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USDA Staffing Shortages Strain FSA and NRCS Services Across Rural America
WASHINGTON (DTN) — Farmers in Polk County, Iowa, still have a Farm Service Agency office to visit. But when they arrive, four out of five days, that office will be closed. Calls are rerouted and employees from other counties come in to staff the office.
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Proposed Farm Bill could cut millions of Michigan conservation dollars
The latest version of the U.S. Farm Bill could leave more than 1,000 Michigan farmers without federal conservation funding, according to an analysis by the University of Illinois. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) helps fund conservation projects on farmland. The federal program started nearly 30 years ago and was recently granted permanent federal funding. John Burk is a
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Opinion: 56,500 reasons the farm bill must protect EQIP
By Rebecca Bartels | Farm country runs on the accumulated confidence that when someone tells you the money is there, the money is there. That confidence is what makes voluntary, incentive-based conservation work in the first place. It is why a producer will front the money to try an unfamiliar practice on 200 acres on
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Job cuts at federal soil conservation agency has farmers worried
Farmers are fighting cuts to a federal agency that’s been helping them improve their soil since the 1930s. The Natural Resources Conservation Service is another entity keeping farmers in business. The federal agency helps farmers protect soil and water. It has been around since the dust bowl in the 1930s. But nearly a quarter of
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STUDY | The Unfinished Farm Bill: First Reading of Proposed Senate Legislation by Jonathan Coppess
On June 23, 2026, Senator John Boozman (R-AR), chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry (ANF), released legislative text for the unfinished provisions of the traditional Farm Bill. Chairman Boozman is calling the legislation “Farm Bill 2.0” (Senate ANF, “Farm Bill 2.0” and Press Release, June 23, 2026). This article provides a first
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Report: Iowa lost 17% of USDA staff in 2025, impact felt at farmer-facing offices
U.S. Department of Agriculture staffing cuts in 2025 have left county-level service offices understaffed, according to an analysis of federal data from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. The report found that Iowa lost nearly 19% of its Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, staff and 8% of its Farm Service Agency staff between January 2025
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