Beginning Farmers: The Garden Justice Legal Initiative would love to hear about your story, or stories you’ve heard in your community, about having or not having land.  They are planning to compile these stories into a Land Tenure Strategy Handbook for communities.

Specifically, they’d like to know your tactics and tools for obtaining land, whether you’ve used organizing tools, legal tools, advocacy/policy tools, or gardening tools.  For example, stories about vertical gardening or creative garden lay-outs, use agreements with private owners, zoning ordinances in your community, land banks, land trusts, or other tactics you’ve been a part of, are helpful.  We’d also love to hear stories that have inspired you from other communities.

Finally, if you have any information regarding local or state government policies to promote access for agriculture on privately-owned, tax delinquent, abandoned land they’d love to add that to their resources. They will be disseminating all this information as soon as they can!

Contact Liz Spellman at spellman.elizabeth@gmail.com

The U.S. Congress spent approximately 10 days in session during the months of August and September combined, and will now be in “recess” again until after the November elections. Not surprisingly, they didn’t get a whole lot done during that limited time. Their fails include not passing a new farm bill – the legislation responsible for directing and funding many farm programs, and upon which many farmers depend.

Despite the fact that the Senate has passed their version of the bill early this summer, and the House Ag. Committee passed a version out for a floor vote back in July, House leadership failed to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote during the limited time they were not in (at) “recess”.

So while they weren’t at home playing political “kickball” (a popular game during recess when I was a kid), they made an important decision to let the current farm bill expire (it will do so on September 30th) leaving many federal farm programs unfunded. Instead of passing crucial legislation, Congress is simply “taking it’s ball and going home”. Read more »

Speakers, Endorsers of Rally for Farm Bill Passage Announced 

WASHINGTON (Sept. 10, 2012) – Members of National Farmers Union will be on hand at the “Farm Bill Now!” rally as legislative representatives, agricultural leaders and hundreds of farmers and ranchers come together in chorus on U.S. Capitol grounds Sept. 12 to encourage Congress to pass a new, comprehensive, five-year farm bill before current farm programs expire at the end of September.

“The sheer magnitude of the diversified support for this rally is a testament that, while we may all have wide-ranging and oftentimes divergent policy priorities, our primary policy at this critical moment in time is to see a complete, five-year farm bill passed into law by the end of September. I’m hopeful that our unified voice gets heard by Congress loudly and clearly at Wednesday’s rally,” said NFU President Roger Johnson. Read more »

NSAC Releases Funding Applicant Resource Guide for Value-Added Producer Grants

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has just released a Farmers Guide to Value-Added Producer Grant Funding.  This guide is being released on the heels of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s announcement of $14 million in available funds for fiscal year 2012 for Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG).  Applications for the competitive grants program are due at USDA State Rural Development offices by October 15, 2012.

VAPG awards funding to producers to help them develop farm-related businesses that add value to basic agricultural products through processing, product differentiation, commodity segregation, on-farm energy production, labeling and certification, and local and regional food marketing.

“This program is one of the best USDA programs for boosting farm income, creating new job opportunities, and aiding rural economic renewal,” said Helen Dombalis, NSAC Policy Associate.  “We know farmers and ranchers across the country have been anxiously waiting for this year’s VAPG funding announcement and are confident that NSAC’s resource guide will be useful in assisting first-time and seasoned applicants alike.” Read more »

Recommended reading for farmers and gardeners

The following is an eclectic collection of interesting articles that we recommend for farmers, gardeners, and eaters:

University of Deleware researchers show how beneficial soil bacteria can boost plant immunity – http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/aug/beneficial-soil-bacteria-082712.html

Making the most out of “weeds” in your garden: Purslane – http://fertilegroundusa.com/index.php/organic-matter/152-making-the-most-out-of-the-weeds-in-your-garden-purslane

Pioneering farmer Joel Salatin shares his vision of the future of food (video) – http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/12/joel-salatin-pioneers-sustainable-agriculture.aspx

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) continues to grow (for better or worse) – http://grist.org/food/dont-box-me-in-the-unstoppable-growth-of-csa-style-produce-delivery/

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced a package of program improvements that will deliver faster and more flexible assistance to farmers and ranchers devastated by natural disasters. Vilsack announced three significant improvements to decades-old USDA programs and processes related to Secretarial disaster designations: a final rule that simplifies the process for Secretarial disaster designations and will result in a 40 percent reduction in processing time for most counties affected by disasters; a reduced interest rate for emergency loans that effectively lowers the current rate from 3.75 percent to 2.25 percent; and a payment reduction on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands qualified for emergency haying and grazing in 2012, from 25 to 10 percent.

“Agriculture remains a bright spot in our nation’s economy and it is increasingly important that USDA has the tools to act quickly and deliver assistance to farmers and ranchers when they need it most,” said Vilsack. “By amending the Secretarial disaster designation, we’re creating a more efficient and effective process. And by delivering lower interest rates on emergency loans and providing greater flexibility for haying and grazing on CRP lands, we’re keeping more farmers in business and supporting our rural American communities through difficult times. With these improvements, we’re also telling American producers that USDA stands with you and your communities when severe weather and natural disasters threaten to disrupt your livelihood.”

To learn about program eligibility and how to apply click Read More… Read more »

May, 2012: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced a proposed rule for a new microloan program that would be part of the suite of credit options available to farmers through the Farm Service Agency (FSA).  The new program would allow FSA to make smaller loans, with a principal balance of up to $35,000, and would streamline the application process to require less paperwork for farmers. Read here…

This could be an important step in helping beginning farmers find financing. Check out the article from the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition by clicking the link above!

FREE WEBINAR: Integrated Pest Management for Organic and Sustainable farmers-web tools, scouting and understanding degree days

June 21, Thursday from 2:00-3:30 (EST), 2012

Are you a bit nervous about the pests that may attack your crops this year? Do you have your scouting plan ready? Do you know how to calculate degree days for the key pests in your field?

If these questions have you thinking then perhaps you should join us for a webinar on understanding and setting up an IPM program for your farm!!  All smart farmers  scout their fields to be ready for pest occurrences, but especially organic farmers who use multiple tools to manage pests. Having a good idea if and when insects will attack is the first step to smart pest management.

Learn how to access the archive of this webinar, and get other info. by clicking “read more” -> Read more »

Heritage Livestock Farmers Fight the State, Find Unlikely Ally

Here’s how the strange story starts: On April 1st, 2012 Michigan State Department of Natural Resources implemented an Invasive Species Order (ISO) forcing the eradication of certain breeds of heritage pigs on their farms. According to the DNR, the order was issued “to help stop the spread of feral swine and the disease risk they pose to humans, domestic pigs, and wildlife as well as their potential for extensive agricultural and ecosystem damage.” But the definition of feral seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way.

There is no doubt that Michigan is facing a feral pig problem. But why in the world would they be targeting small farms in an effort to deal with it? And watch out, because apparently there are a number of other states considering similar legislation.

Apparently the answer has to do with the wording of the Order, which defines a feral big based on particular physical characteristics including “straight ears, wooly hair, dark snouts, and stripes on the piglets”.

Get the whole story by clicking “read more” -> Read more »

National Farmers Union Press Release on House 2013 Budget Proposal

Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., of the House Budget Committee released the House of Representatives Republican plan for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget. The proposal would cut an additional $5.3 trillion in cuts over the next decade as compared to President Obama’s budget, which was released in February.

Farm Bill programs – including safety net, conservation, and nutrition programs – were targeted for a total of about $155 billion in cuts. This is a far deeper reduction than the bipartisan agreement of $23 billion reached by the agriculture committees during the Super Committee process.

The Ryan plan includes a proposal to cut $33.2 billion from farm safety net programs, which would severely constrain the ability of the next farm bill to provide policy that protects against yield losses and when markets collapse. In addition, the proposal would require several areas, including agriculture and health care, to make immediate cuts through reconciliation so that defense spending levels would not be reduced through the automatic “sequestration” cuts scheduled to go into effect in January 2013 as a result of the Super Committee’s failure to come to agreement last fall.

The proposal would restructure SNAP into a block grant in 2016 “after employment has recovered.” NFU policy opposes the shifting of federal nutrition programs to state block grants. Last year’s House budget proposal included a similar proposal for SNAP that was estimated to cut SNAP by 20 percent, or $127 billion over 10 years. However, the new 2013 budget proposal does not provide a specific budget savings number from SNAP. The resolution also proposes to make SNAP benefits contingent on work or job training, suggesting reform around work requirements, employment and training funds, and time limits.

The budget proposal would also shift Medicaid to a block grant program, and would provide seniors with a government payment to buy health insurance from either a qualified private plan or from Medicare. The proposal also completely repeals the two-year-old health care law, the Affordable Care Act. NFU policy opposes both Medicaid block grants and cutting funding from Medicare, and strongly supports implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

While the proposal was passed later this week by the House Budget Committee and is expected to pass the House without much difficulty, it is highly unlikely that the Senate will adopt this proposal. Negotiations will continue between Congress and the White House for the foreseeable future.

NFU’s statement on the FY 2012 House Budget proposal can be found here.