Conservation

Natural Resources Conservation Service Lays Out ‘Farmer First’ Vision

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 15:14:58 GMT

“I started as a customer of NRCS first,” says Aubrey Bettencourt, chief of the USDA agency that helps farmers and ranchers manage natural resources on private lands. As a third-generation California farmer, Bettencourt is leading the effort to make the Natural Resources Conservation Service work more efficiently and effectively for farmers.

Outlining four efforts, Bettencourt and NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey laid out their “farmer first” approach at the 2025 Trust in Food Symposium in Washington, D.C.:

Upgrade technology.
Revive hands-on service through field offices.
Improve data management and use.
Simplify programs.

Tech Overhaul to Reduce Burdens

Consolidating five internal systems into a single mobile-based platform will allow NRCS staff and farmers to access farm data while sitting on the pickup tailgate in real time, say agency officials. The initiative, referred to as “One Farmer, One File,” is intended to reduce duplicative paperwork and streamline conservation plan development.

According to Aspey, the new system will allow farmers to enter information only once, with NRCS and partner agencies, such as Farm Service Agency and Risk Management Agency, handling verification behind the scenes. He also notes the agency is experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) to help generate and certify conservation plans with basic farm data, which will get projects off the ground faster. [1] [2] Farmers will play a key role in providing a “reality check” in ensuring AI models accurately reflect real-world conditions, Aspey adds.

Improving rural broadband access [3] [4] [5] is essential to making the new system work, stress Bettencourt and Apsey. Without faster internet connections, agency service centers and farmers alike will continue to face what they call the “spinning wheel of death.”

Renewed Focus on Field-Based Service

NRCS was founded to provide one-on-one support and technical assistance, Bettencourt says, and changes are in the works to return to the agency’s field-based origins. While headquarter operations are being downsized, she says local service centers will remain open. The goal is to equip local offices with the tools and talent needed to meet farmers where they are.

The agency is reviewing staffing needs across its network of service centers, Aspey says, to identify and address regional gaps. Future hires will be fluent in the technologies used in modern production agriculture, such as drones, precision irrigation and autonomous equipment, Bettencourt adds.

Data Use and Farmer Trust

Knowing many farmers are wary of how their conservation data is used, Aspey says part of the agency’s modernization effort is to ensure data is not only protected but used in ways that benefit the farmer — such as helping them qualify for market premiums or regulatory recognition of conservation practices.

He also emphasizes the importance of streamlining recordkeeping across USDA, saying farmers should no longer have to submit the same information across multiple programs.

Partnerships and Program Tweaks

Bettencourt says NRCS wants to collaborate more with food companies, cooperatives and local conservation groups through existing vehicles such as the Conservation Partnership Program and Regional Conservation Partnership Program. She describes NRCS’s role in these efforts as the federal “gold standard” for conservation practice validation.

Within NRCS, agency officials are eyeing reforms to make conservation programs more accessible and responsive. For example, Aspey emphasizes programs must be designed to scale not just for large operations, but small family farms that typically face higher per unit costs. To better adapt to dynamic market conditions, Aspey says his team is considering tools such as payment schedules tied to inflation.

He points to the length and complexity of the easement process as a key barrier, saying simplification is a top priority. Acknowledging farmers have been frustrated with delays in the Conservation Stewardship Program, Aspey stresses farmers should be paid promptly after completing their work.

When it comes to program timing, NRCS deadlines often fall during the busy planting season, for example. NRCS officials say they aim to better align program timelines to farmers’ off-season schedules when possible.

Another target of farmer scrutiny is NRCS program language. Terms such as “eligible” and “accepted” might be familiar to agency staff, Aspey notes, but they can confuse or deter farmers who aren’t used to federal program jargon. NRCS officials say they aim to reduce this jargon to make programs more accessible. According to Bettencourt, they are also working to improve understanding of NRCS programs with other federal agencies, such as EPA, and food company partners. Her goal is “to be the farmer in the room,” so farmers get credit for engaging in voluntary conservation.

What Farmers Might Expect

If plans move forward, officials hope farmers will see faster service, reduced paperwork and improved access to mobile tools that allow them to work with NRCS on their own schedules. Bettencourt emphasizes changes are already underway but should be implemented in 2026.

“This is not a pipe dream,” she says. “We’re already demoing the system.”

According to Aspey, farmers will play a central role in shaping how that change unfolds — through feedback, collaboration and by challenging the agency to better reflect the realities of farming in 2025.

“You all are what makes the engine of the American economy go,” he says.

USDA Releases Approximately $20 Million of Paused Inflation Reduction Act Funding That Had Been Under Review

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 02:36:00 GMT

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced today that USDA will release the first tranche of funding that had been paused due to a review of Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) allocations.

Following White House directives, USDA is honoring existing contracts with farmers, releasing approximately $20 million for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP).

“American farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our nation,” said Rollins, citing regulatory burdens, environmental policies, and inflation as major challenges. She criticized the Biden administration’s handling of IRA funding but affirmed commitments to farmers who had already made investments.

.@SecRollins announced that @USDA will honor contracts that were already made directly to farmers and release the first tranche of funding that was paused due to the review of funding in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.https://t.co/xQdmZFzkwp
— House Committee on Agriculture (@HouseAgGOP) February 21, 2025

This marks the initial phase of released funding, with further announcements expected as USDA continues its review to ensure taxpayer dollars support farmers and ranchers rather than unrelated initiatives.

Earlier this week, while speaking at the Top Producer Summit in Kansas City, Rollins told AgriTalk’s Chip Flory asked about the paused IRA funding earlier this week, specifically the status of EQIP.

“Any commitments that were made previously, we will, of course, fulfill those commitments,” Rollins told Flory. “That’s the only way to do it. Everything that is forward leaning, that’s what we’re really focusing on reevaluating in the current environment.”

You can hear the full interview between Rollins and Flory below.

Your Next Read:
30 Minutes With Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins In Her First Week On the Job

USDA's Interim Rule for Climate-Smart Crops Used As Biofuel Feedstocks Viewed Favorable for Farmers

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 18:24:24 GMT

Today, USDA announced the publication of an interim rule on Technical Guidelines for Climate-Smart Agriculture Crops Used as Biofuel Feedstocks. The interim rule establishes guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the production of biofuel feedstock commodity crops grown in the United States.

USDA says these guidelines “will facilitate the recognition of climate-smart agriculture within clean transportation fuel programs, creating new market opportunities for biofuel feedstock producers while enhancing climate benefits.”

Highlights:

Farmers can choose one or more of the CSA actions — no-till or reduced-till, cover crops, and nutrient management.
Unlike prior rules, farmers no longer have to use all three on the same field at the same time.
Corn, soybeans, and sorghum are the crops specified as was noted in 45Z guidance.
USDA will release a beta version of what is called the USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) to facilitate the farm-level, crop-specific reductions.
There will be a final version established and results via the beta version should be viewed as preliminary.
60-day comment period on the interim final rule.
Key will be the chain of custody and traceability and recordkeeping requirements.

“The new guidelines are a win for farmers, biofuel producers, the public, and the environment. The action today marks an important milestone in the development of market-based conservation opportunities for agriculture,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

He added that today’s action builds on the prior work to create greater opportunity for homegrown, renewable biofuels. From making E15 more widely available at gas station pumps and approving record biofuel levels, to investing in infrastructure to help communities invest in biofuels, to accelerating a future for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF).

“America’s farmers play a critical role in building the clean energy economy,” said White House Senior Advisor for International Climate Policy John Podesta. “Today’s announcement from USDA reinforces the important role climate-smart agriculture plays in our rural economy, including in fueling clean transportation solutions, as well as the importance of providing pathways for unbundled, science-based accounting of the carbon benefits of climate-smart practices that help farmers earn more for what they grow.”

The rule establishes a framework to connect climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices applied in the production of feedstock crops with reductions in the carbon footprint of biofuels.

The rule includes three feedstock crops: corn, soy, and sorghum. It also covers CSA practices that could reduce GHG emissions or sequester carbon, including reduced till and no-till; cover cropping; and nutrient management practices, such as the use of nitrification inhibitors.

Importantly, the interim rule allows for adoption of CSA practices both individually or in combination. This means that participating farmers would have the flexibility to adopt the CSA practices that make sense for their operation, while still being able to produce feedstocks with reduced carbon intensities under the rule.

Through this interim rule, USDA is establishing standards that can be used to quantify, track, and report the impacts of these practices. The interim rule establishes voluntary guidelines that may inform the development of requirements for other programs which incentivize low-carbon biofuels.

USDA says establishing quantification and verification standards for climate-smart practices helps to ensure that the net GHG emissions reductions from these practices are real, thereby improving credibility and confidence, which could facilitate market opportunities for U.S. farmers growing biofuel feedstocks. Besides reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration, CSA practices can also generate additional environmental benefits, including improved water quality and soil health.

The interim rule includes guidelines on the following:

Biofuel feedstock crops and entities in the biofuel supply chain;
Quantification of farm-level crop-specific carbon intensity;
Chain of custody standards for entities in the biofuel supply chain, including traceability and recordkeeping standards;Auditing and verification requirements; and
Climate-smart agriculture practice standards for the biofuel feedstock crops included under the rule.

USDA is also publishing a beta version of the USDA Feedstock Carbon Intensity Calculator (USDA FD-CIC) to facilitate the quantification of farm-level crop-specific carbon intensity. USDA FD-CIC allows for the calculation of a farm-scale carbon intensity in line with the standards in the interim rule. USDA will complete a peer-review process to finalize the methodology and resulting carbon intensities included in USDA FD-CIC.

USDA will evaluate and respond to the public feedback and peer-review provided on USDA FD-CIC, after which USDA will establish a final version. Until that time, USDA says users should consider values from USDA FD-CIC as preliminary. As part of this process of testing and feedback prior to finalization, the public will have the opportunity to examine and download USDA FD-CIC to experience how it would operate.

Next Steps

USDA is requesting public comment on the interim rule to help inform future revisions or additions to the final rule. Interested parties are welcome to submit comments on any aspect of the rule. Interested parties may submit comments during the 60-day public comment period at regulations.gov.

Trump Return Likely to Slow, Not Stop, U.S. Clean-energy Boom

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:40:48 GMT

Donald Trump’s return to the White House will refocus the nation’s energy policy onto maximizing oil and gas production and away from fighting climate change, but the Republican win in Tuesday’s presidential election is unlikely to dramatically slow the U.S. renewable energy boom.

Investor fears of a reversal under Trump sent clean-energy stocks down sharply on Wednesday. The MAC Global Solar Energy index was down 10% in midday trade, while shares of top renewable project developer and owner NextEra Energy slid 6.2%.

A Biden-era law providing a decade of lucrative subsidies for new solar, wind and other clean-energy projects would be near-impossible to repeal, however, thanks to support from Republican states, while other levers available to the next president would only have marginal impact, analysts say.

“I don’t think a Trump president can slow the transition,” said Ed Hirs, energy fellow at the University of Houston. “This is well under way.”

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are the fastest-growing segments on the power grid, according to the Department of Energy, driven by federal tax credits, state renewable-energy mandates, and technology advancements that have lowered their costs.

President Joe Biden in 2022 signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act guaranteeing billions of dollars of solar and wind subsidies for another decade as part of his broader effort to decarbonize the power sector by 2035 to fight climate change.

Before the election, Trump slammed the IRA as being too expensive and promised to rescind all unspent funds allocated by the law - a threat that, if accomplished, could pour cold water over the U.S. clean energy boom. But dismantling the IRA would require lawmakers, including those whose states have benefited from IRA-related investments such as solar-panel factories, wind farms and other projects, to vote to repeal it.

“The jobs and the economic benefits have been so heavy in red states, it’s hard to see an administration come in that says, ‘we don’t like this,’” said Carl Fleming, a partner at law firm McDermott Will & Emery, who advised the Biden White House on renewable energy policy.

Many of Trump’s allies also benefit from the IRA through their investments in clean-energy technologies, Reuters has previously reported.

Fleming said Trump could, however, slow things down around the margins by hindering federal agencies that deliver IRA grants and loans, or by reducing federal leasing for things such as offshore wind.

“You could see a new administration come in and they can very quickly begin to cut budgets or restrict budgets or restrict the freedom of agencies to do certain things that are tied to funding,” he said. “But I think that’s a smaller subset of the larger renewables market that’s really relying on those, so I don’t think it would have a shocking effect.”

The Biden administration has rushed to ensure it spends the majority of available grant funding under the IRA before a new president arrives, Reuters has previously reported.

One way Trump could slow the transition is through executive action by changing public lands leasing, analysts said. The Biden administration had sought to expand lease auctions for offshore wind in federal waters, along with solar and wind on land.

“I think you would see more preference given to fossil-fuel extraction on public lands and waters,” said Tony Dutzik, associate director and senior policy analyst at Frontier Group, a non-profit sustainability think-tank.

That could have an outsized impact on the offshore-wind industry, which aims to site projects in federal waters. Most onshore solar and wind projects are located on private property, as is the vast majority of oil and gas drilling. Trump has said he intends to end the offshore-wind industry “on day one,” arguing it is too expensive and poses a threat to whales and seabirds, a dramatic policy reversal after his first administration supported offshore-wind development.

Bernstein Research said Trump is likely to enact a moratorium on new offshore-wind lease sales. Meanwhile, U.S. fossil-fuel production is likely to look much the same under Trump, experts said. The U.S. has already become the world’s largest oil and gas producer, under the watch of Biden, thanks to a drilling boom in fields such as the Permian Basin under Texas and New Mexico.

The production boom started under former President Barack Obama and has continued through the Trump and Biden presidencies. Even so, Trump’s campaign has sought to claim credit, saying his efforts to slash regulatory red tape during his 2017-2021 term paved the way, and arguing he could further expand U.S. fossil-fuel production in a second term by rolling back Biden’s climate initiatives.

“Presidents can make a lot of noise about plans for U.S. oil and gas, but ultimately it’s individuals and companies responding to prices of a global commodity that make the decisions on when to drill,” said Jesse Jones, head of North American upstream at Energy Aspects.

Dan Eberhart, Trump donor and CEO of oilfield-services company Canary, LLC, said he supports Trump’s encouragement of increased oil-and-gas drilling, saying it could further lower energy prices for businesses and consumers.

He added he would also welcome a move by Trump to once again withdraw the United States from international climate cooperation, like he did in his first term, arguing other big greenhouse-gas emitters were not doing enough.

“The Paris accord was aspirational and meaningless if China and India don’t participate,” he said, referring to a landmark U.N. deal in 2015 to limit global warming.

The Future of the Food Supply Chain Depends On Your Choices Today

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 22:20:44 GMT

The future of food depends on sustainable farming — and pork and soybean producers are leading the charge to protect both the planet and the supply chain.

When the word “sustainability” comes to mind, many think of practices that maintain resources and ensure the future of production agriculture. Today, the sustainability stakes are higher than ever.

Lucas Lentsch, CEO of the United Soybean Board, says sustainability is more than just a buzzword.

“It’s something farmers believe in. It’s about ensuring multiple generations can continue farming while maintaining public trust,” he explains.

This commitment is woven into farming operations in numerous ways, including nutrient management, crop rotation and resource stewardship. But why does this matter? The food system is interconnected, and the choices made on farms today will determine the health of the land and the security of the food supply.

The sustainability stakes are higher than ever.

(National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff)

In 2018, the pork and soybean commodity organizations recognized their interdependence. Corn and soy provide feed for pigs, and in turn, pigs help maintain soil health through the nutrients their manure provides.

“ 60% of the cost and impact of sustainability in pork production comes from the feed the hogs consume ,” says Bill Even, CEO of the National Pork Board.

The relationship between these sectors is symbiotic, where the nutrient cycle directly affects the efficiency and sustainability of both crop and livestock production.

“You take livestock nutrients, put them on the land to grow corn and soybeans, which becomes feed for the pigs, and out pops a ham,” Even explains.

This cycle, while often overlooked by the broader public, is a key reason why on-farm sustainability matters so much. It’s not just about individual farm practices — it’s about sustaining an entire food system that millions rely on daily. Farmers have always focused on sustainability, even if it went by other names such as conservation or stewardship.

“It’s doing the right thing when nobody’s looking because you know it’s the right thing to do,” Lentsch says.

As consumer demands for sustainability have grown, particularly in the food supply chain, farmers are stepping up to meet those expectations. Restaurants and retailers now seek sustainably produced pork and soybeans, pushing producers to share their progress transparently.

A farmer spreads feed on a mat for a new group of pigs.

(National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff)

“They know as a brand they have to do their part,” Lentsch says. “It’s all integrated from the farm gate through to the consumer’s grocery experience.”

To back up these claims, the National Pork Board has developed the Pork Cares Farm Impact Report , a third-party verified, personalized report that is also aggregated for state and national pork associations. This transparency is essential for maintaining consumer trust and showing that pork producers are aligned with larger environmental goals.

While the cost of implementing sustainability practices can be a concern for farmers, Even points out these practices can actually boost a farm’s credibility and market competitiveness. Programs such as USDA’s “ Farmers for Soil Health ” initiative are helping to make sustainability more accessible. The program is an initiative backed by National Pork Board, United Soybean Board and National Corn Growers Association through the USDA Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities. It aims to double the number of corn and soybean acres using cover crops by 2030, which will significantly improve soil health and farm resilience in the long run.

Both the National Pork Board and United Soybean Board are farmer-led organizations, ensuring that decisions about sustainability are made by those who understand the industry’s challenges firsthand. These efforts aren’t just about environmental responsibility — they’re about ensuring the future of farming in an increasingly competitive and resource-constrained world.

“Would you miss us if we were gone?” Lentsch asks. “The entire food chain would miss what farmers do, whether it’s raising pork, poultry or the commodities that feed them. It’s all part of an integrated society.”

His point is clear: Sustainability isn’t just important for farmers — it’s critical for the future of the entire food supply chain, and ultimately, for all consumers.

Your Next Read: Don’t Back Down From the Hard Stuff in the Pork Industry

Iowa Beef and Pork Producer Wins Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 16:20:41 GMT

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig will present the Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award to the Isreal (Is) and Kristin Noelck Family of Franklin County, Iowa, on Aug. 23.

The Wergin Good Farm Neighbor Award is made possible through a partnership with the Coalition to Support Iowa’s Farmers (CSIF), The Big Show on WHO Radio and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Now in its 20th year, this award recognizes Iowa livestock farmers who take pride in caring for the environment and their livestock while also being good neighbors. It is named in memory of Gary Wergin, a long-time WHO Radio farm broadcaster who helped create the award.

A Multi-Generational Family Farm
Noelck Farms was established in the 1960s by Ivan and Karen Noelck. In 1992, their son, Is, joined the farming operation. Today, the multi-generational family farm includes Is and his wife, Kristin, and their three children: sons Isaiah and his wife Reann and their daughter Halston; Noah and his fiancé Maci; and daughter Isabella. An additional farming partnership includes Is’ brother Issac and his family. Though Ivan and Karen have since retired, at one point, three generations of the family were farming the land together, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said in a release.

“Multi-generational farm families like the Noelcks are key to the continued strength and resiliency of our rural communities. Not only do the Noelcks demonstrate care for their land and livestock, but they are also deeply embedded into the fabric of their community through service to others,” Secretary Naig said in a release.

Livestock production is a critical part of the Noelcks’ farm. In addition to owning a cow-calf herd, the family finishes cattle and hogs. They maintain health and production records on their registered purebred Angus herd and are Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certified. Their hog operation is outfitted with the latest technology to ensure the pigs are raised in a comfortable environment to ensure maximum efficiency and productivity, the release said.

The family also grows corn, soybeans and hay, incorporating conservation on their fields to protect the soil and improve water quality. They utilize no-till and strip tillage to minimize disruption to the soil. For the past eight years, they have planted cover crops, including rye and various brassicas depending on the crop rotation.

The family also owns or co-owns two area businesses: Noelck Ag Services and Franklin Grassland Seed, both of which trace back to area farmer and businessman Dennis Strother.

“Dennis and Is started feeding cattle together at the farmstead that the Noelcks eventually purchased and now live on. But the partnership between the two men extends much further,” the release said.

Now known as Noelck Ag Services, co-owned with Kristin’s cousin Ross Enslin, the business started as Strother’s Pioneer Seed dealership in 1997. Is started as an associate and the business eventually transitioned to his ownership even as they continued to work together for a few years.

Today, the business continues as a retailer for Pioneer Seed as well as Titan Pro Crop Protection products. Franklin Grassland, a feed and seed business, sells lawn, CRP, and cover crop seed. Strother started the business in 1987 and transitioned it to his son Scott in 2000 before it was purchased by the Noelck family.

“The Noelcks are big proponents of serving their community as well as the agricultural industry,” the release said.

Is has served on the Franklin County Cattlemen’s board for many years and was a youth baseball and football coach. He also has served in a leadership capacity with Pheasants Forever. Kristin was on the school’s Quarterback Club to raise funds for the football program. Family members are also members of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa Corn Growers Association, American Angus Association, American Hereford Association, and American Maine-Anjou Association.

Feral Hog Predation on Coastal American Alligator Nests

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 14:41:11 GMT

By Sarah Fuller, Texas A&M AgriLife

Researchers with the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management are keeping a watchful eye on American alligator nests to shed light on the potential impacts of feral hog predation and to understand how these reptiles use habitat across an ever-changing Texas landscape.

While American alligator populations in the U.S. are healthy overall, some fare better than others regionally. Researchers are working to answer the many questions that can help guide management actions and ensure healthy populations into the future, said John Tomeček, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management.

Up close and personal data collection
To help answer some of these questions, Tomeček’s graduate student, Alyssa Freeman, has been collecting copious amounts of data.

Freeman, who is pursuing a master’s degree in rangeland, wildlife and fisheries management, spent the last two summers equipping active alligator nests with game cameras at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s 25,852-acre J.D. Murphree Wildlife Management Area, WMA, documenting instances of nest predation and the species responsible.

In addition to nest monitoring, Freeman and biologists attached GPS transmitters to breeding-size male and female alligators to monitor their movement and habitat usage.

“Aside from longer-term changes in climate and habitat, human modification of coastal marshes and wetlands can change the dynamics of alligator nest selection sites, potentially exposing nests to increased rates of predation,” Freeman said.

The GPS transmitters send location readings every hour of the day to Freeman’s computer, allowing her to remotely monitor and map the animals’ fine-scale movements.

This data will provide Freeman and Tomeček with key insights into habitat use and nesting site selection.

“From nest predation to habitat use and selection, this project is looking at a wide array of factors that will enable us to better manage alligators now and into the future,” Tomeček said.

Initial findings indicate feral hog impact
During her two summers of data collection, Freeman monitored 28 active alligator nests throughout the WMA. Her initial assessment indicated that roughly half were predated by feral hogs.

“Although alligators evolved alongside native nest predators, such as raccoons, this additional pressure from a non-native species is an added threat to an already low nest survival rate,” Freeman said.

Freeman said a 2012 survey of licensed alligator farmers from Louisiana found that over half of the farmers reported losing alligator nests to feral hogs the previous year. Roughly 590 nests were damaged or destroyed on 36 separate properties across the state.

Even if the feral hogs don’t eat the eggs, the nest disturbance and exposure to warmer ambient temperatures can alter the sexual composition of the remaining clutch.

“Alligators experience temperature-dependent sex determination, meaning the incubation temperature directly affects whether the animal will hatch as a male or female,” Tomeček said.

While eggs incubated at roughly 86 degrees and below result in female hatchlings, eggs exposed to warmer temperatures result in males.

Tomeček said this is a serious concern for conservationists considering the ripple effects it could have on reproduction and healthy alligator populations in the future.

Alligators — a conservation success story
While the Southeastern U.S. now supports robust populations of the American alligator, these prehistoric reptiles came perilously close to joining the ranks of the hundreds of wildlife species that have gone extinct since the turn of the 20th century.

Unregulated hunting, driven largely by a demand for exotic, luxury products, lead to a precipitous decline in alligator populations across their native range. This, coupled with habitat loss, brought the species to the brink of extinction by the mid-1960s. American alligators first received federal protection under the Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966, a predecessor to the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

Tomeček said state and federal partnerships, as well as restocking contributions from alligator farms, enabled the population to recover over roughly two decades.

Currently, alligator population estimates range from 400,000 to 500,000 in Texas, with the majority located in the southern and eastern portions of the state.

Freeman said alligators are currently listed as a species of least conservation concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. But proactive research like this is important as scientists continue to better understand and monitor the species as it faces urbanization, changing sea and salinity levels in coastal wetlands, invasive species pressure and more.

“We assume alligators are fine because we recovered them from historic overharvest, but they may be facing different challenges now that are harder to see,” Tomeček said. “Alyssa is working to untangle some key questions. We have to figure out how we can better manage these animals to ensure healthy populations into the future.”

Living alongside alligators
While American alligators are apex predators and should never be approached, both Tomeček and Freeman said they typically try to avoid human interactions and are much less aggressive than their evolutionary relative — the saltwater crocodile.

Although documented alligator attacks in Texas are extremely rare, situational awareness and proper precautions when recreating in and around alligator habitat are important.

“If you know alligators frequent a certain area, do not swim there,” Freeman said. “Additionally, do not allow your dog or small children to go near the water because they resemble common prey animals for alligators.”

Additional precautions include:

1. Acknowledge and obey signage warning of the presence of alligators.

2. If fishing, avoid disposing of harvest scraps in the water or along the bank, as this can attract alligators.

3. Never feed alligators. This can result in food conditioning, where wild animals begin to associate humans with food. In some cases, this can lead to aggression and danger for both humans and the animal.

More Texans may see alligators as communities expand along habitats such as bayous or community reservoirs, but Tomeček said a sighting doesn’t necessarily equate to a safety issue.

“It is important for folks to understand that just because they see an alligator out and about, it doesn’t mean that it’s a threat to anyone,” Tomeček said. “Before calling authorities, people should ask themselves if the animal is truly causing a safety issue. They’re valuable to our ecosystem and are an iconic part of the Southeastern U.S. They’re something to be proud of.”

What To Know From The Biden Administration's New Carbon Policy Statement

Thu, 30 May 2024 19:03:45 GMT

At the end of May, the Biden Administration published the Joint Policy Statement and Principles on Voluntary Carbon Markets . Farm CPA Paul Neiffer joined the AgriTalk podcast to break down the details of this 12-page document and what the ag industry needs to know.

According to Neiffer, part of the publication’s purpose is to steer companies toward more reliable methods of using carbon.

“You have these large, publicly traded companies that have been greenwashing. They’ve been trying to help the climate, so they go out and buy these credits that really aren’t very valid,” he says. “They’re trying to state the goals for these companies should not be to buy these carbon credits. Their goal really should be to fix their own carbon footprint in their own company and in their supply chain.”

Overall, he says the publication isn’t quite a policy, but more of a statement encouraging companies to clean up their supply chains.

When it comes to farmers, Neiffer believes the ag industry should begin focusing more on 45z tax credits and carbon intensity scores rather than carbon credits.

“It seems to be implying if you’ve already done a great job of reducing your carbon footprint, you’re not going to get a payment because you can’t really reduce your carbon footprint any further,” he says. “Whereas if you’re a farmer that maybe hasn’t done a great job [of reducing your carbon footprint], we’ll give you a payment because we can see in that case where we can reduce your footprint.”

For those who still intend to purchase carbon credits, the second half of the policy statement made an effort to create standards for program participation and make sure there is transparency, identification and documentation.

“They want to make sure it’s legit if you’re buying this carbon credit that you’re actually removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” Neiffer says.

To hear more from Neiffer, listen to this episode of AgriTalk.

Related Stories

There’s a New Way to Cash in on Your CI Score on the Farm, Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act

How To Increase Your Potential SAF Tax Credits Now

Food Security is a Real Challenge

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 15:27:55 GMT

A recent airport visit gave me a new perspective on challenges commercial food production faces with consumers. While hunting for coffee, I came across a retail kiosk with cups sitting out. Sadly, they did not have coffee, but an employee came over to see if she could help me. I told her no thank you, and she moved toward an adjacent self-serve display with various unwrapped baked goods.

She commenced to throw seven of these awesome “$4-muffins” into the trash. I asked what she was doing. She said she did this every day, placing the day-old pastries in the trash before she put fresh pastries in the display. I asked her how many she threw out each day, and she said six to eight. She has never eaten any of the baked goods, she said.If she tasted one without purchasing it, she would lose her job.

I asked why the company didn’t coordinate with other airport food vendors to have the day-old products collected and donated to a homeless shelter or food bank. She stated it currently was not a policy for the airport.

I got coffee from a different spot and walked away disheartened. I started talking to a lady at my gate who ironically was eating a muffin. We stewed about this wastefulness. I started pacing and walked back to the kiosk.

The back of their display discussed offering fresh, seasonal, healthy and sustainable provisions which are locally produced on small farms. Many consumers would take the statements on this kiosk as fact; however, this business’s food waste is in direct conflict with its stance on sustainability.

I strongly believe this business’ management does not recognize the negative impact this waste has on the sustainability of their business. Perhaps the business policy is due to fiscal sustainability or the cost to facilitate efforts to use and not waste food.

Stealing sustainability

Food insecurity is a real challenge. Efficient commercial food production is a driver to mitigate food insecurity. Food waste continues to be part of insecurity. In the developed world, most waste is from retail or foodservice prepared food. In the developing world, it is the lack of infrastructure to harvest or transport food in a timely manner.

I am pro-niche market, value-added, direct-to-consumer. However, pork from a pig with a ribbon in its hair does not mean it is more or less sustainably produced than commodity pork.

As an industry, we are far from perfect. We occasionally have people who do stupid stuff that can compromise consumer confidence in commercial food production. Yet the growth efficiency and by-product utilization of modern commercial pork production and processing bodes well for its environmental and social sustainability.

In some regards, artisan food has stolen the term sustainable, and that has been done in error. Commercial food production has a great sustainability story. Consumers should challenge food businesses to embrace truly sustainable practices, reduce waste and maximize resources.

Chad Carr is a meat Extension specialist at the University of Florida.

Read More from Chad Carr:

Enhanced Meat: How Consumers Drove Change

Ground Meat: Don’t Believe Everything You See on Social Media

Show Pig Dads: We Have to Show Up Differently

Food-Savvy Vs. Food Safety: Fretting Fathers Listen Up

Data Makes the Difference: PIC Seeks Answers to Environmental Impact of Genetics

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 15:04:22 GMT

When it comes to valuing innovation such as genetic improvement, one of the most important steps you can take is to complete a life cycle assessment (LCA), explains Chris Hostetler, director of animal science at the National Pork Board.

LCAs verify the environmental impact data is defensible, Hostetler says, so you don’t have a situation where an innovation is accused of greenwashing. LCAs allow you to test and verify the entire system to determine if carbon equivalents were, in fact, generated.

“It’s very critical that an LCA be conducted for any innovation that would be coming into the market in terms of a carbon asset,” he adds. “I cannot tell you if I can fit a metric ton of carbon equivalents in my front pocket. Carbon is not visible. So, the data is where the reliability of those claims comes from. For me, being able to collect the data accurately, and in a defensible manner, is critical to ensuring that the carbon assets are what they say they are.”

That’s a gap that PIC has been working to address.

What’s the Benefit of Genetic Improvement?

PIC is in the process of wrapping up LCAs to quantify the environmental benefits that can be achieved through the use of PIC’s genetic improvements, including those achieved through gene editing. The company saw an opportunity for the entire industry to potentially monetize genetic improvements because healthier, more robust pigs are more feed efficient and create less waste.

For PIC, LCAs allow them to compare how their full-line PIC genetics compare to the industry average. Highly respected LCA modeler Greg Thoma is serving as the lead principal investigator for PIC, looking at the impact of genetic improvements in North America, Europe and Asia.

“He’s running independent LCAs that allow us to understand specifically what the impact of our genetics are comparable to the industry averages in those countries. He’s running a separate LCA on the impact of PRRS and with our PRRS-resistant pig, isolating the impact of what that product would do for the environment,” says Banks Baker, global director, product sustainability for PIC.

PIC received International Organization of Standardization (ISO) conformance for its North American LCA in February. The LCA shows that in North America, a full program PIC animal delivers a 7.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the industry average, Baker says.

“Essentially, what that’s saying is, we’re taking the production efficiencies achieved through using a full-program PIC animal and we’re expressing those as an environmental benefit. For a downstream corporation that uses a national emissions factor that says this is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per pound of pork, if that system utilized a PIC full-program animal, it would have a 7.5% reduced greenhouse gas emissions comparable to that average,” Baker explains.

Although that’s great news, what he’s most excited about is that this LCA is one of the first to experience that level of validation to quantify the impact of genetics on environmental outcomes.

“There’s a lot of people making bold, ambitious commitments,” Baker says. “A recent lawsuit says that is not enough, you need to go further now. We’re starting to see a huge increase in greenwashing claims. We’re not interested in being general, we’re interested in doing this 100% correctly.”

That’s why PIC’s LCA is going through such rigorous due diligence, including plans to submit each LCA for academic peer review. There is no doubt that this space is going to have scrutiny, Baker adds.

“We’re talking about creating some type of carbon value that is transferable,” Baker says. “There’s something tangible to that, and especially in a space that’s so immature, we need to make sure that that’s real.”

What is the Cost of Disease?

Not only are there a number of diseases that affect swine production, but there are a number of welfare issues and management practices that affect swine production, too. One of the diseases that weighs on the minds of pork producers across the country is porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

“PRRS is devastating disease. It is a costly disease that’s a huge drag on our efficiency,” Hostetler says. “Efficiency, whether that’s feed efficiency or efficiency of throughput of animals, is really at the heart of sustainability. Improvements in efficiency through mitigation of the impact of disease has a great potential for conveying a carbon asset.”

PIC is currently conducting an LCA on its gene edited PRRS-Resistant Pig genetics and the resulting reduction that can be claimed.

“PIC believes that one of the most important things that can be done to improve the sustainability of protein production is to raise the right animal, one that is healthy, robust and efficient,” says Baker. “Genetic sustainability offers unique opportunities because it mitigates emissions rather than sequestering them and is effective regardless of geographic location.”

PIC expects the results to be coming soon on the PRRS-Resistant Pig LCA.

A Sustainable Pathway

Because animal genetics have never been utilized or invested in this way, PIC is collaborating across the pork value chain to ensure a credible standard is established that allows genetic benefits to be understood, shared and claimed.

“If the gene edit for PRRS becomes commercially available, there will be other gene edits that become commercially available down the road, whether that’s for swine health issues or a practice that reduces painful procedures,” Hostetler says.

This effort could serve as a roadmap for other gene edit innovations to come to the market as well, Hostetler says.

“Some of the strongest programs we’re seeing incorporate sustainability around greenhouse gas reductions. If we can show that genetic improvements can support that, including those that can be achieved through gene editing, it allows for a better platform for market acceptance,” Baker says. “It shows we’re creating a shared value that goes further than just a producer and allows everybody to share in that win.”

Read More:

How Valuing Carbon Could Open Doors for Pork Producers

The Wild Wild West of Carbon Markets: Where Do Swine Genetics Fit?

How Valuing Carbon Could Open Doors for Pork Producers

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 14:24:35 GMT

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

In October 2022, PIC and the National Pork Board teamed up to develop a framework that will help demonstrate the valuable role genetics play in creating a more sustainable protein supply . This framework will help determine what needs to credibly be done and demonstrated in order for corporations to claim a genetic improvement as a greenhouse gas reduction.

PIC recently completed its first life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the sustainability benefits that can be achieved through the use of their program’s genetic improvements. A second LCA quantifying the sustainability benefits achieved through gene editing is forthcoming. The company saw an opportunity for the entire industry to potentially value genetic improvements because healthier, more robust pigs are more feed efficient and create less waste.

LCAs are standardized models that allow the environmental impact of a product to be quantified. Hostetler says it’s a good time to gather data to create LCAs to quantify alternative value streams for pork producers.

“We have the ability now, through a variety of technological platforms, to collect data in a very robust way. I think that the timing, in terms of where we’re at as an industry, is really good for gathering that information, warehousing that data, and then scaling that up to the industry as a whole,” Hostetler says.

The ultimate goal is physical monetization of carbon credits that are attributed to innovation leading to genetic improvement, he explains.

“In this project, we are working on innovations related to genetics, but there are other innovations that may convey a carbon benefit as well,” Hostetler adds. “Development of this framework, and ultimately the writing of the protocol and executing a pilot project, creates a roadmap for other innovations in place of a genetic innovation.”

When No Standards Exist

The framework is almost complete and will answer a lot of questions for companies interested in monetizing innovation, says Banks Baker, global director, product sustainability for PIC.

“It outlines all the things that must exist in order for a corporation to make a claim. How do you validate? What does the reduction have to occur? Who gets the claim? It’s kind of a precursor to a carbon protocol,” he says.

In this emerging carbon space, limited standards exist, Baker adds. Because of that, there are no standards to create a standard either.

“We worked with National Pork Board and the Context Network, an agricultural-based consultancy, to help us build out what that framework would look like. They helped us engage with the whole value chain all the way from producers to carbon experts to downstream buyers of this potential asset, like foodservice and processors. We wanted to know what they would have to see in this framework to make it credible and usable,” Baker says.

They opened up the proposed framework for public comment for a two-month period, received over 100 pieces of feedback and revisions, and then went back to work on the framework. A final public comment period for the revised framework was held in March.

“We’ll make revisions again,” Baker says. “And then we’ll have an outline of what needs to exist in order for genetic improvements to be claimed as a scope three greenhouse gas reduction downstream.”

Once the framework is finished, PIC plans to pilot it with the food system partners to go out and demonstrate that carbon value can be created, that it exists and that it can also be transferred to other stakeholders in the supply chain.

“We’re in the final stages of building out what those pilots could look like,” Baker says. “We’d like to do a full inset carbon program pilot, where we’ll start with a producer that utilizes a full-program PIC animal and track the carbon reduction benefits to the packer/processor and the primary origin foodservice or retail user. There may also be opportunities to include a renderer and user of that rendered product.”

There is a piece of that carbon value that each member in that inset pilot project can claim, he adds.

“We don’t know if this will end up being a minted carbon credit. I think we’re starting to see carbon treated as a preferential product attribute similar to what you would see in the meat industry like a quality grade or some type of differentiated product, like a no antibiotic ever or specific housing system,” Baker says. “But we believe there’s some value the producer can get from that, whether it be a direct economic incentive from a premium, or a minted carbon credit that can be sold, and they can retain some of the value.”

At the end of the day, PIC and National Pork Board are trying to figure out the different ways that this could potentially play out, while understanding how they can enable significant reductions at scale for all of those different members that are in the value chain.

“We’re hoping to have the pilot done by the end of 2024,” Hostetler says. “We welcome and encourage other companies that have genetic innovations or other innovations to use this framework and protocol adopted to their specific needs to monetize their carbon credit, too. This has been paid for by the pork producers, so it’s publicly available for use by others.”

How Can It Help You?

Coming off nearly two years of economic challenges, Hostetler encourages producers to think about additional revenue streams that they produce beyond pork.

“We see it over on the dairy side,” he says. “The dairy producers in California are not making money on their milk. They’re making money on methane that they harvest off of their manure storage.”

There may be other valuable components to sustainability that pork producers produce beyond carbon, Hostetler points out. For example, water may be monetized at some point in time. Through manure, nitrogen is monetized already. As other markets develop for ecosystem assets in the future, he believes what the pork industry is doing today in the carbon space could have direct correlation to those ecosystem asset markets as well.

Production efficiency already delivers value back to a producer, Banks says, through healthy, robust, efficient animals. But he’s excited that there could be even more captured from improvements in efficiency beyond the farm.

“Now we’re able to share that outcome back to corporations that need these benefits,” Baker says. “Many things we’ve seen invested in, like regenerative agriculture, no-till and grazing, are all important interventions and will be a part of the solution that get us to 2030 and 2050.”

But he points out that they are also very complex models to validate progress. Typically, they focus on sequestering carbon, which is a biological process that can be hindered by a variety of environmental variables.

“One of the things we’re excited about on the genetic side is that it’s a mitigation opportunity. We’re able to actually abate those emissions before they even occur. We’re lucky in pork because so many of our production systems are inside. We’ve got limited environmental variables and the models we use to estimate those impacts are much cleaner and easier to demonstrate,” Baker says.

All of this results in a higher degree of credibility.

“I think it will be exciting when we get large brands on board and this goes from being this theoretical possibility to something that’s real where we can actually show that this value does exist and there’s a new value proposition for producers at the end of it,” Baker says.

Read More:

Data Makes the Difference: PIC Seeks Answers to Environmental Impact of Genetics

The Wild Wild West of Carbon Markets: Where Do Swine Genetics Fit?

How To Increase Your Potential SAF Tax Credits Now

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 22:54:02 GMT

With sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) tax credits beginning in 2025, the practices farmers use during the 2024 growing season will have a direct impact on their ability to take advantage of these incentives.

Mitchell Hora of Continuum Ag recently joined the Top Producer podcast to share the best ways to begin preparing now.

“If you’re selling to a biofuel plant, the company will be asking you for management information, and they might be just directly asking you for your carbon intensity score,” Hora says.

A grower’s carbon intensity (CI) score is calculated based on a tool from the U.S. Department of Energy called the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model. The score can vary from field to field and year to year.

According to Hora, the GREET model tells growers what their crop’s carbon footprint is. And for the corn and soybeans that will be planted this spring, the footprint is already being made.

“To maximize this opportunity in the calendar year 2025, we need to optimize the carbon intensity of the corn that we’re going to grow, and the soybeans we’re going to grow in 2024,” he says. “The practices that we did this fall, like tillage, manure, fertilizer and cover crops directly impact the carbon intensity of this 2024 crop.”

The upcoming tax credits are dependent on the crop’s CI score, and the maximum credit would be $1 per gallon for ethanol and biodiesel and $1.75 per gallon for SAF. However, Hora doesn’t advise expecting to receive that value.

“I think it’s going to be tough to get there,” he says. “If my corn has a CI score of zero, it doesn’t necessarily mean the ethanol has a score of zero because there are a lot of other factors that go into it.”

He shares on average, U.S. ethanol has a CI score of 55.5 while U.S. corn has a CI score of 29 – though he has seen scores range from 44 to -13.

How to Find and Improve Your Score
As far as how to figure a CI score, producers can download the GREET model and input their data, but Hora warns it can get complicated. He shares Continuum Ag has developed a program that simplifies the model, though there is a fee to access it.

“It plugs in your typical fertilizer, typical yield, what you do for tillage, if you use cover crops, fuel usage, etc.,” he says. “Then we run the actual GREET model and as they create updates, we’re ready for it and just plug in the new model. All of our farmers will get their updated CI score.”

Once growers receive their CI scores, they may be curious how certain practices change it. Hora lists a few of the ways producers can lower their scores, such as:
• Using a cover crop ahead of corn
• Supplementing or replacing synthetic fertilizer with manure
• Reducing tillage by implementing strip till or no till practices
• Decreasing diesel fuel usage and energy inputs
• Improving yield to spread carbon input across more bushels

He also encourages consulting with your agronomist to find the steps you need to take next.

“We cannot just sit back and wait,” Hora says. “There 6 billion bushels of corn that goes into ethanol every year in this country, and right now all 6 billion bushels have a default CI score. We need to keep having the conversation of getting more farmers aware and getting more farmers to get their CI score.”

To hear more about SAF tax credits, listen to this episode of the Top Producer podcast.

Related Stories:

Carbon’s Next Chapter On The Farm

Carbon Intensity Is Going To Be A Team Sport

Iowa Study: Soil Conservation Practices On The Rise

Wed, 24 Jan 2024 20:02:40 GMT

Beginning in the 2017 growing season, The Iowa Nutrient Research & Education Council (INREC) has worked over the past six years with Iowa State University and local ag retailers to study the progress of conservation practices used on the state’s crop acres.

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. When comparing their latest data from the 2022 growing season with 2017’s records, researchers found a significant increase in the adoption of these practices – most notably in the number of cover crop acres planted.

“Iowa cover crop planting has skyrocketed to a record 3.8 million acres over the first decade of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy, and that clearly demonstrates that Iowa farmers and landowners are taking on the challenge of improving Iowa’s water quality by accelerating this important conservation work,” said Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. “With the help of ag retailers and other conservation professionals, as well as both public and private sector partners, programs, and incentives, I know our farmers and landowners will continue to push these statewide cover crop numbers ever higher.”

In 2022, Iowa growers planted 3.8 million acres of cover crops – which is 16.6% of all corn and soy acreage. This is compared to 1.6 million acres of cover crops in 2017, or 6.9% of acres. Rye accounted for 81.2% of the cover crops planted over the past 6 years.

The survey also looks at nutrient management practices such as timing, rate, source and placement. It found 45% of nitrogen applications have occurred in the spring before planting, followed by fall-only applications at 20%.

As for phosphorus applications, there has been a notable increase in growers applying the nutrient only when the soil is at or below optimum levels for it – increasing from 74.3% of applications in 2017 to 95.4% in 2022.

The number of no-till acres in the state has remained relatively steady throughout the duration of INREC’s survey, averaging 35.8% of fields. It does, however, account for more overall corn and soy acres in the state than conventional tillage and conservation tillage practices.

INREC is currently preparing for its seventh year of the survey, which will be conducted this winter, and the Iowa State University Center for Survey Statistics & Methodology has randomly selected 150 ag retail locations to participate.

To review the data from each of the six current surveys, click here .

Want to Avoid Leaving Climate-Smart Money On the Table? There's An App for That

Fri, 29 Dec 2023 23:02:47 GMT

In 2023, USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities turned on the spigot to fund 141 projects, totaling $3 billion. Understanding the projects — each run by a different organization with its own unique offerings and structure — begs the question: Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

“Producers are always interested in looking at opportunities, but we can’t review 141 grants,” says Jimmy Emmons, western Oklahoma rancher and Trust In Food vice president.

To cut out the time-consuming task of wading through the climate-smart projects, a new app pilot, the Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator , seeks to remove the paperwork clutter and match farms and ranches with the right Climate-Smart Commodity grant project in minutes.

“Quicker and more efficient means to evaluate opportunities will increase participation, offer simple communication avenues, and, ultimately, get funding into the hands of growers so they can quickly turn those dollars into applied practices,” says Joelle Mosso, Western Growers Association associate vice president of science.

How Does the Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator Work?

The app pilot, created by Farm Journal’s Trust In Food and AgWeb, is powered by USDA data on the 141 projects, most of which are focused on major commodities such as corn, soybeans and livestock. Harnessing this data in an app, producers can input their operation basics – such as location, commodities produced, and production practices and interests – and be matched with one or more of the Climate-Smart Commodities projects that fit their individual specs.

The app provides a basic description of each program match along with contact information so it’s easy to compare options and take the next step to participate.

For example, an Indiana corn grower interested in adopting no-till and cover crop practices would input their data to the Climate-Smart Commodities Opportunity Navigator. In four questions, the tool matches the farm’s profile and interests with 11 possible grant projects, such as:

Field to Market’s “Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative”
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s “Farmers for Soil Health Climate-Smart Commodities Partnership”

In contrast, a Colorado beef and bison producer looking to adopt prescribed grazing and soil health improvement practices on pasture would input their information to the Navigator tool and it matches the farm’s profile and interests with 9 grant projects that includes:

American Sustainable Business Institute Inc.’s “The Growing GRASS Project”
Sustainable Northwest’s “Building a Regenerative Ranching Economy in the West”

A Pennsylvania dairy producer interested in adopting nutrient management and cover crop practices matches with 9 grants, such as:

Truterra LLC’s “Climate SMART (Scaling Mechanisms for Ag’s Regenerative Transformation)”
Dairy Farmers of America, Inc.’s “Scaling Methane Emissions Reductions and Soil Carbon Sequestration – A Value-Added Commodities Approach for U.S. Dairy”

And an Indiana pork producer who practices feed management and integrates cover crops matches with 2 grant projects:

Fischer Farms Natural Foods LLC’s “Fischer Farm Ultimate Beef and Pork Strategy”
Farm Journal’s “The Connected Ag Project”

Big Picture: The Perfect Climate-Smart Project Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

“It’s great there are lots of opportunity for producers with USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, but with so much opportunity it can be very overwhelming,” says Andrew Lyon, Trust In Food’s director of technical assistance and Kansas rancher. “By putting in specific information about your operation, the Navigator tool allows you to whittle down grant opportunities to the handful that are most applicable to you and provides you contact information so that you could follow up with those few opportunities that best suit you.”

While Farm Journal is excited about its own $40 million Climate-Smart Commodity grant, The Connected Ag Project , it wants producers to get in touch with the opportunity that best suits them, Lyon adds.

Test Drive the Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator Tool

Farm Journal’s AgWeb and Trust In Food look forward to hearing from producers about their experience using the beta version. Take the Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator for a test run, and let us know what worked and what didn’t.

USDA’s Climate-Smart Commodities, Explained

In 2021, USDA announced a historic investment in farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners through a program dubbed the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities . The goal? To scale climate-smart agricultural production practices across the U.S. and to promote and market climate-smart commodities in thriving markets.

To do this, over the next 5 years USDA is financing 141 pilot projects to support the production, tracking and marketing of these climate-smart commodities.

While the specific Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities grant projects vary widely, each boil down to putting financial incentives or technical support directly into the hands of U.S. farmers, ranchers and landowners to produce and market climate-smart agricultural commodities.

While the term, “climate-smart commodity” is relatively new, the farming and ranching practices it describes have, largely, been around for much longer. Incorporating cover crops, grazing and rangeland management, prairie restoration and nutrient management are just some of the practices that fall under the climate-smart umbrella.

For many producers, participating in a CSC grant translates to getting credit and even cash payment for practices already in place on farm. What’s more, for producers seeking funding sources or simply a push to try something, new these grants are an opportunity to make a change with support along the way.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack Reveals the Final COP28 Declaration Will Not Focus on Agriculture and Food

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 20:28:02 GMT

Despite calls from countries to focus on food and agriculture as a way to meet the world’s climate goals, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack revealed that the final COP28 declaration would not focus on agriculture and food. This decision was influenced by a request from the G77 group of developing countries for additional review and participation related to agriculture and food, leaving no time for negotiations.

While Vilsack highlighted the importance of a special day dedicated to agriculture and food policy and the participation of U.S. farm and food leaders, he considered the Emirates Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Change, signed by 152 nations, and commitments by countries and companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fund related projects as significant achievements. However, some observers were disappointed because this would delay progress until June 2024.

Today, at the first-ever day dedicated to food and agriculture at a COP conference, we’re proud to highlight the steps we’re taking to tackle the climate crisis, invest in food systems innovation, and bring new opportunities to producers #COP28 pic.twitter.com/69uyWVdmcZ
— Secretary Tom Vilsack (@SecVilsack) December 10, 2023

Vilsack mentioned the Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM) for Climate , a joint initiative between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates aimed at addressing climate change and global hunger through increased investment in climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation.

Regarding reducing meat consumption, Vilsack said he had not heard much about that goal but instead emphasized strategies for reducing methane emissions related to livestock. The U.S. is taking a leadership role in methane reduction through research, feed additives, recapturing methane for energy production, and managing manure.

A Focus on Dairy to Start

Leading into the meeting, there was a lot of talk about how agriculture practices and food production may be impacted by the climate goals. And to start the meeting, dairy was on the list.

According to a report from Reuters last week, advocacy groups said that tackling livestock methane should be a major priority at this year’s COP28 summit. In addition, at the summit in Dubai this week, six of the world’s largest dairy companies announced an alliance to cut methane emissions from dairy cows.

Reuters reported members of the Dairy Methane Action Alliance include Danone, Bel Group, General Mills, Lactalis USA, Kraft Heinz and Nestle. The Alliance says it will begin reporting their methane emissions by mid-2024 and will write methane action plans by the end of that year.

While the world’s largest dairy companies are working together, it’s also sparking an argument of how essential dairy is in the diets of people around the globe.

#UN #Roadmap to 1.5 #Livestock plan unveiled at #cop28 listed in this thread.

Livestock plays a crucial economic role contributing to the livelihoods of about 1.7 billion poor people and 70 percent of those employed in the sector are women
— Steven Middendorp (@smiddendorp22) December 10, 2023

Cop28: An Explanation

What is COP28? It’s a meeting of politicians, diplomats, NGOS and representatives of national governments. There are also other stakeholders who attend to try to influence the outcome. The meeting actually dates back to June of 1992 when 154 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). At the time, those countries agreed to combat human impacts on the climate.

COP meetings have been held every year since, with a different country becoming the COP president. Since that country is in charge of organizing the meeting, the host city typically moves year to year. Then, any new agreements struck from that year’s meeting, is typically named after the host city, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement and the 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact.

According to the COP28 website, the goal is to “correct course and accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis.” The website also states, “COP28 is where the world will take stock of progress on the Paris Agreement – the landmark climate treaty concluded in 2015 – and chart a course of action to dramatically reduce emissions and protect lives and livelihoods.”

The Goal

According to COP28 organizers, the science shows “to preserve a livable climate, the production of coal, oil, and gas must rapidly decline, and global renewable power capacity – including wind, solar, hydro and geothermal energy – needs to triple by 2030. At the same time, financing for adaptation and investments in climate resilience need a quantum leap.”

COP28 organizers say the goal is to create “concrete solutions to the defining issue of our time.”

Ag Climate Data Collection to be Improved with $300 Million Investment

Wed, 12 Jul 2023 21:24:05 GMT

Ag accounts for 11.2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to a USDA’s 2020 estimates . While these estimates are two years old, USDA intends to improve the future measure, monitoring, reporting and verification of ag climate emissions via a $300 million investment announced on Wednesday.

“We have to improve the scientific backbone of our programs. This new investment by USDA in improving data and measurement of greenhouse gas emissions…is unmatched in its scope and potential to increase accuracy, reduce uncertainty and enhance overall confidence in these estimates,” says Tom Vilsack, USDA secretary. “We’re data driven, and we seek continuous improvement in our climate-smart agriculture and forestry efforts.”

With the funds and stakeholder recommendations in tow, USDA says it will:

• Create a soil carbon monitoring and research network
• Establish a GHG network
• Expand data management, infrastructure and capacity
• Improve models and tools for assessing GHG outcomes at state, regional and national levels
• Improve NRCS conservation standards and use data to reflect GHG capture opportunities
• Revamp coverage of conservation activity data
• Strengthen GHG inventory and assessment programs at the USDA

The investment follows the ethanol industry calling out the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for using obsolete data to measure ethanol’s GHG contributions.

“EPA is using outdated analysis from more than a decade ago to measure the carbon intensity of ethanol and other biofuels, despite the Department of Energy having updated data,” says Chris Bliley, Growth Energy’s senior vice president. “This practice limits ethanol markets.”

Related story: Fuels Parity Act Could Open a New Market Door for Ethanol

New legislation, titled the Fuels Parity Act , was introduced in the U.S. House to address the EPA GHG data and market limitations. While this act could help open market doors, the Food and Ag Climate Alliance (FACA)—an 80+ member ag coalition that includes committee members from groups such as Farm Bureau and NASDA—is confident this USDA funding will help pry open market doors as well.

“FACA supports science-based evaluation mechanisms for GHG quantification that account for the diversity and breadth of ag and forestry production systems. This work is critical to enhancing trust and confidence in the measurement of emissions outcomes that will allow new markets to flourish,” said FACA in a press release .

The $300 million will be tapped from the $20 billion Inflation Reduction Act that was signed into law in August 2022.

USDA Could Use the Farm Bill's Conservation Title for Climate Change

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 18:30:41 GMT

USDA could use its biggest land stewardship programs — the Conservation Reserve, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) — to combat climate change, wrote University of Maryland professor Erik Lichtenberg in a think tank report . But to make the programs as effective as possible, he said, Congress would have to reorient them, a risky move that could cut into their support.

“Reforestation is the largest potential source of carbon sequestration and therefore climate change mitigation,” wrote Lichtenberg in the American Enterprise Institute’s Monthly Harvest report. However, the Conservation Reserve, for example, which pays landowners to take fragile land out of production for up to 15 years, is focused on the Great Plains and the Midwest. Revamping the program to promote carbon sequestration through planting trees is “politically fraught,” since it would shift the reserve to new regions. “Whether Congress has the will to make such a change is open to question,” wrote Lichtenberg.

Congress has spelled out that half of EQIP spending will go to livestock-related projects. States receive a portion of EQIP funds based on their ag activity and use the money to share the cost of new conservation practices with farmers.

“Revisiting EQIP funding allocation rules should be on Congress’ agenda,” says Lichtenberg.

The CSP, the USDA’s first green payment program, “holds greater potential for climate change adaptation and mitigation,” said Lichtenberg. The USDA could, on its own, revise the ranking system that helps determine which projects receive assistance.

“The programs in the farm bill’s conservation title can help U.S. ag deal with climate change,” Lichtenberg wrote. “Moreover, using these programs to deliver climate change adaptation and mitigation measures likely saves on administrative costs, since the systems to implement these programs are already in place and piggyback on delivery of other programs.”

Conservation and CRP Rates Discussed in Latest House Panel Hearing

Thu, 25 May 2023 14:49:22 GMT

During a House Agriculture Conservation, Research and Biotechnology Subcommittee hearing , lawmakers discussed concerns about the ability of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Service Agency (FSA) to manage new climate-related funding, staffing challenges, and CRP payment rates.

Leaders of the NRCS and FSA are tasked with addressing staffing shortfalls to deliver conservation and farm programs and implement new climate-related funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggested that the NRCS might only be able to spend around $3.9 billion of the $4.95 billion allocated to it under the IRA for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).

Terry Cosby, NRCS Chief, expressed confidence in the agency’s ability to administer these funds, mentioning a recent notice of funding availability that made up to $500 million available for FY 2023. The influx of IRA money has allowed the NRCS to offer more contracts under programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

Lawmakers questioned the barriers to hiring new staff, to which Cosby replied that a lack of college graduates in relevant fields was a limitation. The agency is collaborating with land grant universities to address this issue. The agency has received 1,500 applications for 200 openings for soil conservationists around the country, although it is murky how many will meet all the requirements.

Who understands carbon sequestration?

Questions were also raised about the current knowledge gap around carbon sequestration and its impact on current and future programs. Both Cosby and FSA Administrator Zach Ducheneaux emphasized the importance of accurate data for driving enrollment and participation in these programs.

House Ag Chairman G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) Thompson added that he also thinks lawmakers should revisit restrictions placed on the IRA funding that look to target it to climate-related efforts, saying he believes local resource concerns should guide how it is spent.

“We can’t prioritize one natural resource concern over all others and we shouldn’t prioritize one solution above all others,” he said.

On the farm bill front

Thompson raised the possibility of bringing some IRA conservation funding into farm bill baseline. He used the hearing to approach a big issue: The nearly $20 billion in funding for conservation programs contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The funding is not currently included in the baseline for the next farm bill, and Thompson suggested that a portion of the funds should be brought into the baseline. That would make it easier for lawmakers to shift those funds to other efforts in the farm bill.

Included in the funding were $8.45 billion for the cost-sharing Environmental Quality Incentives Programs; $3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program, directed toward working lands; $4.95 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which coordinates stewardship on multiple properties; $1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program; $1 billion for conservation technology assistance; and $300 million to measure carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions from conservation practices.

Discussion about the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) focused on rental rates for transitioning farmland to conservation and the competition with farmers for prime land. Both Ducheneaux and Cosby highlighted the efforts to provide data and incentives to make the best choices for land use and conservation.

Some lawmakers say the CRP is paying farmers to take land out of production that competes with farmers looking to rent farmland. The rental rates were capped in the 2018 Farm Bill, but USDA has offered incentives and adjustments to CRP rents in a bid to attract more acres.

Subcommittee member Brad Finstad (R-Minn.) said CRP payment rates were higher than they should be and making it hard for farmers to find additional cropland. Increasing program payments as the Biden administration did in 2021 in a bid to boost CRP enrollment “incentivizes farm country to take high-quality land out of production,” Finstad said.

Young farmers especially say high CRP rates have essentially “forced them to compete with the federal government” for land, Finstad said. But Ducheneaux countered that CRP incentives “give the producers a meaningful choice” about what to do with their land. He said FSA was looking at refining its use of an erodibility index to more precisely evaluate land that is being offered for enrollment.

“The choice that they [landowners] make with their resources is not for us to dictate. Our job is to get the opportunity out there in front of them, so that they make the best choice,” Ducheneaux said.

Background

About 23 million acres are currently enrolled in the program at the end of March, including 8.4 million in general sign-up, which is aimed at larger tracts; 8.2 million in continuous sign-up, which is focused on smaller, more environmentally sensitive tracts, and 6.4 million in the grasslands option.

Two million acres enrolled through the general or continuous sign-up options are scheduled to leave the program in October unless they are re-enrolled, including 1.5 million acres enrolled via general signups and 500,000 acres enrolled via continuous CRP efforts.

Contracts currently scheduled to expire in September 2024 fall to only 480,000 and rise to just shy of 1 million acres in September 2025. Through the end of March, just over 44,000 acres were enrolled via the continuous signup in FY 2023 while 888,000 acres were enrolled in FY 2022. Annual CRP enrollment is capped at 27 million acres under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Digging Into the Culprit of the Rare and Unusual Illinois Dust Storm

Wed, 03 May 2023 14:07:57 GMT

A dust storm in Illinois on Monday caused a 72-car pile-up along I-55. Multiple fatalities were also reported. The Illinois State Police said Monday the pileups were caused by “excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, resulting in zero visibility.”

The interstate remained shut down until Tuesday morning. Officials said the first crash was reported at 10:55 a.m. Monday in the northbound lanes near Milepost 76, just south of Springfield.

And this is partly why I am starting to support mandatory conservation practices in exchange for accepting any and all taxpayer subsidies. If we farmers want public support we need to provide public goods AND services! https://t.co/SAqBpH4Nrg
— Paul Overby (@VerdiPlus) May 1, 2023

As more details came to light Tuesday, some reports blamed “freshly plowed fields and gusty winds” as the culprit of the dust storm. There were even calls for support for mandatory conservation practices.

News reporting the Illinois incident as a pileup from a dust storm…I think it should be reported as a pileup from ag pollution.
— GOTILLA (@SoMN_Stripper) May 2, 2023

USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says dust storms in the Midwest are unusual. But he says the incident in Illinois was sparked by the combination of bare soils in the spring, 55-plus mile per-hour winds and the direction of those winds coming across the highway. He called it an unfortunate “perfect storm,” and one that more than likely wasn’t preventable.

“Even in perfect conditions you can get and you know perfect practices, you can still get a situation where you have a very short window. If topsoil is dry, they can still blow,” says Rippey. “So, I think it was a really unfortunate collision of events that happened yesterday between the strong storm, the angle of the wind, the condition of the fields and the dryness over the last month. There may be no way to really prevent that, and it’s just a real tragedy. Hopefully, it’s a one-off and we won’t see anything else like this this spring.”

Rippey says he’s seen an explosion of cover crop use over the past decade. And while he doesn’t know the exact practices adopted on the fields that experienced the dirt to pick up and blow, he says there can still be a window of time between when some of the cover crops are sprayed and when summer crops emerge and start to canopy.

Rippey attributes the following factors to the unusual dust storm in Illinois Monday:

Westerly to northwesterly winds (45 to 55+ mph) generated by a stalled low-pressure system over the Great Lakes were nearly perpendicular to a major highway (I-55).
Those high winds crossed agricultural fields before reaching I-55, leading to a narrow streamer of blowing dust and abrupt reductions in visibility.
Topsoil was primed to be lofted into the air by short-term dryness – April rainfall in the area totaled about 2 inches, roughly half of normal.
Fields were tilled for planting or had just been planted, leaving topsoil exposed (until a crop canopy forms in a few weeks). By April 30, corn planting was 40% complete in Illinois, soybeans were 39% planted.

“I suspect that some of these fields that blew yesterday had already been planted, we just didn’t have any emergence, or canopy establishment at this point,” says Rippey. “The topsoil, which is that thin layer right on top, is still exposed to the blowing wind.”

Rippey points out that the other factor is how dry portions of Central Illinois have been over the past month.

“If you look at Central and Southern Illinois, we’ve only seen about two inches of rain over the last month. That’s about half normal, and it left conditions just dry enough where that thin layer of topsoil can be lofted by the wind, which unfortunately reached 55 miles per hour, and took it right across a major highway,” says Rippey.

He points out that other weather events—like snow and heavy rainfall—are not an uncommon cause of accidents in the eastern U.S. However, rarely does that part of the country see blowing dirt.

“It usually has to happen just in that short window in the spring, when fields are exposed, open and bear, and then have that high wind blowing across it at the perfect angle,” says Rippey.

He says where the threat is still high is in the Plains. Even with the recent rains, extreme drought and high winds are still a concern.

New Conservation Funding and CRP Took Priority in Senate Ag Hearing

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 23:01:16 GMT

Another farm bill hearing took place Wednesday by the Senate Ag Committee . This time the focus was on conservation and forestry issues. Key topics include:

1. How USDA is planning to implement around $20 billion in new climate-oriented conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) frets that IRA provisions tying the new funding to climate might leave out certain types of crop producers, or certain regions where climate and carbon sequestration projects are not feasible.

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Terry Cosby said the agency’s methodology is based on data from across the country to ensure the programs are responsive to local and regional considerations.

2. Ways the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and other programs can be adjusted so they better serve a wider array of producers.

Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Zach Ducheneaux said he viewed the program’s 27-million-acre cap as a goal. The Congressional Research Service estimates the next farm bill will include at least $57.5 billion for conservation and forestry programs.

Boozman noted current conservation programs have been successful because the efforts are “voluntary, incentive-based and locally led.” He said if federal officials guided program priorities it could threaten the success of conservation efforts.

“Conservation needs and the needs of our producers are as diverse as the crops they grow and the land that they grow them on. Our programs must reflect this reality and provide the flexibility our farmers and ranchers need,” Boozman said. “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.”

Commodity Programs Might See a 12% Cut in the Proposed $1 Trillion Farm Bill

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 19:59:17 GMT

The Congressional Budget Office unveiled its 10-year cost estimates (2024 to 2033) for existing farm bill programs on Wednesday, with a projected $1.5 trillion price tag, up from $867 billion in the 2018 farm bill.

Jim Wiesemeyer, Pro Farmer policy analyst, advises not to put too much weight in these estimates, as they are the reason the farm bill is out of date so soon after it is written.

“CBO’s farm bill forecasts are frequently well off the mark in either direction,” he says. “It’s a lot like USDA’s farm income projections in February for the year head. CBO looks out 10 years … good luck taking these forecasts too seriously.”

So, will this amount of money keep the programs ahead of their time? Some aren’t convinced. And it starts with the farm bill’s largest funded program—Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

SNAP Spending

Based on the 10-year period, SNAP spending is nearly 82% larger than what it was granted in the 2018 Farm Bill at $663 billion.

(Farm Journal)

A large portion of the increase is due to the administration’s re-evaluation of SNAP’s the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP), which resulted in a quarter-trillion-dollar increase in SNAP benefits from July 2021 to the May 2022 baseline.

In the most recent baseline, CBO increased its estimate of outlays for SNAP by $93 billion over the 2023–2032 period for “technical” reasons.

According to Sen. Boozman (R-AR), these reasons are rooted in “unacceptable” $250 billion spending by the USDA on TFP—which was supposed to have cost nothing—in the previous farm bill. Boozman made his sentiments known at a Senate Ag Committee farm bill hearing on nutrition on Thursday.

“Congress had no intention of your team spending that, and if you understood that was going to happen, you should have alerted Congress,” Boozman said to Cindy Long, USDA administrator. “How can we trust you going forward to give us advice? Spending a quarter of a trillion dollars from this committee is totally unacceptable.”

Related articles: How Long Does it Take to Write a Farm Bill?

While Boozman is adamant other program will suffer funding losses due to the “unsustainable” TFP increases in the coming bill, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) says that’s not the case.

“Whether commodity or SNAP programs go up or down, these monies aren’t traded. So, cutting SNAP won’t add money to the commodity title,” Stabenow says.

The 2018 bill enacted policy for a “thorough” farm bill update that hadn’t been done since 1975, according to Stabenow. She says the TFP increases fall under that update umbrella.

“The Trump administration chose not to use that [update and funding] because that was 2018—they chose not to proceed,” Stabenow rebutted. “The Biden administration came in and chose to proceed with those funds, and I’m glad they did.”

The General Accountability Office (GAO) has since determined USDA failed to submit the TFP food basket increase to Congress as a rule as required by the Congressional Review Act.

Row Crop Safety Net

Disaster programs such as the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP), Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP+) and Emergency Relief Program (ERP) saw billions of dollars moved from taxpayers to producers in the past 10 years, with USDA reporting the largest spike in 2020 at $45 billion.

According to estimates from the House Ag Committee, CBO’s 2023 baselines compared to the 2018 farm bill will cause changes over the five-year period in:
• Commodity programs—12% decrease
• Conservation—19% increase
• Nutrition—82% increase
• Crop insurance—26% increase

However, CBO’s latest baseline provides no built-in ad hoc for these programs.

“If Congress doesn’t provide more funding/investments for Title 1, it puts pressure on farm-state lawmakers to continue the billions in ad hoc aid,” Wiesemeyer says. “Some analysts say reforming Title I would mean spending far less than continuing ad hoc assistance. If Title I is not made more effective, farmers will keep wondering if Congress will fund more emergency aid.”

Related articles: The Cost of a Farm Bill: 2023 Row Crop Priorities

GAO released a report stating that those wanting to change crop insurance program features will try to use to their advantage.

Here are the changes GAO says Congress could make to mitigate the programs costs:

• Reduce subsidies to high-income participants by creating an income limit.
• Adjust compensation to insurance companies to better align with market rates.

Livestock Safety Net

Dairy and livestock did, however, receive a safety net mention in CBO’s baselines.

Under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program, CBO forecasts FY 2023 payments will total $194 million in FY 2023, with those increasing to $248 million in FY 2024 and $266 million in FY 2025. For the rest of the period—through FY 2033—they are forecast between $196 million and $265 million, for a total of $2.531 billion.

Livestock disaster payments are expected at $621 million in FY 2023 and forecast between $562 million to $591 million over FY 2024 to FY 2033, for a total of $6.333 billion.

Crop Insurance, Production Costs, ERP Among Key Topics at Senate Ag Farm Bill Hearing

Fri, 10 Feb 2023 21:00:25 GMT

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 of rising production costs and relatively high prices for some commodities. USDA officials also faced criticism about its handling of Phase 2 payments via the Emergency Relief Program (ERP).

Other topics that have previously surfaced included Republican concerns about climate and conservation changes to crop insurance, while Democrats continued to urge expansion of the program to more producers.

Need for change

Senate Ag Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) said the 2018 Farm Bill largely lived up to expectations, but she suggested its successor must deal with several challenges: increasingly damaging natural disasters and accelerated costs of production.

“There are still gaps in the farm safety net as farmers continue to face global market uncertainty and climate-fueled weather disasters,” she said. “While many commodity prices are at historic highs, which is good, we also know that land and fertilizer and input costs are also near record highs.”

Farm safety net gaps

Ranking Member John Boozman (R-Ark.) said a focus on boosting nutrition and climate programs has obscured the fact that farm safety net programs like Price Loss Coverage (PLC) are ill equipped to deal with the current situation.

Related articles: Stepped-Up Basis Leaning in Favor of Rural America on House Ways and Means Panel

“Prices for many of our major commodities would have to drop sharply before the current Title 1 Price Loss Coverage safety net would start to work,” Boozman said, noting corn prices would need to plummet 46% before PLC would provide enrolled farmers any assistance. “By the time corn prices fell that low, the significant damage would have already been done.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) asked if USDA had looked at how the two safety net programs respond to inflation, such as adjusting reference prices — which trigger payments under the PLC program.

“I will tell you my legislative staff is always quick to tell me to emphasize that Congress writes the farm bill, and then that’s going to be important here too, obviously those reference prices are in statute,” USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation Robert Bonnie told Tuberville. “When we talk to producers, there’s lots of concern about obviously rising input costs,” he added, but then emphasized USDA can only operate farm safety net programs as dictated by Congress.

USDA disaster aid implementation was both praised and criticized

Democrats and Republicans agreed with farmers who have complained about USDA’s methodology for payments under Phase 2 of the ERP, saying they do not adequately compensate farmers for their losses. “I appreciate USDA’s efforts through Phase 1 of ERP, which generally worked well in supporting producers with crop losses and [2020 and 2021],” said Sen John Thune (R-S.D.). “But the Phase 2 methodology… often does not accurately reflect crop losses that Congress meant to cover.”

Thune urged USDA consider reverting to the approach used in Phase 1 of the ERP effort for 2022 losses, a suggestion echoed by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who said farmers in her state “are grateful for the quick and effective approach taken during the implementation of ERP Phase 1,” but “a number of them have been less enthusiastic of the income tax-based approach taken during the rollout of ERP Phase 2.”

Bonnie said USDA’s approach on ERP Phase 2 focused on ensuring more producers had access to aid, but said if there are resources remaining after the effort the department may look at a shallow loss effort to address some of the concerns with Phase 2.

Related articles: The Cost of a Farm Bill: 2023 Row Crop Priorities

Bonnie said ad hoc programs like ERP have helped farmers facing disaster-related losses, but he stressed that federal crop insurance remains a key risk management tool, and that USDA has worked to expand the program to cover more producers.

Crop insurance and climate intersect

Boozman again raised a concern voiced by many Republicans about any move to use crop insurance to incentivize climate or conservation practices — which GOP members contend could undermine the actuarial soundness of the program and move it away from its core focus as a risk management tool.

“Can you commit to making sure that any efforts to expand the crop insurance programs are science based, peer reviewed, and protect the integrity of the program,” he asked Bonnie, saying a “one-size fits all” approach that elevates certain practices like cover cropping could disadvantage farmers in areas where those practices are not practical.

Bonnie responded that “with respect to crop insurance, everything we have to do has to be actuarially sound as we’ve got to maintain the integrity of crop insurance.” He said recent incentives offered to farmers for cover cropping have taken the form of premium rebates — not changes to premiums or the overall premium subsidy paid by the government.

Stabenow praised federal crop insurance, calling it “the number one risk management tool for producers.” However, improvements are needed, she said, promising improvements to the program, “including specialty crop growers, organic producers, beginning and diversified farmers.”

Regarding prevent plant coverage

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) asked if USDA was looking at expanding prevented plant coverage under crop insurance, which pays farmers when they are unable to plant an insured crop due to extreme weathers. He noted eligibility currently hinges on a farmer being able to plant, insure and harvest crops in one of the four preceding crop years — known as the four-in-one rule — and some farmers in the West are at more risk of losing coverage due to prolonged drought conditions.

“One in four is very regionalized in a lot of cases,” acknowledged USDA Administrator Marcia Bunger. “So, for this coming year, we’ve made an exception for several western states to step outside of that one and four,” adding USDA would consult with stakeholders over the next year about a potential long-term solution to the issue.

Related articles: How USDA’s $2.8 Billion Climate-Smart Investment Might Impact Your Operation

USDA climate program efforts were raised by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who noted concern over USDA’s move to tap more than $3 billion from the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to fund its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) effort that funds climate-smart ag pilot projects.

“Spending over $3 billion without input from Congress is a serious concern for everybody in the Congress,” Grassley stated.

Grassley then asked Bonnie if USDA had any plans to tap CCC for additional USDA programs. Bonnie reiterated what USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has said — that PCSC falls within the CCC’s charter as it looks to expand and create new markets for ag commodities.

However, Bonnie ultimately said there were no plans for new CCC-backed programs under the Farm Production and Conservation (FPAC) mission area.

What's in it for Ag in the New Spending Bill?

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 03:26:54 GMT

The House on Friday averted a government shutdown by voting 225 to 201 in favor of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The $1.7 trillion omnibus bill includes 12 separate bills that cover everything from natural disasters to military pay to foreign aid.

Sanford Bishop Jr., ag, rural development and food and drug administration subcommittee chairman, says the bill is “crucial” to America’s economic success.

“These federal programs make our country a world leader in agriculture, ensure that we have safe, abundant food and medicine to lead healthy lives, support America’s farmers and ranchers, and provide Americans with the materials that clothe us and build our communities,” Bishop says.

Here are highlights of the key ag-sector funding from the omnibus:

Insurance

• Directs USDA to index all administrative and operating expense in the crop insurance program for inflation.

Research

• Agricultural research: Ag research funding will increase by $175 million to $3.45 billion in 2023, including monies for Agricultural Research Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

Conservation

• Includes the SUSTAINS Act, which allows corporations and other private entities to contribute funding for conservation projects and authorize USDA to match the donations.

• Reauthorizes the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act, which imposes fees for maintenance and registration of active ingredients. It boosts registration and maintenance fees 30% and allows EPA to raise fees by 5% in 2024 and 2026.

Infrastructure

• $1.48 billion is included on top of annual appropriations funding for the Army Corps of Engineers to make emergency repairs and navigation improvements needed after extreme weather events, including low water on the Mississippi River.

“One of the best returns on investment is when we pump money into our infrastructure, especially the great waterway system,” Jim Wiesemeyer, ProFarmer policy analyst told AgriTalk Host Chip Flory. “This town [Washington, D.C.] has had a mindset change on pumping more money, not only in the new projects, but restoring some of the water transportation endeavors of the past. It’s good news.”

Relief Aid

• $3.7 billion in farm disaster aid, to cover eligible 2022 crop and livestock losses, with $494.5 million to be used for livestock losses due to drought or wildfires, as part of overall $40.6 billion for disasters.

• Requires USDA to make a one-time payment to each rice producer on a U.S. farm in the 2022 crop year. USDA will determine payment rates based on yield history and acreage.

• Authorizes $100 million for the USDA to make pandemic assistance payments to cotton merchandisers that purchased cotton from a U.S. producer from March 1, 2020, through the measure’s enactment date.

• $25 million for specialty crop equitable relief.

Broadband

• USDA’s ReConnect loan and grant program for rural broadband will get $348 million for fiscal 2023.

Food Assistance

• Make permanent a summer EBT (food stamp) program to provide up to $40 a month per child. It allows grab-and-go or home delivery of meals to kids in rural areas as an alternative to meals in group settings Any summer meals benefits issued to a household in the summer of 2023 couldn’t exceed $120 per child. USDA will be required to establish a program beginning in the summer of 2024 and annually thereafter to issue EBT benefits to eligible households to ensure continued access to food when school isn’t in session in the summer.

• Aid for Food for Peace ($1.8 billion) and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education ($248 million) programs.

Carbon

• Includes the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which authorizes USDA to oversee the registration of farm technical advisers and carbon-credit verification services

Wiesemeyer says the swift passage of the spending package signals the coming farm bill might be easier to pass than some had previously thought, despite the new congress moving in next week.

“Congress put more than a few dollars in this for farm bill-related topics, especially food stamps and some of the climate change funding,” he says. “I think this really increases the odds that both the Senate and the house should get a new farm bill done in 2023.”

The bill will now move to President Biden’s desk, where he is expected to sign it this week.

More on policy :

4 Ways to Advocate for Ag in the New Farm Bill
U.S. Defense Spending Bill Leads to China Taking Aim at Taiwan

How the $1.7 Trillion Omnibus Spending Package Might Impact Your Operation

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 17:19:29 GMT

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 before the Christmas holiday.

Here are the details that might impact your farm:

Disaster Relief

• $250 million in aid to rice producers and $100 million to cotton merchandisers to make up for losses related to the pandemic or supply chain disruptions. USDA previously provided $80 million in aid to textile mills and other cotton users. For rice, USDA would determine payment rates based on yield history and acreage.

• $40.6 billion for drought, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, natural disasters and other matters — $3.7 billion in disaster aid for farmers to cover 2022 crop and livestock losses.

Food Aid

• Funds two programs that provide foreign food aid. These include the Food for Peace Program (PL 480), which is funded at $1.8 billion, and the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program, which is funded at $248 million, for an increase of $11 million over fiscal year 2022.

• Summer Meals Program Modernization: Updates the summer food service program to permanently allow states to provide non-congregate meals and summer electronic benefit (EBT) options nationwide to eligible children in addition to meals provided at congregate feeding sites. Non-congregate meals, such as grab-and-go or home delivery, would be provided in rural areas to eligible children, and summer EBT benefits would be capped at $40 per child per month. This provision is fully offset and based largely on the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act, which Boozman authored and introduced earlier this Congress.

• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) EBT Skimming Regulations and Reimbursement: Requires USDA to coordinate with relevant agencies and stakeholders to investigate reports of stolen SNAP benefits through card skimming, cloning and other similar fraudulent methods. This provision aims to identify the extent of the problem, develop methods to prevent fraud and improve security measures, and provide replacement of benefits stolen through these fraudulent actions.

Conservation

• Cracks down on “conservation easements,” which allow tax breaks when land is dedicated for conservation purposes. The IRS has identified the transactions as a method for avoiding taxes. The conservation easement provision was expected to raise between $6 billion and $7 billion.

• SUSTAINS Act: Enacts a House bill that allows corporations and other private entities to contribute funding for conservation projects and authorizes USDA to match up to 75% in matching the donations.

Inputs

• Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA 5) Reauthorization: Reauthorizes pesticide registration and review process user-fee programs administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and increases registration and maintenance fees to support a more predictable regulatory process, create additional process improvements, and provide resources for safety, training, bilingual labeling, and other services to advance the safe and effective use of pesticides.

• Pesticide Registration Review Deadline Extension: Extends deadline for EPA to complete registration review decisions for all pesticide products registered as of October 1, 2007. EPA is facing a significant backlog of pesticide registrations due to a variety of factors over the past several years, which raises potential implications for continued access to numerous crop protection tools. The agency will be allowed to continue its registration review work through October 1, 2026, as a result of this extension.

Climate

• Growing Climate Solutions Act: Incorporates updated language from the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which directs USDA to establish a program to register entities that provide technical assistance and verification for farmers, ranchers and foresters who participate in voluntary carbon markets with the goal of providing information and confidence to producers.

Farm Business

• $1.92 billion for farm programs, which is $55 million above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level. This includes $61 million to resolve ownership and succession of farmland issues, also known as heirs’ property issues. This funding will continue support for various farm, conservation, and emergency loan programs, and help American farmers and ranchers. It will also meet estimates of demand for farm loan programs.

• Funding for specialty crops and remarks on crop insurance/A&O. Some $25 million is being made available for specialty crop equitable relief and report language directing USDA to use its legal authority to index all A&O (crop insurance program) for inflation and provide equitable relief for specialty crops going forward.

Livestock

• Livestock Mandatory Reporting Extension (LMR) Extension: Extends livestock mandatory reporting requirements until September 30, 2023. LMR requires meat packers and importers to report the prices they pay for cattle, hogs, and sheep purchased for slaughter and prices received for meats derived from such species to USDA who then publishes daily, weekly, and monthly public reports detailing these transactions.

Markets

• Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Whistleblower Program Extension: Enables CFTC to continue payment of salaries, customer education initiatives and non-awards expenses related to the whistleblower program to ensure it can continue to function even when awards obligated to whistleblowers exceed the program fund’s balance at the time of distribution.

Some ag sector items that did NOT make the omnibus package:

Nothing for the proposed farmworker labor reforms from Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and others. The bill also left out legislation to reform cattle markets or appoint a special investigator at USDA to investigate possible anti-competitive behavior in the meatpacking sector.

We’ll be updating this article as more details become available.

More on policy :

Water Resources Bill Reauthorized with a Component that Will Impact Producers
European Union Clinches a Deal on a Carbon Border Tax
U.S.'s “Candid” GMO Corn Conversation With Mexico Results In Changes To Looming Trade Dispute
Senate Clears Annual Defense Policy, Pushing $858 Billion to Military

Harvest of Thanks: Paying Tribute to the Father of the Green Revolution

Wed, 23 Nov 2022 20:20:24 GMT

South of Cresco, Iowa, you will find a small farmstead with quite a story.

“By the time they came to live in this house, which was 1922, Norm was about eight years old or so and they had just bought the farm a year or two before that. It was 56 acres,” says Tom Spindler, with the Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation.

Spindler is speaking of young Norman Borlaug. Next to the home you will find the school Norm attended as a boy. Both Norman’s father and grandfather attended the very same school. They ended their formal education without going to high school. The story would be different for Norman.

“They saw in him that he had a spark. I remember Charlotte, his younger sister, said the family always felt even when he was a teenage boy this guy had something in him that was something special,” Spindler says.

The family drove Norman 14 miles into Cresco where he would board for the week, then come home on the weekends to help on the family’s farm. Norman’s agriculture teacher and wrestling coach encouraged him to go to college. His grandfather, Nels, helped make that happen.

“As Norm decided to go to the University of Minnesota, he gave him 11 silver dollars and he said to Norm, ‘Norm boy you take this and pay your tuition for the first quarter. Feed your head now so you can feed your belly later,’ Spindler says.

Norman would go on to feed much more than his own belly. 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. His work led many to call him the father of the green revolution. Today, the farm where Borlaug was raised continues his mission.

“We do lots of educational programming here,” Spindler says. “We host two inspire days. We call them inspire days because Norman Borlaug was a very inspiring person. We target mostly fifth grade, and we have fifth graders from probably a dozen different schools that come.”

Borlaug’s work was recognized by many around the world. Notably, he won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and later the Presidential Medal of Freedom among many awards in his lifetime. But as Spindler shares, Borlaug was always a teacher at heart – a mission they carry on today – and a story that shows the impact one farm boy can have on the world.

“Look what he did in his lifetime — from being a farm kid feeding his horses, the cows and the chickens and farming that land with horses and then he is credited with saving hundreds of millions of lives,” he says.

Expect New WOTUS Testing Rules by the End of 2022, According to Government Lawyer

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:56:44 GMT

Lawyers yesterday tried to challenge the scope of the Clean Water Act, which could limit how much the EPA can protect U.S. waterways.

Several justices appeared ready to reject a key argument put forward by an Idaho couple behind the lawsuit. And the court’s liberals sought a compromise that would retain the government’s authority to regulate wetlands adjacent to lakes, rivers and other waterways.

The case stems from a 2007 property dispute, in which Idaho landowners Michael and Chantell Sackett were told they needed a federal permit to build a home on land they owned because it supposedly contained regulated wetlands.

What’s at Stake

If the court sides with the Idaho property owners, environmental advocates say about half of all wetlands and roughly 60% of streams would no longer be federally protected.

“This case is going to be important for wetlands throughout the country, and we have to get it right,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during the nearly two-hour argument on the opening day of the court’s term.

SCOTUS last term restricted the EPA’s authority to curb emissions from power plants.

In the Heat of the Argument

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito Jr. expressed the most skepticism about how broadly the government defines wetlands subject to regulation, offering targeted questions for the government’s lawyer, Brian H. Fletcher.

Gorsuch asked, “How does any reasonable person know … whether or not their land” is covered? Is the property subject to regulation if it is located three miles or two miles from waters subject to federal jurisdiction. Fletcher responded that there are not “bright-line rules,” but limits and government manuals that explain the process. Gorsuch then asked, “So, if the federal government doesn’t know, how is a person subject to criminal time in federal prison supposed to know?”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back against suggestions that the regulations were unfair to the Sacketts or would likely result in criminal liability.

“Shouldn’t they have gathered information about the property prior to purchasing?” Jackson asked the Sacketts’ attorney. “You say the question is which wetlands are covered, which I agree with,” she said. “But I guess my question is, why would Congress draw the coverage line between abutting wetlands and neighboring wetlands when the objective of the statute is to ensure the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation’s waters?”

WOTUS Boundaries

A key question in the case, Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, is how to determine how far from the water’s edge the Clean Water Act applies.

The court failed to reach consensus in a 2006 case, Rapanos v. United States. The 9th Circuit relied on the test put forward by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who provided the deciding vote in that case and said the wetland must have a “significant nexus” to regulated waters. Kennedy, now retired, watched the argument from the front row of the courtroom on Monday, the Washington Post reported.

The Sacketts’ attorney Damien M. Schiff asked the court to embrace the narrow interpretation proposed by Justice Antonin Scalia, the late conservative. Scalia’s definition limits regulation to wetlands with a direct “continuous surface connection” to “navigable waters.” Schiff said a wetland can be regulated only “to the extent that it blends into and thus becomes indistinguishable from an abutting water” and that the physical connection is essential.

“I’m not sure that’s right,” Roberts said. “You would readily say that a train station is adjacent to the tracks even though it’s not touching the tracks.”

Kavanaugh noted that presidents in both political parties had consistently interpreted the law to give the government jurisdiction over wetlands separated from water by dunes, berms and other barriers.

“Why did seven straight administrations not agree with you?” he asked Schiff.

New WOTUS Rules By Year-End

Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor pressed lawyers on both sides about the possibility of a new test for figuring out which wetlands are covered.

“As you can probably tell, some of my colleagues are dubious that this is a precise enough definition of adjacency to survive,” Sotomayor told the government’s lawyer. “Is there another test that could be more precise and less open-ended?”

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

Bottom line

While the court did not signal a clear outcome during its questioning, the current court has a history of looking skeptically at the federal government’s claim of regulatory authority over the environment when its powers are not clearly defined by law.

The three most conservative justices seemed to want to pare back the government’s environmental authority, while the court’s three more liberal members appeared to favor an expansive view. Some of the other justices sent mixed signals.

More on WOTUS:

Embattled Waters of the U.S. to be Redefined for Agriculture – Again
5 Conservation Needs to be Met in Farm Bill 2023
WOTUS Roundtable Reveals New Rule Pushes Definition ‘Back to Square One’, says NCBA

Have You Looked into NRCS Program Funding? New Opportunities Available in the Reconciliation Package

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 18:44:12 GMT

USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) was allotted $19.5 billion in new conservation funding when the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

The NRCS says the funds will be used to prioritize “broader efforts” that address fertilizer availability and cost issues for American producers brought on by COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“USDA is responding to the needs of U.S. producers and consumers by adding program flexibilities, expanding options and assistance, and investing in nutrient management strategies to help farmers address local resource concerns and global food security while also improving their bottom line,” says Tom Vilsack, USDA secretary.

According to the press release , USDA will address these challenges through:

1. Initiative Groundwork

Conservation is threaded into the IRA to deliver $20 billion in assistance to four oversubscribed conservation programs:

• Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) - $8.45 billion
• Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) - $4.95 billion
• Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) - $3.25 billion
• Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) - $1.4 billion

The USDA press release says an expedited application process, including targeted outreach to historically underserved producers, will be used to rank and meet on-farm needs.

2. Economic Benefits

USDA estimates 89 million acres of cropland exceed the nitrogen loss threshold. To mitigate these losses, NRCS staff will be tasked with developing nutrient management plans. Producers will then use these plans to “adequately supply soils and plants with necessary nutrients” and minimize nutrient transport, according to the press release.

With new nutrient management plans in place, the agency forecasts a $30 per acre savings for producers, with a net savings of $2.6 billion.

3. Tech Service Providers

Training, outreach and education in new and existing programs, and incentive payments, require manpower. NCRS says IRA funds will be funneled to Technical Service Providers (TSP) to assist producers in the program application and implementation processes.

This TSP funding might sound familiar, as the USDA tapped Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds earlier this year to cover program costs associated with TSP.

To read NRCS’s nutrient management planning information, visit their site .

More on ag policy:
$740 Billion Inflation Reduction Act Passed the House and Senate
$80 Billion in IRS Funding Will Not be Used to Audit Middle Class Americans
IRA 2022 - What It Means For Farmers