Talking Crop Insurance and Commodities with Ferd Hoefner: Farm Bill Politics 3
Ferd Hoefner, the senior strategic advisor to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, schools us on how crop insurance and commodity programs work and why they’re causing problems. This podcast is critical listening for anyone looking to understand the farm bill. Lindsey Lusher Shute interviews; Andrew Bahrenburg walks and records; Hannah Beal edits; music Lee Rosevere.
New Federal Farm and Food Policy Guide Available
Earlier this week, our friends over at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) released their updated Grassroots Guide to Federal Farm and Food Programs . In the Guide, NSAC comprehensively describes each federal program supporting sustainable agriculture and how young farmers can access them. If you are looking for information on a specific program, the […]
GMO Contamination: Coming to a farm near you?
Young farmers and supporters! As an organization focused on sustainable agriculture for the next generation, we’re excited to be a part of the push for better laws around GMO contamination. Today we’re asking you to take a few minutes to send in a comment to the USDA before next Tuesday to tell them why GMO […]
Guest Post: Uncapped Entitlement is Bad for Agriculture and Holding up the New Farm Bill
We’ve talked in the past about the need for Congress to reform its payment limit systems (ie, the way farms receive crop subsidies). It’s not one of the most exciting policy areas that we focus on, but it’s more important than you might think! Right now, payments are structured to favor the very largest farms […]
FDA Extends Food Safety Commenting Period One Week!
Yes, you read that right. There have been a series of difficulties over the past week in accessing the regulations.gov website to submit comments on the proposed food safety regulations, so the FDA has announced a one week extension – comments are now due at 11:59 PM EST on next Friday, November 22. Have you […]
PRESS ADVISORY: National Day of Action to Save Local Farms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 18th, 2013 PRESS ADVISORY: National Day of Action to Save Local Farms will bring together farmers, consumers to change proposed FDA food safety rules that threaten farm viability HUDSON, NY – On Sunday, October 20th farmers and consumers from across the country will take action to change the FDA’s draft food safety rules. Activists will […]
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 […]
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 […]