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June 13, 2011                                                                               About  Donate  Take Action Welcome to the NSAC Weekly Roundup!  To access the full articles simply click on the title and you'll be taken to the specific post page.  ACT NOW Opposition to NLGMA Rises In late April, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) issued a proposed national food safety rule for leafy greens.  Structured as a marketing agreement – a legal tool normally used for achieving orderly marketing and promotion of particular commodities – the AMS food safety rule covers only leafy greens (spinach, lettuce, and cabbage).  It will subject farmers who market to a seller, processor, packer, wholesaler, or distributor that has signed the agreement to food safety regulations and audits conducted by the AMS inspection service.  Read more... COMING UP THIS WEEK House Takes Up Agriculture Appropriations The House of Representatives is scheduled to debate and vote on the agriculture appropriations bill for fiscal year 2012 next Tuesday and Wednesday, June 14-15.  The measure will be in front of the House Rules Committee on Monday afternoon.  Read more... New Value-Added Grant Cycle to Start After many months of delay and anticipation, NSAC is excited to alert our members and readers that the Notice of Solicitation of Applications (NOSA) for the Value Added Producer Grant Program (VAPG) is expected to be published in the Federal Register mid-to-late week next week.  Read more... Farm Credit Agency Highlights Farmer Diversity On May 25, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) issued a proposed change to regulations for Farm Credit Systems that would require institutions to include an emphasis on diversity as part of their business plan.  The pool of farmers, FCA notes, is becoming not only more racially and ethnically diverse than in the past, but includes young farmers and small farms serving local and regional food systems as well.  Read more... CONGRESSIONAL NEWS Senators Introduce Bill to Reform Farm Payments On Thursday, June 9, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Tim Johnson (D-SD) introduced the Rural America Preservation Act of 2011, a bill designed to lower the per farm cap on farm commodity program payments, simplify eligibility, and ensure that payments flow to working farmers.  Read more... Budget Talks Continue, Seek Reactions from Senators After a two-and-a-half hour session on Thursday, June 9, Vice President Joe Biden’s bipartisan and bicameral group of six lawmakers agreed to meet three times next week to continue talks.  The group negotiating a bipartisan deficit reduction plan spent much of Thursday’s meeting discussing revenues and listening to a presentation from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the role that tax expenditures and costly tax deductions and loopholes play in the budget shortfall.  Read more... USDA NEWS Crop Insurance Conservation Issues Loom as Spring Planting Proceeds The 2008 Farm Bill included a measure that would allow governors in states in the Prairie Pothole National Priority Area to opt into a limitation on federal crop insurance or Non Insured Disaster Assistance Program coverage that would help protect native prairie.  If a governor opted in, USDA would not offer crop insurance or disaster assistance coverage for “native sod” for 5 years after the land was broken out for crop production.  Read more... USDA Announces $7 Million for Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative for 2011 On Tuesday, June 7, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced that USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) will award $7 million for 31 projects in 11 states under the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) for fiscal year 2011.  Read more... USDA Conservation Innovation Grants Focus on Climate Change On Wednesday, June 8, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the award of $17.4 million in FY2011 Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) funding for nine large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction projects in 24 states.  Read more... USDA Releases RFA for Rural Development Grant On Tuesday, June 7, USDA’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service released the Request for Applications (RFA) for its Rural Cooperative Development Grant  (RCDG) to help rural cooperatives expand economic opportunities in their area.  Up to $7.4 million in funds is available for competitive proposals of up to $225,000 per grant.  Read more... White House Announces Rural Development Council The White House announced Thursday, June 9, the formation of the new White House Rural Council to address challenges facing rural communities and help improve the implementation of the Obama Administration’s rural strategies.  The Council will be comprised of Cabinet members from over twenty agencies and offices.  Read more... WHITE HOUSE NEWS Council on Environmental Quality Releases National Action Plan On Thursday, June 2 the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s Interagency Climate Change Task Force released a draft National Action Plan for managing freshwater resources in a changing climate.  The report can be found on the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) website, along with supporting documents regarding the development of the report.  Read more... FDA NEWS Pfizer Suspends Use of Poultry Arsenic Drug The Food and Drug Administration announced on June 8 that a major drug company voluntarily agreed to suspend US sales of an arsenical drug used in poultry production. This step follows an FDA study that found higher levels of arsenic in the livers of chickens treated with 3-Nitro (Roxarsone) than in untreated chickens.  Read more...   Member Spotlight Michigan Organic Food & Farm Alliance  The Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance (MOFFA) was organized in 1992 as a non-profit organization. They work to create more public awareness about the nature of industrialized food supply and its environmental and social hazards. MOF teach 'eaters' to value and to choose organically grown food produced in their own locales. MOFFA is a force for generating public awareness about the need for more decentralized food systems that allow for greater participation and choice on the part of all citizens. Visit them here. JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS NSAC is currently accepting applications for fall 2011 policy interns.  Read the description here. TO ACCESS OUR BLOG If you would like to receive blog posts as they are posted in addition to receiving them as the Weekly Roundup at the end of each week, there are two options: 1. Sign up to receive blog posts in an RSS feed.  To sign up for the RSS feed, simply click here, or open your favorite RSS reader and subscribe to the following URL:  http://feeds.feedburner.com/SustainableAgricultureCoalition.  (For more information about RSS feeds, check out this article) 2. Sign up to receive the blog posts in your email inbox.  If you prefer to receive the blog posts in your email inbox, click here. When we add new content to the blog, you will receive it as an email. <