Since January, the Senate has been holding confirmation hearings for President Trump’s cabinet nominees. On Thursday, March 23, the Senate Agriculture Committee held its confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary, Sonny Perdue, the last of Trump’s cabinet nominees to be vetted by the Senate. The Committee will soon schedule […]
General Interest
NSAC Members Gather in Louisville, Kentucky
Last week over 100 advocates representing the 116 member organizations of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) met in Louisville, Kentucky for our annual winter meeting. NSAC member groups gather twice a year to work on policy campaigns, develop grassroots strategies, and connect with one another. Our winter meetings are especially busy because it is […]
How Sustainable Agriculture Advocates Can Take Action in 2017
With a new president and the 115th Congress recently sworn in, farmers and sustainable agriculture advocates around the country have been asking: What does this new Administration and Congress mean for agriculture and food policy? How can we most effectively advocate and continue to make change on the issues that we care about? Here at […]
USDA Publishes Farmer Fair Practices Rules to Help American Farmers and Ranchers
USDA has taken the historic step of issuing three rules that will begin to bring some fairness and order to the poultry and livestock industries, with a particular focus on farmers growing under contracts with the big meat and poultry processing corporations. These three rules, when finalized, will prevent unfair and anti-competitive practices by meat […]
Post-Election: What’s Next for Food and Agriculture?
As we prepare for our first Administration change in eight years, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) wants to ensure that a diverse coalition of family farmers and ranchers, conservationists, and local and regional food enthusiasts have a place at the table. The election of any new President comes with many challenges and opportunities. In […]
Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentives Program Connects Low-Income Families with Healthy Options
Every family needs and deserves access to fresh, healthy foods, but for far too many Americans a healthy meal made from fresh ingredients seems like just a dream. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was designed to help assist lower-income families with food purchases, but because benefit levels are low, purchasing fresh, local produce remains […]
National Food Policy Scorecard Measures Congress’ Performance on Major Food Issues
Today, Food Policy Action (FPA) released its 2016 National Food Policy Scorecard (“Scorecard”), a unique and interactive tool to help the public understand how Congress members have performed (or underperformed) on food-related policy issues. FPA is a non-profit organization headed by co-founders Ken Cook (also of the Environmental Working Group) and Chef Tom Colicchio, which […]
Clear and consistent food safety standards could benefit people and the environment
Editor’s Note: This article is a guest blog by the following researchers from the University of California Berkeley and The Nature Conservancy: Patrick Baur, PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley; Laura Driscoll, PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley; Sasha Gennet, Senior Scientist, The Nature Conservancy. Food safety […]
WHITE HOUSE SEEKS INPUT ON ITS AIM TO IMPROVE COORDINATION IN BIOTECHNOLOGY REGULATION
The ever-evolving biotechnology sector continues to be an important topic among farmers and consumers, and business and the government. However, the process has been criticized for being convoluted and uncoordinated in its nature, with unclear boundaries of where each federal agencies’ jurisdiction lies, and how stakeholder input is obtained and utilized across agency functions. In […]
Organic Acreage Increase, But!
Organic acreage has increased 20 percent from 2014 to 2015, reaching about 4.4 million acres. A closer look at the 2015 Organic Production Survey reveals that virtually all of the increase of 691,289 acres can be attributed to a single organic operation becoming certified in September 2015. Due to the addition of this large livestock […]
First Opportunity for Public Input on GMO Labeling Law Implementation
In late July, President Obama signed into law Congress’ much contested GMO Labeling law, creating a mandatory disclosure requirement for “bioengineered” foods and directing the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop regulations and standards to carry out the requirement. Now that the law has been finalized, the long process of rulemaking and implementation begins. […]
Conservation Stewardship Program ‘Reinvention’: What to look for in the upcoming overhaul
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written by Ferd Hoefner of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and published as an opinion piece in Agri-Pulse on August 29, 2016. The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) offers technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers to maintain high standards of resource conservation and environmental stewardship […]
NSAC Members Meet in Maine
On August 7, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) gathered in Orono, Maine for our annual summer meeting. Advocates and farmers representing over 100 NSAC member organizations convened to evaluate our policy priorities, learn more about New England’s agricultural economy, strengthen the structure and voice of our coalition, and plan for the 2018 Farm Bill. The […]
GMO Labeling Bill Becomes Law: Now What?
As you have likely heard by now, on Friday, July 29, 2016 President Obama signed into law the GMO Labeling bill recently passed by Congress. This law preempts Vermont’s first-of-its-kind GMO Labeling law, which had just gone into effect on July 1, and authorizes the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a mandatory disclosure […]
Democratic Platform Pledges Support for Beginning Farmers, Local Food Systems
Editor’s note: Our analysis of the Republican National Platform can be found here. Given the fairly detailed agricultural “factsheet” put out by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in August of 2015, it would have been reasonable to expect an even more comprehensive agricultural policy position would be laid out in the Democratic National Platform. When the […]
Guest Post: From Cover Crops to High Tunnels
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), an NSAC member organization. Their post highlights the benefits of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Organic Initiative, which provides financial and technical assistance to support the implementation and installation of conservation practices tailored to organic producers. Despite the significant benefits that the Organic Initiative can […]
GOP Platform on Agriculture Separates Instead of Unites
Editor’s note: Our analysis of the Democratic National Platform can be found here. With the din of the national election cycle swelling to deafening levels, we might expect federal agricultural policy to get lost in all the noise. In fact, however, positions on agricultural issues have already been outlined both by the candidates and their respective […]
Farmers Have Last Word Before Long Congressional Recess
Over the last few days, farmers from across the country have come to Washington to speak with their Senators and Representatives about the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs that help them employ conservation measures on their farms, create business and financial plans, and much more. With Congress set to leave town today for a […]
GMO Labeling Bill Heads to the President’s Desk
The tug-of-war over GMO (genetically modified organisms) labeling is nearly over as this week Congress has finally agreed upon and sent a bill to the President’s desk. On Thursday July 14, 2016, the House of Representatives passed, by a 306-117 margin, the GMO labeling bill (S. 764) crafted by Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts […]
GMO Labeling Legislation Clears Another Hurdle
For months, the Senate has struggled to reach agreement on a “GMO labeling bill”, which would determine if and how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are marked on food packaging. The pressure became especially intense as legislators worked to beat pending mandatory GMO labeling legislation in Vermont, which officially became effective July 1, 2016. After defeating a weak version of […]
GMO Labeling Compromise Passes Preliminary Vote
The ongoing legislative battle around the labeling of genetically engineered (GE) or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has reached a turning point. Despite serious concerns about confusing, inconsistent language and potential loopholes that would limit the bill’s scope being raised in a June 27 Food and Drug Administration’s Technical Assistance document prepared for Congress, a GMO […]
Key Senators Reach Deal on GMO Labeling
Despite what feels like endless “controversy”, national polls have overwhelmingly shown that the vast majority of American consumers want the use of genetically engineered or genetically modified organisms (GMOs) noted on their food labels. Last year, however, the House of Representatives chose to disregard the overwhelming support for GE/GMO labeling and passed a bill to […]
Comprehensive verification toolkit is needed domestically, too
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared as an Op-Ed piece in Food Safety News (FSN) on June 11, 2016. The piece was written by NSAC Policy Staffer, Sophia Kruszewski in response to a June 6, 2016 piece by FSN Editor, Dan Flynn. Dan Flynn’s June 6 article in Food Safety News, “Third-party auditor certification: Not the only tool […]
USDA Finds Rising Income Inequality Is Main Driver of Increasing Rural Child Poverty
Nearly a decade after the 2007 recession, the U.S. economy continues to move steadily toward recovery; unemployment has been cut in half (down to 5 percent), and average family incomes have increased 6 percent in just the last two years. By now the slow but rising tide of economic improvement has touched most corners of the […]