March 11, 2020
Blog co-authored with Simone Benz, Sustainable Food Center Last month, the Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network, along with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and the Sustainable Food Center (SFC), hosted the first small and very small meat and poultry processing roundtable of 2020 in Austin, TX. We were excited to welcome the United States […]
March 4, 2020
Editor’s Note: As the COVID-19 situation progresses, we will continue to update this blog with the latest available information on deadline extensions. Last updated: March 26, 2020. With the fiscal year (FY) 2020 budget in place, USDA has begun releasing funding opportunities for FY 2020. While a flood of grant program announcements is generally good […]
February 27, 2020
This is the first year small farms will be inspected if they fall under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule. Fortunately, there are a number of exceptional FSMA training programs that were recently funded by the Food Safety Outreach Program (FSOP) that will assist farmers trying to navigate the complex rules. The […]
February 6, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Reana KovalcikNational Sustainable Agriculture CoalitionP: 202-547-5754, E: rkovalcik@sustainableagriculture.net National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Sets 2020 Policy Priorities Washington, DC, February 4, 2020 – Last week, representatives from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s (NSAC) 130+ member organizations voted on a final set of policy and funding priorities to guide the Coalition’s work through 2020. “This collaborative priority […]
February 6, 2020
Nearly ten years after the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still issuing new rules. With the temporary lull in FSMA-related policy activity coming to an end, there will be renewed need for public action on FSMA rulemakings once they are issued later this year. In […]
January 2, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Reana KovalcikNational Sustainable Agriculture CoalitionP: 202-547-5754, E: rkovalcik@sustainableagriculture.net Additional Clarity on Animal Raising Label Claims in Time for the New Year New guidelines will better uphold the integrity of organic, grass-fed, and pastured products Washington, DC, January 2, 2020 – Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) […]
December 20, 2019
This week, after months of delay, Congress passed a much-anticipated deal to fund the government through the end of fiscal year (FY) 2020. FY 2020 runs through September 30, 2020. The $1.4 trillion package of discretionary spending bills, which was divided up into two “minibuses”, was finally delivered this week after months of rigorous advocacy […]
December 17, 2019
The final appropriations package builds upon the sustainable agriculture community’s hard-fought farm bill wins and delivers much-needed support to family farmers across the country at a time when good news is increasingly hard to come by.
August 16, 2019
The rising demand for local, niche meat and poultry over the past decade has led to ever-increasing reliance on the country’s few small-scale independent processing plants that operate outside of the broader commodity meat sector. When one of these small plants is shutdown or suspended, therefore, the impact can be resounding. The National Sustainable Agriculture […]
June 27, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Reana KovalcikNational Sustainable Agriculture CoalitionP: 202-547-5754, E: rkovalcik@sustainableagriculture.net Appropriations Victories in Sight, Farmers Flock to DC to Keep Momentum GoingNational Sustainable Agriculture Coalition fly-in participants hope to secure FY 2020 appropriations wins in final spending package Washington, D.C., June 27, 2019 – With big wins already secured for sustainable agriculture in […]