Editor’s Note: This post is the sixth post in a multi-part series exploring some of the key sustainable agriculture and food systems challenges that the farm bill can address. Through a series of posts comparing the House and Senate Agriculture Committees’ proposals, we provide an assessment of how each chamber’s bill would address a given […]
CAFO
Cover Crops and CAFOs: EQIP in FY 2019 and FY 2020
In this blog post, we analyze how EQIP financial assistance was utilized in FY 2019 and FY 2020 through the EQIP general pool. … Read More →
New Report Exposes Over $1 Billion in Bad Loanmaking at SBA
Last week, the exploitative business practices of multinational poultry processing companies – and the role of the Small Business Administration (SBA) in facilitating that exploitation – were put on display by a shocking report from the SBA’s own Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report reveals that SBA has in recent years made an increasing […]
Cover Crops and CAFOs: An Analysis of 2016 EQIP Spending
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) awarded more than $1 billion in financial assistance (FA) to American farmers and ranchers in fiscal year (FY) 2016. These funds are provided through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and offer financial cost-share and technical assistance to help growers implement conservation practices on working […]
Final Environmental Cost-Share Rule Fails to Incorporate Sustainability Recommendations
Farmers and ranchers are important stewards of our natural resources. Through national initiatives like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is able to support farmers and ranchers in their efforts to introduce conservation efforts on their lands and more sustainably manage their operations. EQIP, managed by USDA’s Natural Resource […]
Clean Water Network’s “March Madness” DC Gathering
The Clean Water Network, a coalition of over 1,000 organizations working together to protect the nation’s waters, held a “March Madness” fly-in in Washington D.C. on March 14-16. NSAC and many of our member organizations are Network members. Key fly-in events had an agricultural focus. A congressional briefing on March 15, entitled “The Mississippi – […]
Weekly Update, January 23, 2009
THIS WEEK NSAC Urges Vilsack to Rescind Misleading “Naturally Raised” Meat Claim: As we reported last week, the Bush Administration went final on a new “naturally raised” meat marketing label claim on its final day in office. The new rule appeared in the Federal Register this Wednesday, the first full day of the Obama Administration. […]
Weekly Update – December 19, 2008
THIS WEEK Obama Names Vilsack Secretary of Agriculture: On Wednesday, President-elect Barack Obama officially named former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack as the incoming Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack, who previously served two terms as the governor of Iowa, has worked most recently as a lawyer in Des Moines since ending his brief 2008 presidential bid in […]