Sustainable Agriculture Policy Priorities – NSAC
Last week, representatives from NSAC’s 130+ member organizations met in McAllen, TX and voted on a final set of policy and funding priorities to guide the Coalition’s work through 2020. Three top sustainable agriculture policy priorities were chosen by the Coalition: Working Lands Conservation, Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers, and the Local Agriculture Market Program. The Coalition also identified several additional annual and multi-year campaign issues – including climate change and agriculture, small meat processing, and immigration – on which NSAC will engage, as well as a list of appropriations priorities for fiscal year 2021. “This collaborative priority setting process is the heart of our work at NSAC,” said NSAC Policy Director Eric Deeble. To learn more about what NSAC’s sustainable agriculture policy priorities and what they will be advocating for in 2020, read the press release at the link below.
A Decade After FSMA, Additional Rules Still Rolling Out
Nearly ten years after the passage of FSMA, FDA is still issuing new rules. In 2020, at least two proposed FDA rules will require advocates’ attention: the Additional Recordkeeping Requirements for High Risk Foods (“High Risk Foods rule”) and revisions to the Agricultural Water Requirements within the Produce Safety Rule. Additionally, small farm FMSA inspections start this year, meaning input from farmers and other concerned advocates is more important now than ever. Under a court order mandate, FDA must issue a proposed High Risk Foods rule for public comment by September 8, 2020. At the end of last year, NSAC submitted comments to FDA highlighting several key points to be considered as FDA writes the High Risk Foods rule. Read our blog post to learn more about NSAC’s recommendations to FDA and what to look for in upcoming food safety rulemakings.
In December 2019, USDA announced its Interim Final Rule (IFR) for EQIP. EQIP is a voluntary program that helps farmers pay for conservation projects on their land, including practices such as buffers, alley cropping, cover cropping, hoop houses, nutrient and pest management, and prescribed grazing. The IFR guides USDA’s implementation of farm bill changes to EQIP, including the addition of soil health planning to the list of activities eligible for assistance, and the creation of a category of EQIP Conservation Innovation Grants for soil health. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few improvements, USDA’s IFR ignores or sells short several key aspects of the program. In this blog post, we highlight the main shortcomings of the recently published IFR, including ingoring payment limitations, weakening CAFO requirements, and failing to make soil health and climate resilience national EQIP priorities. NSAC calls on farmers and advocates to submit their comments to USDA on the IFR and demand that EQIP remain focused on conservation and climate resilience.
Winter Meeting Announcement
NSAC members and staff will be meeting in McAllen, TX next week for NSAC‘s annual Winter Meeting. We will not send a Weekly Roundup next Friday, January 31. We will be back on our regular Weekly Roundup schedule the following week on Friday, February 7.
- 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/
Your Privacy Choices
Leave a comment