Food Safety News Spotlight NYFC Campaign
Check out the latest food safety news, featuring the National Young Farmers Coalition! NYFC has teamed up with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and a diverse network of other farming organizations to take on the proposed FDA food safety rules and to challenge the way they will impact sustainable, small-scale and beginning farmers.
What's at stake for the new farm bill? The next generation of farmers
Thanks to our friends at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition for letting us repost this well-written piece about a few of the most important beginning farmer programs at the USDA. Last fall, Congress allowed the farm bill to expire without a new bill to take its place. Instead, Congressional leaders cobbled together an awful and […]
Your food safety questions answered live next week!
We have less than a month and a half until the comment period on the proposed food safety laws closes! These new rules stand to have a huge impact on the way all farms and ranches operate – even beginning farmers – and it’s crucial that we submit comments to help shape the way the […]
Food Safety Alert – National Day of Action to Protect Local Farms
New food safety regulations are coming to a farm near yours! (Actually, they’re coming to your farm too.) As we have previously reported, the FDA is writing an entirely new set of food safety laws. There are a lot of huge changes, many of which will have an impact on beginning farmers, organic growers and […]
Congress Farm Bill Debate – UPDATE!
First, thanks to the hundreds of young farmers (and supporters!) who have taken action so far today! We’ve received some updates on the House’s progress since we broke the Farm Bill news last night: The House rules committee finally released their list of 103 amendments that they consider “worthy” of being brought to the House […]
Final Review of the Senate Farm Bill and How It Affects You
Before we switch our focus over to the House, we need to do a quick run-through of the Farm Bill that made its way through the Senate over the past few weeks. With such a huge piece of legislation, it’s difficult to fully wrap one’s head around it; we are lucky to have the hotshots […]
Microloan amendment receives bipartisan support in the Senate
We are thrilled to announce a small victory on the Farm Bill front! This week the FSA Microloan Authorization amendment to the Farm Bill received bipartisan support, as Senators Casey (D-PA), Harkin (D-IA) and Johanns (R-NE) all put themselves as official co-sponsors of the bill. The Microloan amendment strengthens the Farm Service Agency’s microloan program […]
Get the inside scoop on the Farm Bill with farmbillprimer.org
Congressional voting records. Appropriation amounts. More acronyms than you can shake a scuffle hoe at. Starting to feel overwhelmed already by the massive amount of data surrounding the Farm Bill? Sometimes when we’re feeling swamped, we turn to FarmBillPrimer.org, a great resource for data, maps, and analysis. This week we scored an interview with Marjorie Roswell, […]
FDA Extends Comment Period for Food Safety Rules
A food safety update straight from DC to you: At yesterday’s Senate Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee hearing yesterday, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced that the comment period for two new food safety rules – a part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) passed two years ago – would be extended by 120 days. In response […]
Will the new food safety laws affect you?
The short answer is yes. The new rules will impact the way our food is produced – everything from how seedlings are watered in the ground to how the finished product is marketed. So from the consumer perspective, we are all going to see some changes. The real question, though, is for farmers and ranchers. […]