Climate and Agriculture Legislation Introduced
This week, Maine farmer and Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) introduced the Agriculture Resilience Act to address the most pressing farm issue of our day: climate change. The climate and agriculture legislation establishes a set of aggressive but realistic goals for farmers to help mitigate climate change and increase agricultural resilience, starting with the overarching goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. agriculture by no later than 2040. The climate and agriculture legislation’s substantive programmatic sections are divided into six additional titles – agricultural research, soil health, farmland preservation and viability, pasture-based livestock, on-farm renewable energy, and food waste. In this blog post, we provide a summary of each title of the bill and upcoming next steps for the legislation this year. NSAC applauds Representative Pingree for her vision and leadership in setting the table for the critical legislative phase that must follow if agriculture is to survive and thrive and be part of the solution to the climate crisis.
NSAC published a new Special Report this week based on the latest available data, analyzing CSP’s contribution to conservation-minded producers and landowners. In addition to enrollment, renewal, and land use trends, the Special Report presents a deep dive analysis on the use of various conservation practices and enhancements across the country, as well as CSP’s critical role in supporting conservation efforts across diverse farmer groups. The report uncovered significant state to state variability in program utilization and a large drop in renewal rates for both contracts and acres. In addition to enrollment and land use trends, the report examines the top conservation practices and enhancements, and how the program is supporting beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers’ conservation efforts. In this blog post, we summarize the report’s key findings and graphics.
Last month, USDA published a long-delayed proposed rule on the undue or unreasonable preference provision of the Packers & Stockyards Act of 1921 (P&SA), which was enacted to combat consolidation and lack of competition in the livestock and poultry industries. Attempts to strengthen P&SA, known as the GIPSA rules, have spanned the last ten years, following the 2008 Farm Bill mandate to publish rules to support the act. The rules have been largely unsuccessful due to congressional obstruction, stalling by the Administration, and agency inaction. In this blog post, we analyze the proposed undue preference rule and its shortcomings, including how the proposed criteria are too vague and fail to address the widespread consolidation in the industry. NSAC will be submitting detailed comments on the rule and invites individuals to use RAFI-USA’s comment template to submit comments before March 13, 2020.
This is the first year small farms will be inspected if they fall under the FSMA Produce Safety Rule. Fortunately, there are a number of exceptional FSMA training programs that were recently funded by FSOP that will assist farmers trying to navigate the complex rules. NIFA’s announcement of FSOP awards for FY 2019 is several months late due to the relocation of the agency, which has caused a significant delay in the delivery of essential food safety trainings and programs at a critical time for farmers. In this blog post, we highlight NSAC members who received FSOP awards for FY 2019 and congratulate all recipients. Additionally, NSAC will advocate for an increase to FSOP from $8 million to $10 million for FY 2021.
Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) introduced the Agriculture Resilience Act, which addresses the role of agriculture in combatting climate change. “NSAC is proud to endorse the Agriculture Resilience Act and wish to thank Representative Pingree for her ongoing leadership in this vital work,” said NSAC Policy Director Eric Deeble. “This marker bill represents our nation’s first piece of comprehensive legislation on climate and agriculture, and includes a host of actionable steps toward achieving net zero emissions by 2040. The tenets of this bill are fully in line with the recommendations of NSAC’s recent climate report, Agriculture and Climate Change: Policy Imperatives and Opportunities to Help Producers Meet the Challenge, and have the full support of our 130+ members nationwide.”
- Learn more about Farm Policy and Agricultural Politics at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/farm-policy-agricultural-politics/
- Find tons of other useful farming resources at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/additional-farming-resources/
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