Due to Congressional inaction, the 2008 Farm Bill has expired without a new bill or extension to take its place. In the absence of a farm bill, numerous innovative programs that invest in sustainable agriculture systems are shut down and left without mandatory funding. This is the second post in our 10-week “What’s at Stake?” […]
Farm Bill
Stories from the Field: Training My Generation
Due to Congressional inaction, the 2008 Farm Bill has expired without a new bill or extension to take its place. In the absence of a farm bill, numerous innovative programs that invest in sustainable agriculture systems are shut down and left without funding. This post is part of our 10-week blog series which will feature […]
What’s at Stake: Beginning Farmers
Due to Congressional inaction, the 2008 Farm Bill has expired without a new bill or extension to take its place. In the absence of a farm bill, numerous innovative programs that invest in sustainable agriculture systems are shut down and left without funding. This is the first post in our 10-week “What’s at Stake?” series […]
FY 2013 Enrollment Deadlines for Conservation Programs May Be Fast Approaching
As the new fiscal year begins, states have begun to set Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 “ranking deadlines” for enrollment in farm bill conservation programs and initiatives. These dates are important for farmers and ranchers to be aware of if they are considering applying for conservation funding. While many USDA conservation programs offer continuous enrollments, meaning […]
Life Without a Farm Bill: What’s at Stake?
As of today, our nation’s food and farm policy in the form of the 2008 Farm Bill has officially expired, with no workable replacement. There are many who see this as a better course of events than the passage of one of the new, admittedly imperfect, bills passed by the Senate and proposed in the […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Farm Bill Expires on Monday — What Does It Mean and What Happens Now?
We have been fielding lots of questions in the past few weeks following the congressional meltdown on the new farm bill. This is not surprising, given Congress’ failure to date to either pass a new farm bill or to enact a short-term extension of the existing farm bill before the farm bill expires at midnight, […]
USDA Announces 2012 Farmers Market Promotion Program Awards
Today USDA announced the recipients of this year’s Farmers Market Promotion Program awards. The 2012 awards span 131 projects in 39 States and total over $9 million in funding. The full list of projects can be found here. The Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) aims to increase and strengthen direct producer-to-consumer marketing channels. Through a […]
Congress Votes to Slash Conservation Spending, Extends FY 2012 Funding Levels
The Senate voted (67-31) this morning to proceed to a vote to pass a 6-month continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded at FY 2012 levels through March 27, 2013. The final vote will likely occur sometime this weekend, slowed down by several procedural moves related to votes on extraneous matters. It may take […]
Revised Version: Obama Administration Details Sequestration Cuts
On Friday, September 14, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a preliminary outline of how it would implement automatic budget cuts (known as sequestration) across government programs, as required by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA). In early August 2012, Congress passed the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, which forced the Obama […]
Path to 2012 Farm Bill: Expiration, Election, and ???
It’s official. A spokesperson for House Agriculture Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) said today they are throwing in the towel on any farm bill action this week in the House. Neither a new farm bill nor an extension of the existing farm bill will be brought up for a floor vote. The September 30 expiration […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Letter to Protect Organic Programs
Today, House Organic Caucus co-chairs and House Agriculture Committee Members sent a bipartisan letter to the House leadership regarding the core organic programs that expire on September 30 unless Congress takes action to reauthorize and fund these programs. A number of beginning farmer, rural development, and marketing programs are in the same situation. In the letter, […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Not Now, Maybe Later; And Meanwhile, Conservation Programs Shut Down; Sequestration Cuts to be Revealed
Congress returned this week from its summer recess with questions abounding on the fate of the 2012 Farm Bill. After less than one short week in session, a bad situation has unfortunately grown worse, not better. Conservation Programs Shut Down On Thursday, September 13, the House approved a “continuing resolution” (or CR for short) to […]
30 Organizations Warn Against Cutting Conservation to Pay for Drought Aid
On Tuesday, September 11, 30 organizations including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Environmental Defense Fund, National Wildlife Federation, and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation partnership delivered a letter to Congress rejecting the notion that cuts to farm bill conservation funding should be used to pay for short-term disaster assistance. The Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of 2012 (H.R. […]
Continuing Resolution Would Stop Key Conservation Programs in 2013
On Monday evening, September 10, the House Rules Committee posted the Continuing Resolution (CR) agreed upon by congressional leaders to fund the government for the next six months. The bill is expected to be voted on in the House on Thursday and in the Senate after that. The overall goal is to avoid a government […]
Poll Finds Farmers Oppose Cutting Conservation to Fund Drought Assistance
Last week, the National Farmers Union (NFU) released a poll confirming that farmers believe conservation programs are vital in helping to deal with drought. Two research firms (one Democratic and one Republican) polled 502 farmers across 13 states in the American Heartland and found that an overwhelming 79 percent of respondents view conservation programs as […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Just Say No to Separate Disaster Bill
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 […]
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) […]
Action Alert: Not on our watch.
September: it’s harvest time. Corn, tomatoes, pumpkins, apples and more are all coming in from the fields… as well as, with any luck, a new 2012 Farm Bill! It’s been pretty quiet on the farm bill front here in Washington, DC lately – legislators have been at home all month, meeting with folks like you. […]
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 […]
Rural Development Farm Bill Letter Delivered to Congress
On August 30, NSAC and 43 other other organizations in the Campaign for a Renewed Rural Development sent a letter to Capitol Hill regarding the importance to rural America of renewing the Farm Bill this year. In the letter, the 44 organizations urged the House of Representatives to bring the Farm Bill to a vote […]
USDA Announces 2012 Beginning Farmer Training Grants
Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $18 million in funding to support new farmer training and education programs at the 2012 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa. These new grant awards were made available through the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) – a federal competitive grants program administered by USDA’s National Institute 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 […]
Mandatory Price Reporting Final Rule for Wholesale Pork Transactions
This week, USDA issued a Final Rule that requires meatpackers to report information on wholesale pork transactions under the Livestock Mandatory Reporting Act. The rule is set to take effect on January 7, 2013, but USDA will have an additional four months to train meatpackers in meeting the requirements of the reporting program. As enacted in […]
USDA Announces Awards Targeted at Socially Disadvantaged Producers
On Wednesday, August 8th, USDA announced $19 million in grants that will support outreach and technical assistance projects aimed at socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, including Hispanic, tribal, African-American, and women producers. These grants were awarded through USDA’s Outreach and Technical Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Program, also known as the 2501 Outreach […]