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Editor’s Note: This blog post is the second in a series highlighting how recent supply chain investments were unique and pivotal in expanding infrastructure to respond to growing farmer demand, reducing costly wait times, and reaching diversified operations. Part Three will move further along the supply chain, taking a deeper look at how federal market opportunities support the success of efficient regional food systems.
As described in the first part of this series, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) launched a framework and series of investments targeting regional supply chains that would promote a more fair, competitive, and resilient food system. These investments focus in areas of production, processing, aggregation/distribution, market opportunities, and consumer access.
An often invisible, yet essential element of an efficient regional supply chain that supports a range of producers is business technical assistance and value-chain coordination. Without coordination and assistance, investment dollars may be used ineffectively or not realize their greatest social return on investment.
There are a handful of existing USDA programs under the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) that offer funding opportunities to support efforts like regional coordination of grower networks, facilitating farm to school programs, or community food assessments. However, newly established AMS programs have a more explicit focus on business technical assistance, federal funding outreach and application support, and value-chain coordination for mid-tier supply chain businesses. These particular business development activities described below are essential elements for processing, aggregating, and distributing local products through new or growing regional markets.
Latest USDA InitiativesRegional Food Business Centers operate under cooperative agreements with twelve unique regional centers serving all states, Tribal nations, and territories. Their core mission is to provide business technical assistance across the supply chain, deploy “business builder” grants, and collaborate with a range of regional partners and stakeholders to leverage existing resources and develop a comprehensive regional strategy.
Meat and Poultry Processing Capacity Technical Assistance program of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) established a nationwide network of support focusing on four key areas for applicants and recipients of meat processing funding: federal grant application management, business development and financial planning, meat, and poultry processing technical and operation support, and supply chain development.
Existing USDA EffortsThe Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) awards competitive grants to organizations, local governments, cooperative businesses, and more to promote the availability of locally and regionally produced agricultural products with an emphasis on developing and coordinating intermediated networks for food aggregation and distribution.
The Regional Food System Partnership Program (RFSP) awards competitive grants to multi-stakeholder partnerships that broadly support planning and developing regional food economies through a variety of activities, such as developing business plans, feasibility studies, mid-tier value chains, or city and regional planning activities that promote economic opportunities for producers and food businesses.
King’s Poultry Farm in Bradford, Ohio. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Manalo. Stories from the FieldTechnical Assistance Timing is Everything
The Flower Hill Institute is a historically Indigenous-led organization and is the overall coordinator of the MPPTA network. It assists on all four scopes of the program and helps coordinate work across all of the other sub-awardees.
The MPPTA network unites bodies of knowledge from across the value chain, specific regional knowledge of local markets, and the efficiencies of national coordination allowing each specific member to best serve the market of current and hopeful small and very small meat processors.
“Building a new meat/poultry processing business or expanding an existing enterprise is extremely challenging. The grants and loans initiated by USDA are helping underwrite the cost of construction and equipment acquisition, but these small businesses face counting challenges in developing marketing plans, recruiting a qualified workforce, capturing value for byproducts, and more. The no-cost technical assistance offered through the network of organizations USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service enlisted in 2022 is a valuable service that smaller processors are increasingly utilizing.
More than 1,300 enterprises and individuals have requested technical assistance since the program was launched in March 2022, ranging from a pork producers’ cooperative in Puerto Rico to a cattlemen’s association in the northern Marianas Islands and everything in between. These projects are incredibly diverse and include tribally led processing enterprises nationwide, halal processing enterprises in New England and the southeast, women and veteran-owned initiatives, and more. Yet each is guided by determined, resilient people dedicated to improving food access for their communities.
Several are already making an impact as a score of small processors receiving grants in 2021 to become USDA inspected are now offering local ranchers access to new markets, and are expanding the selection of locally produced and processed meat and poultry in their communities.” – MPPTA Network
The Niche Meat Processing Assistance Network (NMPAN) of Oregon State University Center for Small Farms is one of the sub-awardees of the MPPTA program and has helped numerous smaller and socially disadvantaged processors apply for the novel expansion grants, aligned with providing more general business technical assistance. (NMPAN is a member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition)
The College of Agriculture, Environment, and Nutritional Sciences at Tuskegee University hosts the award of the MPPTA for the southeast and has helped facilitate the application and post-award compliance of many of the grants in that region.
“I will say this program [MPPTA] provides a lot of hope to our smaller producers and processors. These are people who are really rural, and haven’t always been reached by extension like this before. It took time to build trust with them, but now they understand – hey if you need help, we are here. I enjoy working with our processors, helping them navigate the messy world of food safety and processing law, and I think this program is really helping our local processors grow” – Veronica Royal, MPPTA Coordinator at Tuskegee University CAENS
Food Hubs Going Beyond Aggregation and Distribution
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), an NSAC Member, received a Local Food Promotion Program grant in 2021 that sought to increase the organizational capacity of seven partnering food hubs and the farmers they work with. The work had distinct activities for the food hubs and their participating farmers. For the food hubs, a core part of the work was implementing quality management systems, developing standard operating procedures, and implementing food safety plans. CFSA provided farmers with food safety training and supported them in writing, implementing, and obtaining GAP certification.
This LFPP project equipped CFSA and these seven food hubs with the appropriate knowledge, networks, and procedures to quickly implement the NC FarmsSHARE program in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, when North Carolina signed their cooperative agreement for LFPA, they quickly scaled the number of food hubs participating in order to meet increasing demand. However, some of the newly added food hubs, such as Operation Spring Plant (OSP), expressed the need for expansion in the same kinds of support that the LFPP enabled. NSAC staff recently reached out to Dorathy Barker of OSP to learn more about the food hub’s need for additional funding for technical assistance.
Dorathy Barker has been working to create a better future for agriculture since 1987, when she co-founded OSP in Oxford, North Carolina with her husband, Phillip J Barker. The organization offers training, financial support, and technical assistance to Black, Indigenous, socially disadvantaged, and small farmers in North Carolina. OSP also advocates for economic development in agriculture programs as a member of the HEAL Food Alliance, the National Black Food & Justice Alliance, and the Rural Coalition. Additionally, last year, the Barkers were featured speakers during NSAC’s Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience.
The organization’s work was highlighted in 2020, when the Barkers received a Leadership Award from the James Beard Foundation. Dorathy Barker dedicated the award to expanding OSP’s mission. Finding new markets for small, Black, and socially disadvantaged farmers is a key part of that work, as is ensuring that farmers have the correct food safety infrastructure to participate in those markets.
Dorathy Barker encountered many farmers who wanted to participate in LFPA, but who did not know where or how to get the technical assistance they needed. Specifically, many of these farmers needed to be certified in Good Agricultural Practices, which is commonly referred to as GAP. Barker specifically highlighted this kind of technical assistance as a key need for the farmers she works with, particularly since GAP is key to accessing many institutional markets. OSP received a Food Safety Outreach Competitive Grant to support their efforts to reduce, help manage, and minimize food safety risks on farms.
“I want to make sure that TA and fair prices are going to Black, socially disadvantaged, and BIPOC farmers however that can happen,” she said in a recent conversation with NSAC. “Information needs to get to these communities quickly, otherwise they will miss out on a lot.”
She also described the positive impact that additional infrastructure support could have on these farmers’ ability to grow their businesses. “Buyers wanted the farmers to guarantee a 5 day shelf life; they couldn’t do that because they didn’t have the proper storage,” she said. She heard from farmers who needed help creating a cooling system to extend the shelf life of their produce.
Dorathy Barker heavily emphasized the value of practical technical assistance in enabling farmers to participate in LFPA, noting: “Having the TA would feel like winning a million dollars. Having the infrastructure would mean that they could grow more. They wouldn’t have to limit themselves in terms of what they could handle due to their capacity.”
What Comes Next?Many of these new opportunities have been funded through cooperative agreements with project timelines that extend into 2027. However, without program authorization or an additional funding source, there will be limited resources for the network of technical assistance providers across the nation. The upcoming farm bill reauthorization offers an opportunity to embed some of these essential activities into existing programs as well as codify novel and impactful programs.
The Local Farms and Food Act (S. 1205, H.R. 2723) offers improvements to existing, popular local food and farmer programs, the Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP), and the Regional Food System Partnership Program (RFSP), among others. LFPP and RFSP awards have been inadequately utilized to fund essential local food system technical assistance and value-chain coordination described above. The bill explicitly outlines that the program is intended to support partnerships that develop and implement regional food chain coordination projects or regional outreach and technical assistance projects. Further, it directs USDA to conduct outreach and technical assistance to prospective applicants, either directly or through cooperative agreements with community organizations. The outlined increases of funding in the bill are essential to address the current and anticipated increase in program demand.
By design, the Regional Food Business Centers (RFBCs) and the Meat & Poultry Processing Technical Assistance Program (MPPTA) have capacity to conduct outreach to growers, small and very small meat processors, and other middle of the supply chain businesses to support them in accessing federal funding opportunities and ensure they are in compliance with all required food safety standards. Existing efforts, such as the Dairy Business Innovation Centers, have proven how specialized regional efforts can expand USDA’s outreach. The farm bill must support producers and ranchers beyond dairy initiatives. The RFBC and MPPTA programs provide a pathway to ensure meat, poultry, and specialty crop growers and businesses have adequate business support.
The Strengthening Local Processing Act (H.R. 945 and S. 354) also contains provisions to increase the ability of the Food Safety and Inspection Service of USDA to provide materials that would make this technical assistance easier to implement in the field by providing a more comprehensive publicly available set of HACCP models and validation studies for small and very small processors.
These farm bill priorities will ensure existing and anticipated regional supply chain investments will be matched with sufficient technical assistance and training to producers and businesses to ensure ready access to retail and wholesale markets. However, there are numerous barriers for small and mid-sized farms and businesses to access public markets, such as USDA’s commodity procurement programs. Part three of this blog post series will dig deeper into how USDA’s federal food purchases can create an impact beyond providing safe and healthy commodities.
The post How People Power Local Food Systems appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
LOS ANGELES, California, May 8, 2024 – Today, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom visited Sotomayor Academies in Los Angeles to spotlight efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration to ensure all children have access to healthy, nutritious meals while at school and spotlight the California Farm to School and universal school meals initiatives.
WASHINGTON, May 8, 2024 - In response to President Biden’s Executive Order 14081, “Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have developed a plan to update, streamline, and clarify their regulations and oversight mechanisms for products of biotechnology.
When I sat down to speak with Mari Gomez, Chief of Staff at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), my first question was, “tell me about your career journey, including any roles you had before USDA.”
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking nominations for four positions on the Federal Advisory Committee for Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production. USDA will accept nominations from May 7, 2024, to July 7, 2024. The 12-member Committee, which first convened in March 2022, is part of USDA’s efforts to increase support for urban agriculture and innovative production.
For over a year and a half, countless farmers and ranchers nationwide have been sending an unmistakable message to policymakers in Washington, DC – that the climate-smart agriculture funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is exactly what they’ve been looking for.
Since the IRA was signed into law on August 16, 2022, the farmer-driven demand – in red states and blue states alike – for these resources has far outpaced availability. In fiscal year (FY) 2023, the IRA made $850 million available for climate-focused conservation, and in a showcase of the extent of demand for these resources, applications totaled a staggering $2.8 billion.
Yet despite the overwhelming popularity of these climate-smart agriculture resources and the four key working lands conservation programs to which they are linked, recent indications suggest that when the House Agriculture Committee marks up their farm bill in late May 2024, it may fundamentally undermine precisely what has proven so popular among farmers and ranchers. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) believes the next farm bill should not only keep these resources invested in the most popular and oversubscribed conservation programs but also keep them climate-focused. Whether or not the House Agriculture Committee will choose that path remains to be seen.
This post examines the latest data on IRA starting with a look at the basics – including long standing farmer and rancher interest in conservation and climate-focused agriculture practices.
The Continued Popularity of USDA’s Working Lands Conservation Programs and Their Climate-Smart PracticesFirst things first. By now, the popularity of USDA’s key working lands conservation programs – the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) – is well known. CSP and EQIP, in particular, are two of the most popular. In 2020 and 2022 combined, contract data demonstrate that roughly 3 out of every 4 farmers who applied to these programs were turned away due to a lack of funding. Digging a bit deeper, we see that one reason why these programs have been so popular is their support of climate-smart agriculture and forestry (CSAF) practices.
For decades before the IRA was signed into law, farmers have been able to use programs like CSP and EQIP to implement CSAF practices, all of which are long-standing, classic conservation practices that address a myriad of resource concerns, such as erosion, soil health, water quality, wildlife habitat, and more. As it turns out, farmers and ranchers are interested in CSAF independent of the IRA’s climate focus. In fact, in FY2021 and FY2022 – before the first dollar of IRA had been obligated – farmer demand resulted in significant portions of both CSP and EQIP investing in CSAF.
Taking all of this together – the popularity and consequent oversubscription of CSP and EQIP plus the demonstrated farmer interest in farm bill-funded CSAF practices – it was hoped that the IRA’s generational investments would be sufficient to reverse both trends, even in the first year of funding availability (FY2023). One would reasonably think that the sheer scale of the IRA’s investment would immediately address oversubscription, while also leading to a drop in farm bill-funded CSAF practices as all the demand for such practices was directed toward the IRA pool instead. However, the exact opposite has turned out to be true.
In one of the clearest demonstrations of farmer and rancher support for the IRA’s investments as-passed and with a climate-focus, the first year of IRA funding availability brought two remarkable outcomes: first, CSP and EQIP were functionally just as oversubscribed as they were before the IRA, and second, a significant portion of the farm bill’s baseline funding for CSP and EQIP still went to supporting CSAF practices. Let’s dig into both of these a bit further.
First, new reporting demonstrates that due to increased applications nationally during FY2023, only 25% of farmers applying to EQIP and 30% of farmers applying to CSP secured contracts during the first year of IRA availability. These application rates are largely consistent with those before IRA funding was available. In FY2023, 24,645 farmers were turned away from CSP and 100,228 farmers were turned away from EQIP. The fact that additional IRA funding did not meaningfully change the percentage of farms that were turned away from receiving CSP and EQIP funding plainly illustrates the scale of investment these programs needed, and still need.
Second, looking at farm bill dollars obligated toward CSAF practices on new contracts during the first year of IRA funding, we see that states are still choosing to spend between 7% to 100% of their combined CSP and EQIP farm bill funding supporting CSAF practices. On average, 38% of all FY2023 CSP and EQIP farm bill funding went to CSAF practices.
2023 CSP & EQIP Obligations: CSAF Portion of Farm Bill BaselineStateCSP & EQIP Farm Bill ObligationsCSAF Practice Obligations Within Farm Bill Baseline%CSAF Obligations in Farm Bill BaselineAlabama$49,256,727$23,085,89647%Alaska$7,854,953$6,914,48988%American Samoa$516,340$35,8867%Arizona$23,021,588$6,692,42729%Arkansas$115,120,578$45,406,74639%California$101,502,597$41,100,10140%Colorado$46,634,849$17,351,58037%Connecticut$5,776,975$2,085,41536%Delaware$5,884,135$2,409,12741%Florida$39,862,195$15,948,26740%Georgia$77,540,490$38,115,09949%Guam$21,288$21,256100%Hawaii$9,897,888$4,771,46448%Idaho$39,287,729$8,760,48822%Illinois$58,008,027$19,146,98633%Indiana$47,495,135$22,451,61947%Iowa$51,367,151$17,874,75435%Kansas$67,159,246$25,353,11038%Kentucky$33,658,807$12,044,35836%Louisiana$43,600,803$18,561,15943%Maine$12,220,528$3,796,52531%Maryland$16,420,116$2,459,50615%Massachusetts$5,701,746$1,584,93928%Michigan$32,223,076$11,956,74737%Minnesota$70,322,972$23,414,23133%Mississippi$98,138,664$49,702,97251%Missouri$62,377,935$25,207,64340%Montana$58,352,036$22,402,79338%Nebraska$53,825,948$20,824,82539%Nevada$9,421,896$1,345,39014%New Hampshire$5,172,497$1,523,53529%New Jersey$7,265,966$1,112,76715%New Mexico$45,912,157$13,276,66229%New York$24,893,462$4,916,52420%North Carolina$45,201,917$12,457,18128%North Dakota$52,830,365$25,691,32249%Northern Mariana Islands$1,047,570$142,29714%Ohio$34,515,532$9,860,28329%Oklahoma$43,261,386$25,614,80159%Oregon$47,512,138$20,883,20944%Pennsylvania$34,348,532$8,243,36724%Puerto Rico$14,770,802$845,1856%Rhode Island$3,125,561$1,514,47048%South Carolina$43,477,016$22,815,56452%South Dakota$53,831,902$19,176,50336%Tennessee$50,356,458$15,560,26531%Texas$133,184,783$57,283,34943%U.S. Virgin Islands$679,778$192,77528%Utah$40,608,112$6,453,13516%Vermont$11,296,853$3,607,44832%Virginia$41,925,315$20,265,89248%Washington$33,480,377$13,392,01240%West Virginia$16,973,737$2,473,21615%Wisconsin$52,708,883$20,943,58940%Wyoming$26,084,405$7,009,06927%Grand Total$2,106,937,922$806,080,21838%Data taken from the RCA Data viewer: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/resources/data-and-reports/rca-data-viewerDespite hundreds of millions of dollars available exclusively for CSAF practices through the first year of IRA funding, the data shows that farmers and ranchers still used significant farm bill baseline funding on top of IRA funding to implement even more CSAF practices.
Combined, the latest data from 2023 not only demonstrate just how badly the IRA’s investments were needed, but it shows how popular these investments are among farmers and ranchers. All of which raises the question of why Congress would entertain altering them in the first place.
Just how popular has the IRA been with farmers?Up until now, we have exclusively looked into how the first year of IRA funding availability altered – or more accurately, didn’t alter – longstanding pre-IRA trends of conservation program oversubscription and farm bill-funded CSAF conservation practices. Now let’s turn our attention toward the details of IRA funding itself.
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) – which administers most federal conservation programs – has reported spending nearly all of the IRA funds allocated to each program for FY2023, roughly $850 million in total, as well as a significant portion of FY2024 funds allocated for RCPP. See state-by-state analysis from NRCS here and additional state summaries comparing IRA spending to historic and current farm bill spending here.
In the FY2023 conservation contract data below, the IRA funding is almost as oversubscribed as the broader conservation programs themselves. On average, less than half of the farmers who submitted valid CSP or EQIP applications for IRA funding were successful.
2023 IRA: CSP & EQIP Combined Applications vs. Contracts AwardedStateFunded IRA ApplicationsFarmers Turned Away from IRAIRA Obligations%of Applicants Awarded ContractsAlabama122132$8,349,06048%Alaska11$1,857,81350%American Samoa00$0NAArizona3430$5,096,80753%Arkansas147301$15,877,29133%California140338$9,273,38929%Colorado5675$5,575,44143%Connecticut198$1,141,64270%Delaware1919$940,32150%Florida17373$6,286,20070%Georgia125205$10,415,47438%Guam00$0NAHawaii00$0NAIdaho6311$4,206,29085%Illinois108150$7,732,40742%Indiana131245$7,802,84435%Iowa189188$8,969,66850%Kansas151102$9,680,43960%Kentucky10287$6,102,64254%Louisiana94299$7,288,89924%Maine79113$1,593,63141%Maryland3511$1,409,74576%Massachusetts502$1,362,08596%Michigan220251$6,676,58847%Minnesota172159$8,929,11752%Mississippi225652$15,545,70726%Missouri14843$9,687,98377%Montana6214$7,716,78682%Nebraska162156$7,703,32251%Nevada92$993,42982%New Hampshire469$1,108,73984%New Jersey524$1,306,19493%New Mexico6712$10,474,71685%New York31130$2,443,13419%North Carolina196386$8,118,85234%North Dakota68105$10,181,97539%Ohio1346$5,132,63096%Oklahoma158317$8,304,77633%Oregon7329$6,961,34972%Pennsylvania158129$28,696,69755%Puerto Rico00$0NARhode Island452$481,47596%South Carolina157189$4,423,84145%South Dakota12446$11,098,40373%Tennessee35276$8,699,28082%Texas122143$16,811,54546%U.S. Virgin Islands00$0NAUtah40159$22,156,99820%Vermont172159$8,929,11752%Virginia103108$7,796,44149%Washington118108$9,144,98152%West Virginia1463$2,548,59198%Wisconsin16450$7,617,73977%Wyoming2776$3,643,17826%Totals 5,389 5,913$364,295,67148%Data compiled from NRCS: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/priorities/inflation-reduction-act/inflation-reduction-act-investments-by-stateAs evidenced by the number of farmers turned away, it is clear that farmer demand for IRA is strong even in the first year of funding availability. As word-of-mouth and success stories continue to spread, that demand will only grow, especially as volatile and more extreme weather patterns increasingly lead farmers to build climate-resilience into their operations.
As of late April 2024, NRCS is also actively conducting program sign ups for FY2024 IRA funding, meaning more money is being obligated through new contracts with farmers every day. It is safe to assume that NRCS will obligate all FY2024 IRA funds within this fiscal year.
If it ain’t broke… What should Congress do in this farm bill?It’s hard to argue with data, and in this case, the data is clear. Given the continued strong demand for conservation programs writ large, and the overwhelming and expanding demand for CSAF practices in the wake of the IRA, Congress needs to both permanently increase funding for CSP and EQIP, and permanently improve these programs’ ability to serve farmers interested in CSAF practices.
By any metric, the IRA has been a wildly successful experiment. As with any successful experiment, the absolute worst thing to do is fundamentally undermine what made it a success – but that’s exactly what the House Agriculture Committee is considering. Proposals to repurpose the IRA’s funding to less popular conservation programs – or even to shift it away from conservation programs altogether – may still be on the table. The same is true of the IRA’s hallmark climate targeting, which reports indicate will likely be stripped from the House Agriculture Committee’s farm bill proposal in an outright failure to acknowledge the interests of hundreds of thousands of farmers and ranchers.
The right next step is both simple and – based on the IRA’s popularity among farmers and ranchers in red and blue states alike – bipartisan. Congress should fully protect the IRA’s generational investments – keeping them climate-focused and entirely invested in the most popular conservation programs. After all, if it ain’t broke…
The post Farmers and Ranchers Love the IRA’s Climate-Smart Funding. Will the House Farm Bill Pull the Rug Out from Under Them? appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
WASHINGTON, May 7, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced approximately $22.3 million available to community-based and nonprofit organizations, institutions of higher education, and Tribal entities that help underserved and veteran farmers and ranchers own and operate successful farms. Funding is made through USDA’s 2501 Program. This program is administered by USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE).
Guam is often called “where America’s day begins” as the sun rises 14 hours earlier than the nation’s capital. USDA Program Coordinator Lihan Wei recently traveled to Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) to visit these underserved communities and engage in outreach and partnerships.
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