Farmer Driven Research, Cover Crops, More…

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Anyone familiar with USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program is already aware of how impactful the program’s farmer-driven research and educational outreach has been over the last 30 years. In fact, SARE has granted $327 million to more than 7,600 projects across the country since its inception. Its groundbreaking work on cover crops still remains the leading guide to growing and managing cover crops in diversified cropping systems, and the program is already funding projects that focus on improving soil health, sequestering carbon, and mitigating the impact of climate change.

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NEW PANDEMIC COVER CROP PROGRAM IS A FIRST STEP

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a new Pandemic Cover Crop Program (PCCP), which will offer a $5 per acre premium discount to producers who planted qualifying cover crops during the 2021 crop year and enrolled in eligible federal crop insurance policies. The PCCP is administered by the Risk Management Agency (RMA) and funds for this program are coming from the USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers (PAP) program. 

To receive this premium benefit, eligible farmers must file their acreage report with FSA by next Tuesday, June 15, 2021.

For additional details about the program and producer eligibility, click here.

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COMMENT: USDA ANNOUNCES MORE THAN $4 BILLION TO STRENGTHEN FOOD SYSTEM

Washington, DC, June 8, 2021 – In response to today’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) of plans to invest more than $4 billion to strengthen critical supply chains through the Build Back Better initiative, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) issued the following comment:

“NSAC applauds the USDA’s commitment to investing more than $4 billion to strengthen our food system, improve access to local processing, invest in regional distribution and aggregation, and support for new market opportunities that will help producers earn a fairer price for what they grow,” said Eric Deeble, Policy Director at NSAC.

Head to our blog to read the full comment.

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FARMERS VIRTUALLY VISIT THE HILL TO ADVOCATE FOR CLIMATE ACTION

What do you get when you mix a pandemic context, a carbon-conscious group of farmers and advocates, and a critical window for Congressional action on the climate crisis? The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)’s latest Virtual Farmer “Fly-In” on Climate and Agriculture.

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Welcome Nicholas Rossi! NSAC’S New Policy Fellow

Nick holds a B.S. in Environment and Natural Resources with a minor in English from the Ohio State University. His experience spans from working on environmental education and food insecurity in Iowa to traversing the Rocky Mountains as a Wilderness Ranger with the US Forest Service in Colorado. Before joining NSAC, Nick worked on a small organic vegetable farm in central Ohio growing food and advocating for sustainable local food systems in urban environments. These combined experiences inform Nick’s approach to sustainable agriculture especially as it relates to climate change and his commitment to building resilient food systems that appropriately address the needs of first-generation farmers and historically underserved farming communities.

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What We’re Reading

Welcome to the newest section of the NSAC Weekly Roundup! We will use this space to share suggested readings that NSAC staff find relevant to the Coalition’s mission and work. Recognizing that there is always more to learn, we look forward to sharing readings that we have found useful.

To start this section off, this week we recommend two articles from the May-June 2021 edition of Mother Jones Magazine: 

After a Century of Dispossession, Black Farmers Are Fighting to Get Back to the Land 

The Machine That Eats Up Black Farmland

Both articles offer powerful contemporary examples of Black-led efforts in agriculture to build accountability and equity into federal policy.