USDA is offering three times as much money this year as last year for Regional Conservation Partnership Program projects, thanks to increased funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. And USDA also is trying to get the RCPP money out the door faster this year.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Wednesday announced the agency is now taking applications for $1.5 billion in RCPP projects, up from $500 million last year. RCPP allows private organizations and state governments to partner with the USDA for conservation projects spanning regions or watersheds. The IRA funds are targeted specifically for climate-focused projects.
Take note: The Natural Resources Conservation Service wants to reduce the project negotiation time from 15 months to six months this year.
USDA had $754 million in net budget authority under the IRA for FY2024 and has $1.4 billion available for FY25, which starts Oct. 1. The department had $250 million in FY23 funding, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
ITC to hear testimony on Corteva 2,4-D dumping petition
National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle will be in Washington, D.C., this morning to tell the International Trade Commission that it should not grant petitions seeking tariffs on imports of 2,4-D.
The widely used herbicide is a vital tool for growers, Wolle plans to tell the commission, which meets at 9:30 for a preliminary conference on Corteva Agriscience’s petition.
The ITC says it will make a preliminary determination by April 29 on whether low-priced imports from China and India have “materially injured” or threatened to materially injure Corteva.
Long-time ag economist: Funding remains farm bill hurdle
A long-time observer of farm bill development says work on a new bill is probably further along than it appears. But Joe Outlaw, an ag economist at Texas A&M University, says lawmakers also continue to struggle to find a way to pay for increases in reference prices.
“They’re going to have to piece together the money to do anything,” Outlaw told Agri-Pulse on the sidelines of a conference sponsored by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri.
He noted that Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., has drawn a red line around some potential funding sources, including the IRA conservation funding. Lawmakers “need to be right up against the line, because there’s just no money,” he said.
Ohio dairy herd latest to be hit by avian flu
Another dairy herd has been infected with bird flu, this time in Ohio. The Ohio Agriculture Department says the farm received cows March 8 from a Texas operation that turned out to be infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza.
USDA has also confirmed infections in herds in Kansas, Idaho, New Mexico and Michigan,
By the way: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found some good news after a genetic analysis of the virus that infected a Texas dairy worker. The CDC says there were no markers for antiviral resistance related to potential vaccines. The agency says the analysis of HPAI viruses in Texas supports its “conclusion that the human health risk currently remains low.”
White House, FCC commissioner try to save broadband subsidy program
Biden administration officials are ramping up their messaging to lawmakers as they push for an extension of funding for the nearly depleted Affordable Connectivity Program.
Launched in 2022 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the program provides $30 per month that some households can put toward their internet bills, as well as a one-time $100 subsidy to buy computers. Households in certain rural and tribal areas receive up to $75 per month for their internet bills.
ACP is set to run out of funds by the end of May. White House press secretary Katherine Jean-Pierre is blaming congressional Republicans for not acting on the request made by the administration six months ago for $6 billion in supplemental funding. She says the White House this week will mount a push to get the program extended.
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Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also sent a letter to congressional leaders warning that the end of the program could hinder efforts to extend broadband into rural areas.
"In what is perverse, both rural and Tribal communities will likely see new broadband deployment in remote areas, thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, but persistent challenges with cost — absent the ACP — may limit the ability of this investment to close the digital divide,” Rosenworcel wrote.
Advocacy group threatens legal action over Iowa butterfly
The Iowa skipper butterfly, whose 14-state range now includes only “patchy and small” populations, should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to the Center for Food Safety, an advocacy group that is threatening legal action over the issue.
In a letter to the Fish and Wildlife Service, CFS says the service has not responded to its March 2023 petition to list the butterfly, even to issue a positive or negative 90-day finding as required by law. If FWS does not respond within 60 days, the center says it would file a lawsuit.
Once an abundant tallgrass prairie species, the butterfly has lost considerable habitat to agricultural conversion, CFS says. The remaining habitat is surrounded by “pesticide-laden” row crop agriculture that has “dramatic repercussions on the health” of the species, the group said.
“The Iowa Skipper’s 14-state range once spanned the midcontinent grassland biome from North Dakota and eastern Montana east to Illinois and south to Texas,” CFS says. “The species was last seen in Iowa in 2009, Minnesota in 2008, and Illinois in 1989.”
He said it. "Ozempic isn't going to change the world food demand problem very dramatically. It's a big challenge but also a big opportunity." – Former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., talking about the need to increase food production to meet global demand. He was speaking at the 2024 Abner Womack Missouri Agriculture Outlook Conference, sponsored by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri.
Noah Wicks, Steve Davies and Rebekah Alvey contributed to this report.
