Over the last two weeks, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee held a series of hearings to examine the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s and the Food and Drug Administration’s budget requests for fiscal year (FY) 2014. We previously posted about the first Subcommittee hearing of the year, which featured Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, and the second […]
Research, Education & Extension
USDA Promises Support for Public Plant Breeding Research at House Hearing
On Wednesday April 17th, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee questioned the Undersecretary for Research, Education and Economics as well as the heads of USDA’s four research agencies, as preparation for developing a federal spending bill for fiscal year 2014. The witnesses as this week’s hearing include: Dr. Catherine Woteki, Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics […]
President’s 2014 Budget: Overview and Department of Agriculture
On Wednesday, April 10, President Obama released his budget request for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. In this year’s ongoing budget saga, the White House is billing its proposal as a step towards reaching a “grand bargain” with Republicans over taxes and spending. (For more on the “grand bargain,” see a previous blog post.) Over ten weeks […]
USDA FY2013 Request for Applications for Organic Transitions Program
On Friday February 8, 2013 the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture announced the release of its FY2013 Organic Transitions Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Program (ORG) Request for Applications (RFA). The overall goal of the ORG is to support the development and implementation of research, extension and higher education programs to improve the […]
AGree Issues 2013 Policy Proposals
AGree, an initiative to seek consensus on proposals to transform food, agriculture, conservation, energy, nutrition policies, today issued some near-term recommendations for the 2013 Farm Bill and other food and agriculture-related legislation. The five areas included – immigration and work force issues, nutrition and food systems, conservation, young people in food and agriculture, and agricultural […]
President’s Council Report on Agriculture — What About Ecology?
Guest Post by Doug Gurian-Sherman, Senior Scientist, Union of Concerned Scientists The new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) addresses the state of U.S. agriculture research. The report notes that public funding for agricultural research has stagnated, while industry sources have increased greatly to 61 percent of the total—three times the […]
Calling All Farmers: Participate in the 2012 Census of Agriculture!
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is currently mailing the 2012 Census of Agriculture form to all farmers and ranchers. USDA uses the results of the Census to shape programs and services for farmers and rural communities. Legislators rely on the results of the Census to inform key policy decisions and monitor trends in agriculture. […]
Strengthening Policy for Soil Health and a Food Secure World
All week we have posted articles from people involved with USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program about soil health and cover cropping. SARE offers a rich stockpile of research results and educational materials on these issues that will help farmers adopt best practices and also help inform USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) […]
Researchers and Educators Collaborate to Teach Youth about Cover Crops
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service recently launched a soil health initiative entitled, “Unlock the Secrets in the Soil.” The initiative aims to help farmers enhance soil health by raising awareness and sharing methods and success stories. This is the fourth post in a five-post series on sustainable soil management, research, and […]
One-of-a-Kind Books Guide Farmers on Their Way to Better Soil
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service recently launched a soil health initiative entitled, “Unlock the Secrets in the Soil.” The initiative aims to help farmers enhance soil health by raising awareness and sharing methods and success stories. This is the third post in a five-post series on sustainable soil management, research, and […]
USDA Invests $33 Million in Pest Management Research
On Monday, December 3, USDA announced over $33 million in funding for research, education, and extension grants that support innovative pest management solutions to address the pest and disease problems farmers face across the nation. These grants were awarded as part of ten separate competitive grants programs administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and […]
Advancing Innovative Cover Crop Research, One Question at a Time
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service recently launched a soil health initiative entitled, “Unlock the Secrets in the Soil.” The initiative aims to help farmers enhance soil health by raising awareness and sharing methods and success stories. This is the second post in a five-post series on sustainable soil management, research, and […]
In Good Times and in Bad: Healthy Soils and Sustainable Soil Management
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service recently launched a soil health initiative entitled “Unlock the Secrets in the Soil.” The initiative aims to help farmers enhance soil health by raising awareness and sharing methods and success stories. This is the first post in a five-post series on sustainable soil management, research, and […]
New $22 million Investment in Organic Farming Research
On October 22, USDA announced the latest round of awards for organic research, education, and extension as part of two competitive grant programs administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Over $22 million in federal grants were awarded under the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) and Organic Transitions Program to […]
Stories from the Field: Breeding Seeds of Success
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 […]
Calling All Researchers!: AFRI RFA Finally Released, Warts and All
On Monday, October 15, USDA announced the availability of $136 million in funding for basic and applied research as the “foundational program” portion of its Agriculture, Food, and Research Initiative (AFRI). The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is the federal agency that has overseen and administered this grant program since its creation in […]
What’s at Stake: Organic Research
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 third post in our 10-week “What’s at Stake?” series […]
USDA Releases Results of 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey
On Thursday, October 4, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the results of its 2011 Certified Organic Production Survey. NASS conducted the survey in conjunction with USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) in order to collect data that RMA requires to develop certain organic crop insurance products. The survey focused on some — but not […]
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 […]
2012 Specialty Crop Block Grants and Specialty Crop Research Initiative Grants Announced
On Monday, October 1, Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced a total of $101 million in funding for specialty crops through the 2012 Specialty Grant Program (SCBG) awards and the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) awards for 2012. The 2012 funding includes specialty crop block grants to each state funding 748 projects nationwide for a total of […]
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, […]
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 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, […]