Latest News From Conservation

"I can't tell you if I can fit a metric ton of carbon equivalents in my front pocket," says Chris Hostetler. Carbon is not visible, so data is critical to back up carbon asset claims for innovations coming to market.

Pork producers often think about meat as the only commodity they produce. But Chris Hostetler at the National Pork Board argues they produce so much more and deserve to see benefits for their efforts.

The practices used during the 2024 growing season will have a direct impact on the ability to take advantage of these incentives. Mitchell Hora of Continuum Ag shares what you need to know.

The survey uses records from ag retailers to measure the use of cover crops, nutrient management and conservation tillage and no-till by Iowa growers.

AgWeb and Trust In Food’s beta Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator is matching producers with Climate-Smart Commodities grants tailored to their operation.

COP28's decision to not include food and agriculture as a way to meet climate goals was influenced by a request from the G77 group of developing countries for additional review related to agriculture and food.

USDA looks to improve the future measure, monitoring, reporting and verification of ag climate emissions via a $300 million investment announced on Wednesday.

Erik Lichtenberg, University of Maryland professor, says Congress could reorient farm bill conservation funds for climate change, but it could cut into their support.

“We can't prioritize one natural resource concern over all others and we shouldn't prioritize one solution above all others,” Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) said.

Winds topping 55 mph, along with dry soils, recently planted fields and the direction of the fierce winds, all created the "perfect storm" to cause the major dust storm that turned fatal Monday in Illinois.

"The prioritization of resource concerns must be left to the local level where producers decide how they can best address their unique and varied landscapes and needs," said Sen. John Boozman.

SNAP, which historically receives the greatest amount of farm bill funding, will see an 82% increase of a quarter-trillion-dollars.

A Senate Ag Committee hearing Thursday on the new farm bill raised a issue that is now evident: the Title 1 farm bill safety net can no longer deal with the current ag environment.

The House on Friday averted a government shutdown by voting 225 to 201 in favor of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023—the omnibus spending bill. Here's what's in it for ag.

Text of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package was released early Tuesday morning. The Senate will vote first and intends to pass the measure before Thursday, leaving the House no time to demand changes.

Norman Borlaug helped develop wheat varieties in Mexico, and later in Pakistan, India and other locations that helped feed and save the lives of millions of people, and his childhood is quite the story in itself.

By the end of the year, the Biden administration is expected to issue new rules that Government Lawyer Brian Fletcher told the court will “provide greater clarity to the regulated public on all parts of the test.”

The WOTUS case, Sackett v. EPA, centers on a long-running dispute involving an Idaho couple named Chantell and Michael Sackett. The Sacketts have won at the Supreme Court before.

Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) and partners will use funding in a five-year pilot project to demonstrate a climate-smart future for corn, soybean, livestock and renewable natural gas production.

The Inflation Reduction Act was signed into action on Tuesday, triggering a stream of funds to ag, including conservation. USDA penned a press release to break down its plans for roughly $60 billion in new funds.

EPA hosted its fifth WOTUS roundtable last week with the Kansas Livestock Association, revealing murky waters in the WOTUS definition.

Pork producers recently set sustainability goals for the industry, but a new On-Farm Sustainability Report is revealing the environmental improvements many pork producers have already achieved.

Although the meaning of sustainability has been subjected to a variety of interpretations, Animal Agriculture Alliance points out it is critical to understand sustainability is a continuous journey, not a destination.

Alltech launches its first renewable energy system and adopts the use of compressed natural gas at its Serdán plant in Mexico.

With Ukraine and Russia at war in the midst of a world moving away from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lot to consider in the 2023 Farm Bill. Industry experts weighed-in to share their predictions.

A federal judge on Friday blocked for now the Biden administration from restoring Obama-era values for calculating the cost of climate change in the government's permitting, investment and regulatory decisions.

AFBF President Zippy Duvall told members this week he will continue to press for policy that progresses agriculture, citing AFBF's work on changes to the White House's "America the Beautiful" plan as an example.

AFBF's in-person annual convention focused on everything from H-2A workers, drought, supply chain chaos and policy changes like the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed the group Monday.

A new report shows over one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten. Not only does this waste resources used to produce food, but it also creates a myriad of environmental impacts, EPA said. 

The EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are seeking comment on the pre-2015 WOTUS rule published in the Federal Register.

On Tuesday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack rang in on AgriTalk to share agriculture’s angle in the BBB plan with host Chip Flory.

McDonald’s is committing $5 million and partnering with AgMission, a global collaboration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and to develop and implement climate-smart farming solutions.

The Biden administration kicked off the nearly week-long trip EU climate trip with a $1 billion announcement. And there's more funds in the Build Back Better program, but some say details are still sparse.

Biden's new Build Back Better plan could have a sweeping impact on ag. The plan provides a boost to biofuels and conservation efforts and expands USDA's proposed minority farmer and rancher debt relief by $6 billion.

A team of researchers at Iowa State University is focusing specifically on the use of antibiotics in hog production and the possible impact on antimicrobial resistance. And the key may be conservation prairie strips.

On Tuesday, Bill Northey weighed in with some perspective on the budget reconciliation bill, which is part of the Biden administration's Build Back Better agenda.

As growers wade through the ever-deepening amount of carbon information available in the marketplace, they are asking for answers to these common questions.

Details of a U.S. land and water related executive order could be unveiled soon. Known as the ’30 by 30’ plan, it would place 30% of U.S. lands and 30% of U.S. waters under federal jurisdiction by 2030.

Where does conservation on the farm begin and end?  For one Iowa farm family, it's never ending. Jason and Sarah Russel farm in Monticello, Iowa. The two is make decisions every day that go well beyond the barn.

A new report suggests investments and partnerships in agriculture could help reduce U.S. GHG emissions by two-thirds by encouraging widespread adoption of climate-smart practices on farms and ranches.

The first in a series of webinars by the Global Farmer Network brought together a diverse panel of farmers to talk about the biggest issues in agriculture today.

As President Joe Biden took office Wednesday, one former Secretary of Agriculture thinks a Biden Administration and USDA will focus more on helping craft a farm bill that focuses on conservation.

New research has yielded several key findings on what farmers know about water-related issues, their concern around water resources, and conservation actions they take.

Your state department of agriculture might have just the answer—and resources—you need.

Pork producers have made tremendous strides in productivity - but consumers increasingly want to hear more about how the pork they enjoy eating makes productive use of limited resources, like energy, water and land.

A bi-partisan act introduced last week would maintain funding and acreage levels for the farm bill’s three largest conservation programs.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Michael Conaway said he’s delaying the release of a draft version of the 2018 Farm Bill as he seeks bipartisan support.  

Nearly six months after being nominated by President Trump to serve as USDA’s Undersecretary for farm production and conservation, Iowan Bill Northey has been confirmed.

Reducing nitrates in water is obviously beneficial to the public as well as agriculture, but usually those benefits aren’t quantified. A news study from Iowa State University may help.

Report calls for hog farm moratorium, new permit system