On Friday, September 7, the two major general farm organizations and 11 commodity groups wrote a letter (PDF) to Senate leadership to urge them not to pass a stand-alone farm disaster bill in September. The letter urged lawmakers to deal with drought relief as part of a comprehensive new five-year farm bill. The House passed […]
Conservation, Energy & Environment
New Data Shows CSP Support for Farmers Tops EQIP Support in Key Agricultural States
As enrollment in the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) tops 50 million acres later this month, more and more producers are conserving soil, water, wildlife habitat, and other critical resources across the country through this stewardship incentive program. In fiscal year 2011, the value of CSP contracts exceeded the value of Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Congress Returns to DC with No Clear Path Forward
Earlier this month, when Congress left the heat and humidity of the DC summer to go on August recess, the fate of the 2012 Farm Bill remained unclear. (If you need a refresher on where we are in the process, recall that the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the bill in July, but […]
USDA Issues New CEAP Report and Environmental Indicators Report
On Thursday, August 30, NRCS Chief Dave White announced the release of the report Assessment of the Effects of Conservation Practices on Cultivated Cropland in the Missouri River Basin. The report is a comprehensive look at the effects of NRCS conservation practices on the approximately 510,000 square miles that the basin covers. The basin extends […]
USDA Launches Organic Literacy Initiative
On Tuesday, September 4, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a series of resources as part of its new Organic Literacy Initiative, an effort to help connect current and prospective organic farmers, ranchers, and processors with the USDA resources available to them. The purpose of the Organic Literacy Initiative is to provide USDA staff as […]
USDA Awards Fifty-Nine Conservation Innovation Grants
Last week, USDA Secretary Vilsack announced the award of $26 million in Conservation Innovation Grant Program (CIG) funding to 59 projects in 47 states. The CIG program, which is part of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, requires that CIG grant funding is matched 1:1 with funding from project sponsors. Water Quality Trading Awards Twelve of […]
Conservation Stewardship Program – First Farm Bill Cycle Acreage and Dollar Totals
This post includes a first glance look at enrollment data for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) for the four enrollment years during the 2008 Farm Bill cycle (2009-2012). Background This year’s drought is an urgent reminder of the importance of working lands resource conservation. Increasing farm system resiliency through improved soil quality and careful management […]
USDA Awards Rural Energy for America Program Grants and Loans
On August 14, USDA announced the award of nearly $8.7 million in FY2012 funding for Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) loans and grants for 106 renewable energy system and energy efficiency projects on farms and rural businesses in 29 states, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The funding also included an award of $59,365 to Washington […]
Glickman, Moseley Urge Conservation Compliance in Farm Bill
On Thursday, August 2, two former senior-level Administration officials penned an op-ed in The Hill urging Congress to reattach basic soil and wetland conservation requirements to federal crop insurance premium subsidies. Dan Glickman, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton, and Jim Moseley, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Agriculture under President George W. […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Passes Stand-Alone Disaster Bill
On Thursday, August 2, the House of Representatives passed a stand-alone disaster bill by a vote of 223 to 197. Thirty-five Democrats voted for the bill, while 46 Republicans voted against the measure. The bill would cut $639 million from two conservation programs — the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program — […]
One Year Farm Bill Extension Pulled, New Bill Being Prepared
We are delighted to report the proposed House bill to extend the current farm bill by a year that we have campaigned against since it was hastily introduced last week has been pulled and will not be considered. Elsewhere we have reported on all the huge negative ramifications that bill would have had. We now […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Local Food Marker Bill: Where Are We Now?
Last fall, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) introduced the Local Farms, Food, and Jobs Act to create jobs and spur economic development through food and farms. This bill funds and improves critical programs that create economic opportunities for farmers, support local and regional food systems, and improve food access for all. […]
Groups Oppose House Farm Bill Extension in Letter to Speaker
On July 30, 2012, NSAC joined 12 other national conservation groups in sending a letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner opposing the House farm bill extension and arguing instead for a full five-year farm bill re-authorization this year. “We are writing on behalf of our millions of members to convey our strong and unified […]
Path AWAY from a 2012 Farm Bill: Pending House Extension Dooms Farm Bill Programs
For the past two days we have reported on the surprise move by the House Republican leadership to pull the rug out from under the 2012 Farm Bill. Rather than complete its business by taking the farm bill reported out of the House Agriculture Committee to the floor and then to conference with the Senate-passed […]
House Farm Bill Extension Would Hurt Farmers and Economy, Undermine Conservation Efforts
On Friday, July 27, the House Rules Committee posted the text of a one-year extension to the 2008 Farm Bill. In our earlier post, we noted that we strongly oppose a clean extension of the Farm Bill, given that the bill would allow many critical programs expire. Unfortunately, the bill posted on the Rules Committee […]
USDA Expands Emergency Haying and Grazing in CRP and WRP
On July 24, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced additional efforts to assist farmers and ranchers affected by the continuing drought. Vilsack has taken measures to create and encourage flexibility for grazing and haying on lands enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). […]
USDA Begins Highly Erodible Land Initiative Enrollment
USDA began today to enroll producers in a new Highly Erodible Land Initiative aimed at conserving the most erodible soil across the country. The sign up period will last until the Initiative’s 750,000-acre enrollment cap has been met. The Initiative will be administered through the Conservation Reserve Program’s continuous sign up, meaning that producers can […]
NSAC Briefs House Members on Conservation and Crop Insurance
On Friday, July 20, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition joined with the National Wildlife Federation, American Farmland Trust, and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership to brief more than 30 House legislative aides on the importance of attaching basic conservation requirements to crop insurance subsidies. The briefing, entitled “Preserving soil and wetlands through the farm safety net: a […]
EPA Ducks Responsibility to Gather Information on CAFOs
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it is withdrawing a proposed Clean Water Act regulation that would have required Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to report basic information to EPA. The information is necessary to ensure that CAFOs properly handle their waste to avoid water pollution. When Congress enacted the Clean Water in […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Agriculture Bill Includes Anti-Farmer, Anti-Environment Riders
The House Agriculture Committee farm bill that passed out of committee early yesterday morning includes a number of anti-regulatory riders. As we previously reported, the House mark included three riders before Committee markup began. The mark includes a provision that significantly weakens USDA’s ability to regulate the use of genetically engineered (GE) organisms. The provision […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: NSAC Assessment of House Committee-Passed Bill
In an earlier post we provided highlights and lowlights of the House Agriculture Committee one-day markup of their version of the 2102 Farm Bill, including a rundown of sustainable agriculture amendments passed and defeated. Here we turn to an assessment of the bill overall. Still to come is a piece discussing possible next steps in […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Agriculture Committee Debates and Passes Its Farm Bill
After a full-day marathon markup that started on Wednesday morning and went into the early hours of Thursday, the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the 2012 Farm Bill by a vote of 35-11. Seven Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. The Republicans who voted against the bill did so based on […]
Path to 2012 Farm Bill: House Markup Looms
The House Agriculture Committee will debate and vote on its version of the 2012 Farm Bill tomorrow, Wednesday July 11. It is now widely expected that the House Agriculture Committee “mark-up” of the 2012 Farm Bill will take less than a day, rather than the normal multi-day process. The markup will begin at 10 AM […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Draft House Farm Bill Drilldown
On July 5, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas (R-OK) and Ranking Member Peterson (D-MN) released their draft farm bill ahead of the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill markup scheduled for next week beginning Wednesday, July 11. The bill generates $35 billion in savings by cutting over $16 billion from nutrition programs and more than $6 billion […]