On Tuesday, June 12, 2012, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced USDA’s Rural Cooperative Development Grants (RCDG) and Rural Business Opportunity Grant (RBOG) programs are accepting applications. Both of these programs seek to spur growth and create jobs in rural communities. Rural Cooperative Development Grants (RCDG) USDA may award up to $5.8 million in this FY12 […]
Rural Development
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 […]
Groups Tell Senate to Protect Rural Development and Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers
Today, June 6, NSAC along with nearly 200 organizations sent a letter to the Senate urging them to support measures to support rural development and beginning and minority farmers in the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012. The farm bill that came out of the Senate Agriculture Committee provides no funding for the Rural […]
Senate Farm Bill Reported and Budget Scores Released; NSAC Analysis
On April 26, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved its version of the the 2012 Farm Bill, the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012, by a vote of 16-5. Exactly four weeks later, on May 24, the Committee actually reported the text of the bill. It is normal for there to be a lag […]
For Immediate Release: NSAC Comments on Proposed USDA Microloan Program
For Immediate Release May 23, 2012 Contact: Juli Obudzinski, 202-547-5754 NSAC Comments on Proposed USDA Microloan Program Washington, DC – Today, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a proposed rule for a new microloan program that would be part of the suite of credit options available to farmers through the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The new […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Markup – Local Food and Rural Development
Note to Readers — This is the eighth in 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 Committee on Thursday, […]
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 […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Holds Hearing on Rural Development Programs
On Wednesday, the House Agriculture Agriculture Committee held a Rural Development hearing, the first of eight in preparation for the 2012 Farm Bill. Panel witnesses emphasized the importance of continued investment in rural communities and fielded questions concerning consolidation of numerous programs targeting rural development. Both panels touched on the need for investments in water, […]
For Immediate Release: NSAC Comments on Senate Farm Bill Markup and Passage
For Immediate Release April 26, 2012 Contact: Ferd Hoefner, 202-547-5754 NSAC Comments on Senate Farm Bill Markup and Passage Washington, DC – The Senate Agriculture Committee voted a new farm bill out of committee today by a vote of 16-5. The committee bill saves $23 billion over the next ten years according to budget estimates. […]
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 Writes a Farm Bill
The Senate Agriculture Committee is on track to meet its timeline for marking up a farm bill later this month. Agriculture staffers in the Senate have been meeting throughout the two-week Congressional Easter recess to discuss issues and proposals. The Senate Agriculture Committee leadership is writing a draft of the farm bill – known as […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Budget Complicates Farm Bill, but Senate Committee Will Begin Anyway
On Thursday, March 29, the House approved the FY 13 Budget Resolution introduced by Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI) by a 228-191 vote, with all Democrats and 10 Republicans voting no. The budget resolution will not be taken up by the Senate and hence will only control spending actions in the House. The resolution […]
Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on FY 2013 Agriculture Appropriations; NSAC Delivers FY 2013 Appropriations Testimony to Senate
On Thursday, March 29, the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee held its first hearing on USDA’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request. The Subcommittee will consider USDA’s requests as it writes its funding bill for the year. Individual funding requests by Senators and outside groups were also due yesterday. You can download and read our FY […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: House Agriculture Subcommittee Holds Hearing To Identify Duplicative Rural Development Programs
Today, the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development, Research, Biotechnology, and Foreign Agriculture held a hearing to identify duplicative federal rural development programs. The hearing focused on reducing duplication, fragmentation, and overlap in rural development programs for a 2012 Farm Bill. USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager and Government Accountability Office (GAO) Director […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: NSAC Releases 2012 Farm Bill Policy Platform
Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) released its 2012 Farm Bill policy platform, Farming for the Future: A Sustainable Agriculture Agenda for the 2012 Food & Farm Bill. The platform is the culmination of two years of policy work with a broad, diverse coalition of over 90 grassroots organizations from across the country. It […]
House Holds Agriculture Appropriations Hearings
Earlier this month, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee held a series of four hearings on the Obama Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The hearings precede and are meant to inform the markup of a FY 2013 agriculture appropriations bill. The four hearings covered the President’s budget […]
Path to the 2012 Farm Bill: Senate Kicks Off Hearings
In its “Path to the 2012 Farm Bill” series, NSAC gets into the details of the 2012 Farm Bill debate. On Wednesday, February 15, the Senate Agriculture Committee held its first in a series of four hearings for the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill. Hearings are an important part in the farm bill process because they […]
Obama’s FY 2013 USDA Budget Request
On Monday, February 13, President Obama submitted his budget request to Congress for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. For sustainable agriculture interests, the budget proposal is a mixed bag, with big cuts to working lands conservation programs, and both cuts and increases to discretionary spending accounts for sustainable agriculture programs. As far as the upcoming 2012 […]
Lenders Learn how to Bank on Small Farms, Local Food
Financing team offers training as part of healthy food initiative By Patty Cantrell Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land. His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many […]
It’s Time: Help us Speak up for Sustainable Agriculture
Check out our Path to the 2012 Farm Bill blog series for updates on the 2012 Farm Bill process – and be sure to sign up for NSAC Action Alerts to stay in the loop on speaking out and taking action! The summer’s bounty may feel far away, but even in January, farmers and ranchers […]
Generations Bookend Rural Great Plains and Midwest
by Jon Bailey, Director, Rural Research and Analysis Program, Center for Rural Affairs A new Center for Rural Affairs report released finds that rural areas in the Great Plains and Midwest continue to lose population and are caught between “bookend generations” – the youngest and the oldest – with a demographic valley in between. The […]
If you eat and live in America
If you eat and live in America, you should be concerned about the future of farming in this country. The average age of our nation’s farmers is 57 years old, with more than a quarter of all farmers 65 or older. There are many people inspired to farm, but as recent studies show, our nation’s […]