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 […]
Research, Education & Extension
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Draft House Farm Bill Highlights
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 […]
Beginning Farmer Development Program Workshop
On Tuesday July 24, USDA will hold an online workshop for participants and stakeholders of the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). The purpose of this workshop is to obtain stakeholder feedback on the last three years of the program for use in the preparation of future Request for Application (RFA), should the program […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Successful Day One of Farm Bill Voting in Senate
We are delighted to report that the U.S. Senate today passed an amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill providing $150 million in critical funding for rural economic development and new farmer programs. The amendment, introduced and championed by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), was approved on a 55-44 vote, with Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) […]
Small Business Innovation Research Program Accepting Application for Projects
On June 14, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program released this year’s request for applications. SBIR is a division of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). This program supports scientific and technological innovation “in critical American priorities to build a strong national economy, one small business at a time.” SBIR’s objectives focus […]
Letter Asks Senate for Support of Classical Breeding
Over 50 agricultural businesses and organizations, including NSAC, joined 50 scientists on a letter to the Senate encouraging them to support Senator Tester’s (D-MT) amendment to the Senate Farm Bill. The Tester amendment seeks to enhance research funding for classical plant and animal breeding, sometimes referred to as the “Seeds and Breeds” amendment. Classical breeding […]
House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee Passes FY2013 Funding Bill
UPDATED: June 18, 2012 On Wednesday, June 6, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved its FY 2013 agriculture appropriations bill. The spending bill covers the majority of the functions of USDA as well as the Food and Drug Administration. In late April, we happily reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2013 agriculture appropriations bill […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Reps Deliver Bipartisan Organic Letter
In a bipartisan letter sent June 4, 2012, the House organic caucus co-chairs and two members of the Committee on Agriculture urged the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Agriculture to continue investing in organic agriculture in the 2012 Farm Bill. Representatives DeFazio (D-OR), Hanna (R-NY), Kind (D-WI), Ribble (R-WI), Farr (D-CA), and […]
Guest Blog: Institute of Medicine Report Highlights the Connections Between Health and Agriculture
We want to thank Becca Klein from NSAC member the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) for her contribution. Becca is the Health & Agriculture Policy Project Director at CLF, working to bring a health perspective to federal food and agriculture policy. Believe it or not, just because I work for an academic […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Holds Specialty Crop and Nutrition Hearing
Tuesday, May 8th, the House Subcommittee on Nutrition and Horticulture held its fourth of eight hearings in preparation for a 2012 Farm Bill. The hearing consisted of two panels, the first of which discussed specialty crop programs and the second, nutrition assistance. Rep. Pingree and Russell Libby Chairwoman Jean Schmidt (R-OH) opened the […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Markup – Research, Education, Extension
Note to Readers — This is the ninth in a series of posts on the 2012 Farm Bill reported out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 26. The bill that the Senate Agriculture Committee voted out of committee last week now makes its way to the Senate floor and hopefully will be taken up […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Markup – Organic Agriculture
Note to Readers — This is the seventh in a series of posts on the 2012 Farm Bill reported out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 26. Overall, the bill that was reported out of Committee last Thursday supports key pieces of the suite of unique programs that serve the organic sector. Most of […]
Senate Committee Approves 2013 Agriculture Spending Bill
On Thursday, April 26, while the Senate Agriculture Committee was busy passing their version of the 2012 Farm Bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee was also meeting to approve the Fiscal Year 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill. The spending bill covers the majority of the functions of USDA as well as the Food and Drug Administration. We […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Markup – Beginning Farmers
Note to Readers — This is the first in what will be a series of posts on the 2012 Farm Bill reported out of the Senate Agriculture Committee on April 26. The Senate Agriculture Committee voted the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act — the proposed name for the 2012 Farm Bill — out of […]
House Sets Government Funding Allocations
On April 19, we reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee had approved discretionary spending allocations for the coming 2013 fiscal year. The size of the total spending pie, as laid out by the Committee, was completely consistent with the levels set by law in the Budget Control Act of 2011. Today, the House Appropriations Committee […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Local Food and Rural Development Drilldown
Agricultural policy that bolsters community economic development serves as a cornerstone of NSAC’s advocacy. Within this framework, we support strong Rural Development programs that target small business development and job creation. Similarly, NSAC recognizes the economic opportunities inherent in food produced for local markets and thus urge Congress to address infrastructure and information barriers to […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Draft Farm Bill – Research Drilldown
In sum, the research title of the recently released draft Senate farm bill was not a strong one for sustainable agriculture. NSAC and its member organizations had several proposals for how to strengthen the focus on research that benefits and is relevant for organic and sustainable production systems, contained in our platform, Farming for the […]