Land Core Newsletter - July 2021
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
It has been another big week, and month, at Land Core as we have been working hard to ensure soil health and climate-resilient agriculture are included in the historic infrastructure legislation on the table in Washington.
As you know, we’ve been asking for $200 billion directly for agriculture, recognizing that healthy soils and resilient agricultural systems are in fact infrastructure that help manage the risks from flood, drought, and other disasters, alongside many other benefits.
Together with various colleagues, we’ve engaged federal lawmakers on these issues and are grateful to the offices of Chairman Scott (House Ag), Chairwoman Stabenow (Senate Ag), Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Chairman Sanders (Senate Budget), Representatives Spanberger, Pingree and Fitzpatrick, Senators Manchin, Booker, Casey and Hassan, and many others, for their receptivity, recognition of ag as a key solution to our nation’s challenges, and efforts to meaningfully support ag while juggling myriad priorities.
We’re also grateful for the spirit of collaboration from so many (including a lot of you who are reading this, and countless beyond) who are working together and making time to participate in the policy process to elevate our shared priorities.
See the policy updates section below for more details, and please consider making a donation here to support this work. A little truly goes a long way.
We hope you are staying safe and cool.
Take care,
The Land Core Team
Policy Updates
The House Appropriations Committee approved its FY2022 Agriculture Spending Bill, which provides $196.7 billion total and $26.55 billion (an increase of 12% above FY2021) in discretionary funding for farm and food programs. Implications for soil health include increased funding for NRCS Conservation Technical Assistance and other programs, funding for the Risk Management Agency to study the actuarial soundness of possible new climate change related crop insurance products, and support for research. The House is expected to vote on the bill as part of a seven-bill Appropriations package by the end of this week.
A bipartisan group of Senators agreed to a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package Wednesday, which includes $550 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, water infrastructure, broadband access, transit and other measures.
Additionally, Democrats continue to work on a separate, broader $3.5 trillion package through the budget reconciliation process. While top-line numbers are still shaking out, we’re hearing $50B being floated in the Senate for “climate-smart agriculture” and $200B for agriculture more broadly (including nutrition, forestry and wildfire management, etc.) across both packages. Clearly we won't get everything we're asking for, but we are likely to see significant increases in funding to our conservation programs, research and technical assistance. With that said, there will still be a lot of work to do in supporting our farmers and food system, and it will be essential for all of us to continue creating, and investing in, resilient, regenerative agriculture systems.
On July 16, Rep. Julia Brownley and Sen. Cory Booker reintroduced the COMPOST Act, which would designate composting as a conservation practice and activity, with $2 billion in this new version of the act for a new grant and loan program for compost infrastructure and projects. See more updates on soil health and agriculture policy in the Land Core Federal Bill Tracker →
Risk Model
Risk modeling is well underway, with our MVP taking shape within a focused geographic area in the Midwest. We’re running specific modeling scenarios and are excited to share a sneak peek: we are indeed seeing a clear signal, confirming our hypothesis of risk reduction as a result of soil health practices on the field. We look forward to rounding out that work and sharing a larger update with you all in September! Stay tuned.
A special thanks to our working group members and colleagues, Tim Bowles, Yvonne Socolar, Frederi Viens, Sarah Manski and Leo Pham for your steadfast work this summer.
What We're Reading
Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Advances in Senate
$1 trillion bipartisan plan clears procedural vote and advances to debate, to be followed by broader $3.5 trillion Democrat bill
July 28, 2021 | By: Andrew Duehren & Kristina Peterson
Unpacking the House Appropriations Committee FY 2022 Agriculture Funding Bill
FY2022 Agriculture Spending Bill includes conservation provisions in $26.55 billion discretionary funding budget (an increase of $2.851 billion, or more than 10 percent, above FY 2021)
July 22, 2021 | By: National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Connecting Ranchers with Land Stewards Could Be Key to Less Disastrous Wildfires
In California and across the drought-parched West, programs are springing up to help goats, sheep, and cattle graze the plants that would otherwise become fuel for wildfires
July 8, 2021 | By: Anna Guth, Civil Eats
The US is about to go all-in on paying farmers and foresters to trap carbon
A great overview of the state-of-play and challenges for carbon markets, as Congress advances proposals like the Growing Climate Solutions Act
July 7, 2021 | By: Nathanael Johnson & Ysabelle Kempe
Impacts of Rental Arrangements on Cover Crop and Conservation Practice Adoption
With 60% of farmland in Illinois being rented, these incentive issues prevent conservation practice adoption
July 13, 2021 | By: Gary Schnitkey, Krista Swanson & Nick Paulson, farmdoc DAILY (University of Illinois)
House Ag OKs $8.5B disaster aid bill
The House Agriculture Committee Tuesday advanced H.R.267 - the WHIP+ Reauthorization Act - to provide disaster relief to farmers for 2020-21 losses
July 27, 2021 | By: Philip Brasher, Agri-Pulse
Fighting Through the Obstacles for a Regenerative Payoff
These four barriers increase the risks of making the regenerative transition
July 9, 2021 | By: John Dobberstein, No-Till Farmer