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By supporting voluntary financial incentives that complement existing conservation programs, farmers can be encouraged to adopt practices that prioritize soil health and long-term sustainability… We urge Congress to prioritize the following report language and program requests for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in FY25.
In the past month, little movement has occurred on the Farm Bill. In the Senate, Senators Debbie Stabenow (chair) and John Boozman (ranking member) have publicly expressed that they are still negotiating key aspects of the Farm Bill and don’t expect to release a draft until after the 2024 Presidential Election in November.
We added 9 bills in October and 14 in November to the Soil Health Bill Tracker. For bills introduced prior to October, 39 bills added at least one co-sponsor, showing that those bills have traction and support as we near the introduction of the Farm Bill.
The Land Core Risk Model is quantifying the economic risk-mitigation value of specific soil health practices by examining the correlation between the implementation of these practices over time and their impact on yield.
Despite the August recess, we still added 30 “Core” soil health marker bills to the Bill Tracker and dozens more “Secondary” bills.
With the Farm Bill fast-approaching (and the FY24 Appropriations and Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill request deadlines just behind us), members of the 118th Congress have been hard at work introducing in the last few weeks.
Land Core commends the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for proposing a framework for measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV) of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the agriculture and forest sectors.
Explore the archive of our bill tracker alerts, which provide regular updates on soil health legislation in Congress.
With the Farm Bill fast-approaching (and the FY24 Appropriations and Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill request deadlines just behind us), members of the 118th Congress have been hard at work introducing in the last few weeks.
Land Core is pleased to provide input on the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed Conservation and Landscape Health rule. Our comments elaborate on how and why the BLM might acknowledge and incentivize the opportunity to use the best standards for well-managed grazing for landscape restoration in partnership with ranchers, creating not only a win-win for the agency, ranchers, and national food security, but also a blueprint for the future of public-private partnerships in the pursuit of economically beneficial conservation.
Today, Land Core, along with a diverse group of 170 farms, businesses, and organizations, submitted a letter to Congressional Agriculture Committee leadership in support of the DEFER Act and its inclusion in the 2023 Farm Bill.
As lawmakers consider the array of new federal policies, programs, and incentives aimed at facilitating these new efficiency-focused technologies, we must address a crucial concern regarding the potential conflation of “economic efficiency” and “conservation efficiency”.
Attention, soil health enthusiasts, farmers, and food and ag policy pros! Land Core, a pioneering non-profit committed to advancing soil health policies and programs in the US, is excited to unveil a transformative upgrade to their Federal Soil Health Bill Tracker. With a focus on making policy information more accessible to all, this user-friendly, dynamic web-based tool brings federal soil health policy to life.
With the Farm Bill fast-approaching (and the FY24 Appropriations and Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill request deadlines just behind us), members of the 118th Congress have been hard at work introducing in the last few weeks. We have added over 40 bills to our Bill Tracker that would impact soil health and resilience, and will be adding more in the coming weeks.
Land Core submitted a request to Congress to invest in soil health and resilient agriculture through the FY 2024 appropriations process, in which Congress annually approves billions in discretionary funding for farm and food programs.
Today, Land Core, in partnership with Kiss the Ground and 152 other farms, organizations, and businesses, advocated for the USDA-NRCS funding of the Inflation Reduction Act to back regenerative agriculture. “Advance Regenerative Agriculture through the Inflation Reduction Act, Document Number 2022-25292.”
As part of our work with the Regenerate America coalition (which is amplifying the voices of farmers and ranchers calling for regenerative agriculture and soil health to be a priority in the 2023 Farm Bill), Land Core has developed an FSA Loan Deferment Program that could potentially unlock hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in soil health, without costing taxpayers a cent.
Today, Land Core, along with a diverse coalition of businesses and food and farming organizations, submitted a letter asking USDA to support farmers and ranchers in building soil health and on-farm fertility as a primary means of reducing reliance on synthetic fertilizers. The letter, sent in response to USDA's request for information on “Access to Fertilizer: Competition and Supply Chain Concerns”, also asks for national investment in composting systems to move towards a more independent and resilient American agriculture.
After almost a year of work, and with the support of many of you in our community, we are proud to help launch Regenerate America™ this week - a campaign for healthy soil in the 2023 Farm Bill. It’s never been more important to rebuild our soils and ensure that the next generations have a better, more resilient future. We hope you'll join the campaign - as individuals, and with your farms, organizations and businesses. Everyone is encouraged & welcome!
The war in Ukraine and rising energy prices have highlighted the extent to which our current food production system is trapping farmers in a cycle of dependency. Our government needs to establish a path forward to give our farmers the tools to transition away from the current dependency system it has created, and towards an independent, regenerative, soil health-focused American agriculture.