subsidies. The Senate farm bill takes this step, however the House farm bill […]
New Tools Available for Drought Monitoring
Several federal agencies have partnered to provide tools and information to help monitor, plan for, and recover from drought. The Drought Resilience Partnership, led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), recently launched the U.S. Drought Portal to serve as a clearinghouse for this information. According to […]
Conservation Buffers for Organic Farmers
Oregon Tilth and the National Center for Appropriate Technology, along with the Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation and USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), have published a guidebook entitled “Conservation Buffers in Organic Systems: Western States Implementation Guide.” The purpose of the guide is to help NRCS field staff and interested farmers and ranchers install […]
Inside the Nation’s Largest Conservation Program – Part II
Last week, we highlighted data on the 2011 and 2012 Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) enrollments. In this post, we continue to present 2011 and 2012 sign-up data and also provide some basic information on how CSP influences land management decisions on farms, ranches, and forests across the United States. We begin, however, with a look […]
Wind, Solar, Efficiency Grants Awarded to Farmers
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack has announced that 424 projects across the country will receive funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy system investments through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). REAP provides financial support, through grants and loan guarantees, to agricultural producers and rural small businesses looking to invest in energy efficiency and renewable […]
Guest Post: Biodiversity and Conservation Enhance Food Safety
We’ve been talking a lot here at NSAC about the problems FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act proposed rules pose for sustainable agriculture. One of our biggest concerns is with how those rules treat on-farm conservation practices. Our friends at Wild Farm Alliance have put together some great information about sustainable practices that protect both the […]
Inside the Nation’s Largest Conservation Program – Part I
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is the nation’s largest conservation program by acreage. Yet, as with most USDA conservation programs, little data is publically available on how the program is working. In 2011, we published a series of three blog posts to provide an in-depth assessment of CSP data. This is the first post in […]
Climate Change Will Decrease Agricultural Productivity
A draft report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that was recently leaked to the public contains findings that climate change will pose sharp risks to the world’s food supply in coming decades. This report will update a 2007 IPCC report that addressed the impacts of climate change on agriculture and found that, […]
278 Organizations Demand Wetland, Soil, Grassland Conservation in Farm Bill
On Tuesday, October 29, 278 national, regional, and state-based organizations delivered a letter urging House and Senate farm bill conferees to reattach basic conservation requirements to federal subsidies for crop insurance, and to include a nationwide Sodsaver provision in the final farm bill conference report. The letter comes as farm bill conference begins with conferees’ opening […]
National Water-Quality Assessment Program Reports on U.S. Stream Health
The National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently issued a report assessing the ecological health of U.S. streams. Following a 2010 report assessing nutrient occurrence and distribution as a measure of stream and groundwater quality, USGS has expanded its water quality assessment to include an assessment of biological communities, providing […]
What’s At Stake? Local Foods and Renewable Energy
Last fall, Congress allowed the farm bill to expire without a new bill to take its place. Instead, Congressional leaders cobbled together an awful and temporary extension of the old farm bill on New Year’s Eve that shut down a number of innovative programs indefinitely. As of October 1, Congress has once again allowed the […]
How Farmland Conservation is Failing New Farmers
The National Young Farmers Coalition, an NSAC member, released a report this week that reveals how current farmland conservation practices are failing working farmers and new farming opportunity. Farmland Conservation 2.0: How Land Trusts Can Protect America’s Working Farms surveyed 200 land trust leaders from across the United States and found that one-quarter of land […]
USDA Report Shows Prairie Loss Across Country
A new report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Agency (FSA) shows that grasslands, woodlands, and other non-cropland are being rapidly converted to cropland across the country. In just one year (2011-2012), nearly 400,000 acres were “broken out” for crop production. We have known for years that prairie acres are being broken […]
Some Critical Farm Bill Programs Come to a Screeching Halt in 10 Days
With the House having passed a farm bill nutrition title this week, there is renewed hope that there may yet be a new five-year farm bill this year. There are multiple steps before getting to a final bill, and a number of impacts because of the delayed process in the House. Top among the impacts […]
EPA Releases Draft Report on Wetlands Connectivity
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board is now soliciting comments on a draft scientific report – Connectivity of Streams and Wetlands to Downstream Waters. Once finalized, this report will serve as the basis for a joint EPA/Army Corps of Engineers rulemaking that concerns the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act. This […]
Congressional Dear Colleague Letters Help Push NSAC Priorities
Earlier this week, two “Dear Colleague” letters in support of soil and wetlands conservation and local and regional food systems were delivered to the leaders of the House of Representatives and House Agriculture Committee, in advance of a possible House-Senate conference on the farm bill. Thanks to the leadership of Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and […]