Latest News From Conservation

Scope 3 is all the buzz lately in the world of sustainability. A company’s emissions are broken down into three scopes. Scope 3 covers indirect emissions from a company’s upstream and downstream supply chain.  

At Christiansen Land and Cattle, they’re committed to excellence and continuous improvement, a mindset that started when Christine Hamilton’s family homesteaded in South Dakota in 1891.

AgWeb and Trust In Food’s beta Climate-Smart Opportunity Navigator is matching producers with Climate-Smart Commodities grants tailored to their operation.

COP28's decision to not include food and agriculture as a way to meet climate goals was influenced by a request from the G77 group of developing countries for additional review related to agriculture and food.

USDA looks to improve the future measure, monitoring, reporting and verification of ag climate emissions via a $300 million investment announced on Wednesday.

Dr. Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University, via a FarmDoc Daily article, proposes merging General CRP and Continuous CRP into a Site Specific CRP.

Erik Lichtenberg, University of Maryland professor, says Congress could reorient farm bill conservation funds for climate change, but it could cut into their support.

Seven U.S. states along the drought-starved Colorado River have reached a deal with the Biden administration to conserve water in a "historic consensus" to prevent supply problems for big cities as well as farmers.

"The prioritization of resource concerns must be left to the local level where producers decide how they can best address their unique and varied landscapes and needs," said Sen. John Boozman.

SNAP, which historically receives the greatest amount of farm bill funding, will see an 82% increase of a quarter-trillion-dollars.

A Senate Ag Committee hearing Thursday on the new farm bill raised a issue that is now evident: the Title 1 farm bill safety net can no longer deal with the current ag environment.

The House on Friday averted a government shutdown by voting 225 to 201 in favor of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023—the omnibus spending bill. Here's what's in it for ag.

Text of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package was released early Tuesday morning. The Senate will vote first and intends to pass the measure before Thursday, leaving the House no time to demand changes.

By the end of the year, the Biden administration is expected to issue new rules that Government Lawyer Brian Fletcher told the court will “provide greater clarity to the regulated public on all parts of the test.”

The WOTUS case, Sackett v. EPA, centers on a long-running dispute involving an Idaho couple named Chantell and Michael Sackett. The Sacketts have won at the Supreme Court before.

In preparation for farm bill 2023, the House Ag Committee met on Tuesday to grasp the highs and lows of the current farm bill and fill any gaps in 2023.

Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) and partners will use funding in a five-year pilot project to demonstrate a climate-smart future for corn, soybean, livestock and renewable natural gas production.

U.S. Forest Service reforestation funding rose to over $100 million this year as part of moves to plant more than a billion trees in a decade under the infrastructure package passed in 2021, USDA said in a statement.

EPA hosted its fifth WOTUS roundtable last week with the Kansas Livestock Association, revealing murky waters in the WOTUS definition.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack provided more details regarding the general CRP signup that ended March 11. He said only 1.8 million of the 4 million acres in expiring contracts will be re-enrolled in the program.

With Ukraine and Russia at war in the midst of a world moving away from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lot to consider in the 2023 Farm Bill. Industry experts weighed-in to share their predictions.

A federal judge on Friday blocked for now the Biden administration from restoring Obama-era values for calculating the cost of climate change in the government's permitting, investment and regulatory decisions.

The Biden Administration is deploying money and resources to ramp up clean energy projects across rural America. The White House says the plan taps federal lands to install wind, solar and geothermal energy projects.

AFBF President Zippy Duvall told members this week he will continue to press for policy that progresses agriculture, citing AFBF's work on changes to the White House's "America the Beautiful" plan as an example.

AFBF's in-person annual convention focused on everything from H-2A workers, drought, supply chain chaos and policy changes like the Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule. USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed the group Monday.

A new report shows over one-third of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten. Not only does this waste resources used to produce food, but it also creates a myriad of environmental impacts, EPA said. 

The EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are seeking comment on the pre-2015 WOTUS rule published in the Federal Register.

On Tuesday, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack rang in on AgriTalk to share agriculture’s angle in the BBB plan with host Chip Flory.

McDonald’s is committing $5 million and partnering with AgMission, a global collaboration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and to develop and implement climate-smart farming solutions.

The Biden administration kicked off the nearly week-long trip EU climate trip with a $1 billion announcement. And there's more funds in the Build Back Better program, but some say details are still sparse.

Biden's new Build Back Better plan could have a sweeping impact on ag. The plan provides a boost to biofuels and conservation efforts and expands USDA's proposed minority farmer and rancher debt relief by $6 billion.

Nomination deadline for The Fertilizer Institute’s (TFI) 2022 4R Advocate Awards program is November 5. The program recognizes farmers and fertilizer retailers for their commitment to nutrient stewardship.

The House Agriculture Committee passed the Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Management Act with a unanimous vote, allotting $70 million annually to chronic wasting disease (CWD) control.

President Biden recently pledged to reduce methane emissions by at least 30% by the end of the decade. The commitment could impact agriculture, but work is already underway in the cattle sector to reduce cattle manure.

Producer resource guide to help your operation adapt to a changing market and a changing world.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Sand County Foundation a grant to empower farmers with real-time data about their conservation practices.  

After a thorough review of the best available science, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list two distinct population segments (DPS) of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

For Double C Cattle Company, stewardship of the land reigns and the cattle are an integral tool in management.

The Neuharths grow a diverse rotation of crops on 2,500 acres of farmland, and rotationally graze beef cattle on 3,000 acres of grassland.

On a day when U.S. corn futures went limit-up on supply and demand concerns, Washington talked about idling millions of additional lands via various programs.

Details of a U.S. land and water related executive order could be unveiled soon. Known as the ’30 by 30’ plan, it would place 30% of U.S. lands and 30% of U.S. waters under federal jurisdiction by 2030.

A fifth-generation beef company now serving up sustainability.

Is seaweed the answer in helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cattle? New research from UC Davis found adding seaweed into beef cattle’s diets could reduce methane emissions by as much as 82%.

A new report suggests investments and partnerships in agriculture could help reduce U.S. GHG emissions by two-thirds by encouraging widespread adoption of climate-smart practices on farms and ranches.

The first in a series of webinars by the Global Farmer Network brought together a diverse panel of farmers to talk about the biggest issues in agriculture today.

As President Joe Biden took office Wednesday, one former Secretary of Agriculture thinks a Biden Administration and USDA will focus more on helping craft a farm bill that focuses on conservation.

During its anniversary year, the institute will celebrate the importance of the land, recognize farmers and ranchers, and highlight their contributions to the public at large through special campaigns.

Ranching has been the Phares’ way of life for eight generations, but development pressure in Florida threatens the industry as a whole. A new podcast aims educate and preserve ranchland in the state.

Many people are familiar with the domesticated honey bee, they are also surprised to learn that we also have an abundance of wild, native species at risk of vanishing forever.

U.S. food companies respond to consumer desires for green initiatives.