Lancaster Farming
Farmers Urge Farmers to Make Use of Climate-Smart Funds
Aug 15, 2024
At this year's Ag Progress Days, a panel discussed funding opportunities available to farmers who adopt climate-smart conservation practices.
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In the news
Farming magazines, as well as national and local newspapers all over the country have started paying attention to the issue. Read their coverage below.
Lancaster Farming
Ag Progress Days Hot Air Balloon Rides Highlight Climate-Smart Farming
Aug 13, 2024
“We stand for what we stand on.” That’s the message Invest in Our Land wants to get across to visitors at Penn State’s Ag Progress Days. But in order to get the message, people have to take to the air.
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WTAJ
Art piece at Ag Progress Days encourages climate-smart agriculture
Aug 8, 2024
World-famous Stan Herd’s artworks have spanned 40 years and reach across the globe with pieces in China, Cuba, Australia, Brazil and 13 states in the US.
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The Journal Gazette
Conservation efforts must be funded in new farm bill
Jul 30, 2024
The farm bill is one of the largest pieces of legislation in our country. It affects what farmers grow and how they grow it, as well as where the fruits of our labor end up around the world.
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The Journal Gazette
CBS News
Minnesota farmers turn to regenerative agriculture to deal with climate extremes
Jul 15, 2024
Farmers in Minnesota are in a tough spot. Climate extremes, things like floods and droughts, are hurting production and the state is asking them to cut emissions and do their best to farm sustainably. So what does that look like?
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Phys.org
Improving soil health yields unexpected benefits for farmers
Jun 15, 2024
In the U.S., as farmers wrestle with extreme heat and drought, heavy rainfall and flooding, and erosion—all factors of climate change which can take a toll on crops—there's been a lot of buzz over regenerative agriculture over the past few years, as big agriculture companies promise opportunities to make money from "carbon farming" while also improving soil health.
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AgWeb
New Poll: Farmers Want Congress to Protect Climate-Smart Agriculture in Farm Bill
Jun 14, 2024
85% of respondents said that conservation funding plays an important role in helping farmers and ranchers adapt in the face of increasingly extreme weather. Similarly, two-thirds (67%) said that conservation funding plays an important role in protecting our planet from the effects of our changing climate.
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The Kansas City Star
We need a farm bill that boosts farmers and the Earth, not Big Ag’s special interests
May 29, 2024
Climate change is disrupting farmers’ planting schedules, and within this decade, soil loss and extreme weather could threaten the adequacy of food supplies worldwide. But the House of Representatives is considering a farm bill that would reduce American farmers’ opportunities to adopt practices that help the climate.
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Valley Central
Local farms advocate for funding toward climate projects
May 29, 2024
Local farmers in Texas are asking congress to not reduce the amount of money set aside for climate projects in the national farm bill. Advocates say the money will go towards projects such as organic farming, water conservation and start up money for future farmers breaking into the industry.
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Valley Central
The Gazette
Iowa farmer: House Farm Bill misses the mark on conservation funding
May 24, 2024
Severe drought last year “burned up” much of the 800 acres of corn and soybeans Pete Youngblut, his father and brother had planted.
And heavy rains in recent weeks, including over the last few days, have flooded recently planted fields and paused crop planting in others...
CAP20
Federal Funding That Benefits Farmers in Every State Is at Risk
May 20, 2024
New data further confirm that climate-smart agriculture funding benefits farmers, forest landowners, and ranchers in every U.S. state, but it is at risk of redistribution during the next farm bill.
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WKOW
How the latest farm bill is set to impact Wisconsin farmers
May 19, 2024
On Friday, the House Agriculture Committee released a draft of its highly anticipated farm bill. The proposal will reduce funding allocated for federal food assistance programs and climate conservation projects, as laid out in previous versions of the bill.
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WKOW
RealClear Pennsylvania
Conservation Funding Helps Keep Family Farms Viable
Apr 22, 2024
As the Bible says in John 3:16: “That God so loved the world, he gave his only son.” I don’t know if I’d be able to do that, but I know I am fortunate to have a son who wants to continue the family farming tradition.
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ABC 27
Federal farm bill could take funding away from Pennsylvanians
Apr 16, 2024
Farmers across the country are waiting for the next farm bill to be finalized and those in Pennsylvania are worried about their funds being taken away.
The funds help programs like “Cover Crops,” which prevent erosion and improve soil health. For Pennsylvania farmers, that’s crucial for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.
Black Hills FOX
South Dakota farmers urge Congress to protect conservation funds
Apr 3, 2024
Monday, farmers and ranchers from the Mount Rushmore State began urging Congress to protect $20 billion of conservation funds aimed at helping the agriculture industry thrive.
At the heart of the matter are $20 billion in conservation funds made available for U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs that could be cut in the next Farm Bill.
Star Tribune
Farming conservation funds earmarked in 2022 now being challenged in Congress
Mar 14, 2024
A Minnesota farmer says a "light bulb" went off when he tried environmental practices on his Stearns County farm. Now, some on Capitol Hill want to reallocate the funding that made this climate-smart experimentation possible.
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Radio Iowa
Iowa farmer calls on Congress to pass ‘climate-smart’ Farm Bill
Feb 22, 2024
Henry says, “these production practices that we had implemented really were making the crop resilient in a volatile weather pattern..."
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
At my farm, the creeks have run dry. We need a climate-smart Farm Bill.
Jan 4, 2024
We use climate-friendly techniques when we can, but those must be scaled up. Farmers want a Farm Bill that is mindful of the effects of agriculture on the planet.
In the 1990s, when I started working as a geologist, the alarm bells of climate change were already ringing loudly. Today, as I work my farm in Northwest Pennsylvania, the warnings are nearly deafening.
Climate change is already hindering my ability to farm. The four creeks running through my property in Sharpsville, Pa., ran dry this year for the first time in 15 years.
Field & Stream
How The Stalled Farm Bill Affects You
Nov 7, 2023
The Farm Bill allocates billions in critical conservation funding that improve habitat and hunting access on private lands across the United States—And those dollars are now at risk.
The Farm Bill quietly expired on September 30, 2023, while Congress was otherwise occupied in noisy dysfunction. Supposedly reauthorized every five years, the massive, omnibus farm spending bill is the largest single source of conservation funding for private, working lands. It’s absolutely vital to farm-country wildlife of all kinds, including the ducks that hatch in the prairie pothole states.
The Hill
Farm bill faces battle as GOP pushes to strip climate, SNAP funding for subsidies
Nov 6, 2023
Congress appears unlikely to pass a new farm bill by the end of this year amid standoffs over Republicans’ push to extend subsidies to three specific Southern crops — at the potential cost of billions in both food aid and popular farm conservation programs.
Funding for farm bill programs is currently set to expire at the end of the year. Senate leaders say they’ll need to extend it — possibly through a separate measure that would keep the government funded — to buy more time for negotiations.
The Hill