Predictions for upcoming seasons are laid out each year in the pages of The Old Farmer’s Almanac — charting the sun, moon, tides and past weather records to forecast the year ahead. With that in mind, we’ve done some calculations of our own and gauged the temperature of discussions surrounding farm and food policy for the 2012 Farm Bill.

Should the stars align, here are our predictions for topics to anticipate during the farm bill reauthorization process this spring.

Deficits and Cuts

The national deficit continues to loom overhead and the debate over the 2012 Farm Bill will be dominated like few others this century by deficit pressure. Every section of the legislation will be affected, but by how much we do not know. However, we do know that the deal to increase the debt ceiling means the farm bill will be cut by about $15 to $16 billion as a result of automatic sequestration. These cuts will most likely be the starting point—and not the end point—for final numbers.

Safeguarding the Environment

For conservation, 2012 will be a year when climate and environmental issues establish new trends and challenges. Dramatic weather events in 2011 created highs and lows in American agriculture, and coming years will be no exception. The discussion will focus on how to make conservation programs more efficient while equipping farmers with conservation tools and programs to meet environmental challenges and regulatory burdens.

With conservation programs having already contributed more than $2 billion to the nation’s deficit reduction through appropriations cuts, we think the farm bill debate this spring should center on promoting conservation funding without the threat of additional cuts. Conservation programs are too valuable to lose now—and for our future.

The Future of Farm Support Programs

Caught up in the budget belt-tightening are proposals to alter farm support, or subsidy, programs. For the first time in two decades, it is likely that direct payments will be eliminated. What will replace them is unclear, but the debate is currently focused on the appropriate role of government in helping farmers address risk.

We believe that  new safety net programs must protect farms from risks they can’t control, while also minimizing the programs’ influence on the economic and environmental behavior of farmers. The debate will be vigorous but we believe it will be critical to creating a farm support system that works effectively for both farmers and consumers.

Who Will be Farming and Stewarding the Land?

Now more than any time since the end of World War II, it’s important for the nation to have a serious discussion about the generational and gender shifts happening in American agriculture.

According to the 2007 U.S. Census of Agriculture, there are more than five times as many farmers at age 65 and older as there are 35 and younger. As the overall farm population ages, the influence of female landowners is predicted to rise.— 70 percent of farmland is expected to change hands in the next 20 years, with women potentially ending up  owning most of it. While we face the critical question of how land will be transitioned, at the same time we see the rise of young adults looking to start careers in agriculture but facing challenges securing land and succeeding in farming.

It will be difficult for farm policy leaders to ignore the changing demographics in agriculture. We think changes in land ownership, land stewardship and the engagement of young and beginning farmers in agriculture should be part of the discussion as Congress addresses programs for farmland protection, farm viability, and conservation.

Strengthening America’s Farm and Food System

Lawmakers will need to look systematically at what rural development policy is supposed to do to help today’s rural America.

The 2012 Farm Bill can be a catalyst to help rural America by finding ways to stimulate new market opportunities for agriculture and further support for local and regional food systems. Consumer demand for local food continues to rise, and farm policy can play a critical role in helping farmers provide it.

A Healthier Nation

Public health and nutrition, and the intersection with agriculture, is currently at the forefront of national interest. Amid on-going conversations about public health and chronic diseases is a focus on the availability of fresh, healthy food.

The connection between healthier diets and agricultural production is very real and easy to see. The demand for healthy food opens markets for agricultural products and potentially  helps keep farmers farming. Less clear, but no less important, is the role that public health demands may play in   local and regional food systems. The next farm bill presents the opportunity to explore public health while also creating market opportunities for farmers. We think 2012 will be the beginning of a long term trend of a new public health constituent group in the farm bill.

The forecast for the 2012 Farm Bill will take the direction of real forces shaping farm and food policy. As discussions around the 2012 Farm Bill get underway in Washington, we’ll be asking supporters of America’s farms and food to learn more, speak up and be heard.

Farmers embrace conservation tillage

Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley are switching to conservation tillage at a fast pace. This increase in interest comes at a much needed time for farmers and the environment in California’s Central Valley. With a potential for reduced operating costs and improved soil composition, conservation tillage has many benefits.

Minnesota increases water conservation practices

The USDA, EPA, and state of Minnesota have come together to develop a new state conservation program that will protect rivers, streams and lakes by encouraging farmers to adopt conservation practices that reduce nutrient run-off and improve water quality.

Mayors discuss food policy

Food policy was among the topics discussed this week during the annual Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Mayor Menino of Boston heads the discussion of the Food Policy Task Force, covering topics from urban food policy  to SNAP benefits.

Bringing fair food access to you

Gus Schumacher, American Farmland Trust board member, discusses his passion for farming and fair food access. During his interview, he discusses the growth of farmers markets in our struggling economy and the volunteers who make them possible.

Renewable energy for farms

Alternative sources of energy are making their way onto farms. The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Initiative (SARE) has been studying the best opportunities for renewable energy on farms, including solar, wind and fuels from animal waste.

Coventry Farmers Market pushes ahead successfully

The Coventry Regional Farmers’ Market is happy to announce that they have made it past another hurdle in their efforts to save their market. The difficulties of finding a new location after their lease was terminated have made it difficult to begin planning for their coming season.

Like any business owner or operator, farmers take careful consideration when making any changes to their operations. A change that may seem relatively simple to an outsider could require new equipment, more labor or a different response to heavy rain or drought. In the end the change may turn out to be a great success, but that is often difficult to be sure of at the outset.

This balance of change, risk and opportunity cannot be overlooked when asking farmers to address environmental challenges in the Chesapeake Bay. Agriculture may be the leading source of nutrient run-off there, but it has also been the second largest contributor to the progress in cleaning up the bay. We have been working with farmers in the region to help advance this progress through our BMP Challenge, a risk management program that American Farmland Trust is implementing across the nation to encourage farmers to make conservation happen on-the-ground. (For more on the BMP Challenge, read my recent story about visiting a farm in Virginia.)

A recent study in Pennsylvania focused on how to address risk when the business of agriculture intersects with the need to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. . Here is what we found:

Risk Is Real

The National Academy of Sciences acknowledges the dilemma that farmers face in deciding how much fertilizer to use:

“Since (they) must make nitrogen applications without being able to predict weather and crop yields, the potential for being wrong is always present and will always occur in some years.”

Our data shows that reducing fertilizer on crops can result in decreased yields 40 percent of the time even with well-tested practices. Over time, these practices should pay off, but farmers cite fear of lost income as a major consideration when deciding whether or not to implement new conservation practices.

An Effective Way to Manage Risk

The BMP Challenge provides three helpful supports to farmers willing to take a chance:

1) Technical assistance from a certified agricultural consultant to help plan and implement the change

2) A comparison of the standard and the new practice on the farmer’s field so he or she can get experience using it and see the results

3) An income guarantee so that if a loss in profit is experienced, the farmer receives the difference

The Result: Widespread Adoption of New Practices

In Pennsylvania, we found that BMP Challenge participants report high satisfaction with the program, and 85 percent say that they have continued to use the practice or a modified form of it on their farm.

Looking Ahead

These results are an important step in addressing the risk that farmers face when adopting conservation practices. We believe that the BMP Challenge is an important new tool for farmers—helping them manage part of the risk they face in trying to be good stewards of the environment and successful small businesses at the same time.

Over the coming months, we will continue exploring how these results will impact the Chesapeake Bay and impaired water bodies across the country. Can we scale up our demonstrations to broader availability? Are there other ways to address “conservation risk,” such as emerging income opportunities like water quality trading that can help mitigate the financial risk of adopting water quality practices?

Cutting back on development

Despite the recession, smart growth planning that limits poorly planned development is still important, and voters continue to support public funds for land conservation.

Don’t forget your farmer this holiday season

While preparing your holiday feasts this season, remember to support your local farmers. Even though farmers markets and CSA farms have finished for the season in some parts of the country, there are other ways to find local produce, such as food hubs.

Assistance in Keeping the Land Healthy in Ohio

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is offering programs again this year to help farmers in Ohio improve the health of their land. A variety of USDA conservation programs are available that can help improve soil health and protect wetlands, wildlife, water and farmland. Applications are due Dec. 15, so schedule an appointment to meet with your NRCS representative today.

Holiday farm photo contest

Grab your camera and take your favorite pictures of this holiday season on the farm. The Farm Industry News is holding its holiday photo contest and wants to see how you celebrate and enjoy the holiday season. But you better hurry because the deadline is Monday, December 12^th!

Share your farming stories with Small Farm Quarterly

Small Farm Quarterly, a publication for farmers and farm families across the Northeast, is looking for submissions for their newsletter; farmers and farm advocates are encouraged to contribute and share their stories.

As another year draws to a close, we are offered the chance to reflect on our many successes across the country in 2011. We have made strides in addressing the great challenges and opportunities facing agriculture through our work to protect farmland from conversion to nonagricultural uses, promote environmentally sound farming practices and keep farmers on the land. We’re proud of our efforts over the past year to protect and steward America’s working lands and grateful to our partners and supporters for their vital roles in these achievements. Here are a few key accomplishments:

Helping Farmers and Ranchers Protect Working Lands

Our Farmland Information Center helped countless farmers and ranchers explore options on how to protect their land as well as transfer it to the next generation. We also worked on the state level to defend and strengthen farmland protection programs. For instance, when Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker put promised funds for the state’s Farmland Preservation Program on hold and called for eliminating it entirely, we mobilized farmers, activists and citizens. The state legislature listened, keeping the program intact and restoring funds for already approved projects. We addressed similar issues by spreading the No Farms No Food® message at “Ag Days” held in Massachusetts and Connecticut and at our rally to support farmland protection and thriving farms in New York.

Bringing Farming and Community Together

Keeping farmers on the land through food market support, smart growth, and community planning for agriculture is an important goal that we pursued in 2011. In California, our Bay Area Agricultural Sustainability Project focused on strategies to support thriving farms, farmland and community. Our Pacific Northwest office kicked off a study in the Seattle region to identify the potential of local farmland to produce additional food for the region and the changes in production, processing and distribution needed to link local farmers to local consumers.  In Rhode Island, we took the lead on a five-year strategic plan that provides a vision for strengthening the state’s agriculture by keeping more farmland in production, and working with public officials and citizens alike to support and promote agriculture.

Keeping Water Clean

Farmers are some of our nation’s greatest environmental stewards, but they face a delicate balance in growing healthy crops while protecting drinking water. Our strategic programs—including work in California, the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound and the Mississippi River Watershed—are helping farmers reduce fertilizer runoff and improve water quality by developing new, innovative tools to boost use of conservation practices. We’ve stepped up efforts to implement our Nutrient BMP Challenge® program, which encourages on-farm conservation and helps reduce the amount of fertilizer flowing from farm fields into waterways. Through the program, farmers have reduced fertilizer use by 24 percent and lessened greenhouse gas emissions by 69 percent and soil erosion by 78 percent on thousands of acres in the Midwest alone.

Transforming Farm and Food Policy

Throughout 2011, we continued in our role of providing results-oriented and pragmatic leadership on farm and food policy. Working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and others, we brought together leaders from agriculture, the environment and rural development for a National Agricultural Landscapes Forum to improve policy options for sustaining the agricultural landscape and rural regions. This fall we launched Agenda 2012: Transforming U.S. Farm Policy for the 21st Century — our plan for a federal farm bill that supports sound stewardship on working lands in order to safeguard the environment and keep farms and ranches thriving.

A Look Ahead

The coming year will present its own array of opportunities.  The federal budget deficit will continue to spur innovation in developing national and state policy.  High crop prices, development pressure, and adaptation to more volatile weather patterns, will put pressure on the agricultural land base, but American Farmland Trust will bring new research and information, dialogue and common ground among divergent groups and policy support to assure that we save the land that sustains us. We hope you will join us as we continue with our vital work to protect farmland, promote environmentally sound practices and ensure a sustainable future for farmers.

About the author: Katherine “Kitty” Smith is Vice President of Programs and Chief Economist at American Farmland Trust. She previously served as Administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, has served on several United Nations Expert Panels, and chaired the Organization of International Cooperation and Development’s Joint Working Party on Agriculture and Environment.

This has been an exceptionally busy year for American Farmland Trust in the Pacific Northwest. It has been a year full of changes: our longtime regional director, Don Stuart, retired at the end of 2010 but has continued to work closely with our office. It has been a year full of building and strengthening relationships as our alliances with a wide-range of agricultural, local food and smart growth organizations have flourished through collaborative efforts surrounding our shared goals.

The Pacific Northwest is home to some of the America’s most fertile and productive farmland. Farms and ranches in Washington, Oregon and Idaho reach consumers in the Northwest and throughout the nation with their abundance of food and other agricultural products, even as they face pressures from sprawling development. Here are just a few ways we have been working to protect farmland, safeguard the environment and provide fresh, healthy food throughout the region.

The Pioneers in Conservation Program: Helping Farmers Safeguard Salmon Habitat

Thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, we revived the Pioneers in Conservation program and will offer small grants to farmers for salmon habitat restoration projects along rivers and wetlands. American Farmland Trust offered a similar program from 2007 to 2009, which was widely supported by the environmental and farm communities and protected salmon while supporting farm businesses. We expect to announce the first grants in early 2012.

Making Farmland Protection Programs More Effective

We finished a study of farmland protection programs in the 12 counties surrounding Puget Sound. The county-by-county assessment covered zoning, land use regulations, tax relief, land protection tools and economic development programs. Skagit, King and Whatcom counties were recognized as having the best programs for saving important farm and ranch land. We will follow up our county study with a program for counties wishing to improve their farmland protection programs.

Can the Puget Sound Feed Itself?

We also completed the first phase of a foodshed study of the Puget Sound region focusing on what foods are produced and consumed within a 100-mile radius of downtown Seattle. With help from graduate students at the University of Washington, our next step is to identify how food travels from farmers to consumers, how much farmland is needed to produce local food for the area and how we can better promote locally supplied food.

Identifying the Most Threatened Farm and Ranch Landscapes

Which working landscapes in the Pacific Northwest are most threatened by suburban sprawl, second-home development, rural estates, competition for water and other issues? We are laying the groundwork and creating partnerships in Oregon, Idaho and western Montana to roll out a program that helps identify and protect the most endangered farm landscapes in those states.

A Look Ahead

We are prepared for another strong year in 2012. Along with our partners, we will be following up with our work to address sprawling development in the region, provide healthy food locally, and safeguard environmental resources such as clean water.

Thank you for your help, support and encouragement. We could not do our work without you.

About the author: Dennis Canty is the Pacific Northwest Director for American Farmland Trust. Before joining AFT, Canty founded Evergreen Funding Consultants in 2001, a Seattle firm that focuses on funding strategies for environmental projects.

Another year has passed, and with it a year of exciting new projects and partnerships to protect the priceless farmland resources of the Midwest. Farmers throughout the region are finding ways to be better stewards of the land, while farmers and citizens alike are fighting for policies and programs that keep farmland in farming even with state budget issues and shifting farm ownership demographics looming.

Just as farmers glance back at the rows they’ve just planted or harvested as they continue moving forward, I wanted to take this chance to share with you some of the successes we’ve had over the past year:

Finding New Ways to Help Farmers and the Environment Thrive

In the Upper Salt Fork watershed in central Illinois, our work with farmers to reduce fertilizer and soil runoff into the Mississippi River basin has so far resulted in new conservation practices on nearly 4,000 acres of the 27,000-acre watershed. In Lake Erie, where a record toxic algal bloom spread, adding to the “dead zone” threatening the area’s $10 billion annual tourism industry, we’re working with farmers to reduce phosphorus runoff, which contributes to the problem. And in the Ohio River Basin, we’re starting to recruit farmers to participate in pilot trades that could lead to the nation’s largest water quality trading program.

Keeping Farms in Farming While Safely Controlling Pests

Working with the Environmental Protection Agency, we have five projects underway to help fruit and vegetable farmers in the Midwest control insects, weeds, plant diseases and other pests while protecting the environment and remaining profitable. In Michigan, we’re helping cherry growers manage pesky flies, while in Minnesota we’ve helped strawberry, pumpkin and potato growers control weeds without chemicals.

Bringing Farm Owners and Operators Together

Currently, nearly 90 percent of farm owners are not farm operators, with absentee landlords owning 44 percent of the nation’s farmland. Along with key partners in Iowa, we launched a project to learn about the impacts of absentee landowners, the adoption of conservation practices on leased land and how to help owners and operators discuss conservation challenges.

Saving Farmland Protection in Wisconsin

Just two years ago, we led the drive to pass Wisconsin’s Working Lands Initiative and create a new Farmland Preservation Program, much needed in a pivotal farm state losing its fertile farmland to development. But when Governor Scott Walker put promised funds for the program on hold and called for eliminating it entirely, American Farmland Trust mobilized farmers, activists and citizens. The state legislature listened, keeping the program intact and restoring funds for already approved projects.

Women: America’s Emerging Agricultural Leaders

Due to the age of many farmers, within 20 years about 70 percent of farmland will change hands, and women may own up to 75 percent of it. While possessing a strong conservation ethic, many women are unsure of how to take action to protect and conserve their land. We’ve started the planning process to hold women-only meetings to educate women who own farmland in the Midwest, helping to address such barriers.

A Look Ahead

For more than 25 years, we have been working to protect farmland through preservation and conservation efforts throughout the Midwest. In the breadbasket of the nation, we know we can’t afford to take these priceless resources for granted. That’s why we will continue our work throughout the Midwest in the coming year and beyond.

About the Author: Ann Sorensen, Ph.D. is Director of Research at American Farmland Trust. She currently sits on the EPA’s Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Federal Advisory Committee.

Producing one-eighth of all U.S. food and fiber—more than 300 different crops—on just three percent of its farmland, California is the nation’s biggest agricultural producer. It is also the most populous and fastest growing state. This combination presents considerable challenges for farms and farmland.

This year, we worked with partners throughout the state to make significant progress on each of the groundbreaking initiatives we’ve launched to address the challenges facing farms in California. To us, the challenges represent opportunities to advance our mission of saving farmland, promoting environmentally friendly farming practices and maintaining the economic viability of agriculture. Here is an update on how our strategy is working.

Saving  San Joaquin Valley Farmland

We’re helping to guide the first regional planning process in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s most important agricultural area. The Blueprint that emerged this year will save more than 120,000 acres of farmland by reducing urban sprawl. But to accomplish this, it must be incorporated into the land use plans of the region’s local governments, which is now our focus in the valley. At the same time, we have persuaded regional officials to produce a complementary “greenprint” that will inventory agricultural and natural resources and recommend strategies for their conservation and management.

San Francisco Bay Area Foodshed

The nine-county San Francisco Bay Area is losing about one percent of its remaining farmland every year as agriculture in the region struggles to compete—not only with development but also against farmers and ranchers in other areas of California who face lower costs and fewer urban headaches. To halt this trend, American Farmland Trust and partner organizations like the Greenbelt Alliance are promoting a regional agricultural economic development strategy to help farmers and ranchers capitalize on the market advantage they enjoy because of the region’s strong interest in locally grown food.

Environmental Stewardship

Our on-the-ground demonstration projects are helping convince growers that conservation practices do not have to reduce yields and profits. Our Nutrient BMP Challenge® program helped farmers growing feed for dairy cows adopt new environmentally friendly farming practices on 2,400 acres in the San Joaquin Valley. We are also beginning a new project in partnership with the Campbell Soup Company to help tomato producers reduce fertilizer and conserve water. And we are holding focus groups with farmers across the state to identify other obstacles keeping farmers from adopting practices that safeguard the environment.

California Agricultural Vision

One of the most significant things we have ever done in California is to orchestrate a process that led to the adoption by the State Board of Food & Agriculture of a set of strategies to address the major challenges facing California agriculture, among them water, regulations, workforce, invasive species and land use. This year, we have been working with leaders from agriculture, the environmental community and other interest groups to implement California Agricultural Vision, as the plan is called. Foremost among our priorities is an assessment of agriculture’s future land and water needs in light of a growing population, climate change and other factors likely to influence supply and demand for food, which we are pursuing in partnership with researchers at the University of California.

A Look Ahead

While continuing to make progress on the initiatives mentioned here, we will have to address new threats to farmland in the coming year. Among them is a high-speed rail system that—without good land use planning—threatens to encourage more urban sprawl. We also face hundreds of proposals to build industrial-scale solar energy facilities—you guessed it—on California’s irreplaceable farmland.

About the Author: Edward Thompson, Jr., California Director at American Farmland Trust has been with the organization since it was founded 30 years ago, serving in multiple positions and helping initiate a wide variety of projects.

This post was originally featured on AgriPulse.com as part of an on-going series of opinion pieces.

We’re a little over a week past the spectacular and unfortunate demise of the Super Committee. As a result, we failed to pass a 2012 Farm Bill as part of that process.

The natural question is “What’s next?”

We must pass a farm bill in 2012 because our nation’s farmers and ranchers need and deserve a measure of certainty. Farmers need a safety net that works effectively, and they need access to tools that help them be good stewards of our natural resources. And finally, those less fortunate during these economic times deserve a helping hand so they don’t go hungry, while our nation as a whole needs the security effective food policies and programs bring.

Adding to the urgent need for action is our nation’s long-term fiscal concerns that beg for action and the presidential election just around the corner that will complicate the policy process further if we do not move forward expeditiously.

I am thus heartened by the recent statements of Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who said that the committee will proceed with farm bill mark-up in January and February. This would put the process back on the original timetable that Sen. Stabenow and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Rep. Lucas outlined months ago.

We believe a good starting point for this work is that which has been done by the leadership of the Agriculture Committees as part of the Super Committee process. While the text of the leadership’s proposal has not been made public, many details have leaked to the press, and more has been learned in conversations with the committee leadership and their staff.

Conservation

From what has been reported, it appears that the leadership proposal would cut conservation title funding by 10 percent. Given the challenges we face, these cuts are disappointing. But given the size of our nation’s fiscal challenges, some measure of cuts to all agriculture programs are expected.

As we look to finish the farm bill process, it seems to me we have reached the point where all of us must say, “Enough, we cannot cut conservation further!”

While any cut to the budget is painful, many of the program changes suggested by the leadership were positive. For example, it appears that a method of focusing our conservation priorities on areas of highest need has been developed. This is real progress.

The leadership has streamlined several conservation programs—again a positive move, since farmers should be able to access and use programs more efficiently.

Further, the leadership appears to have made a robust commitment to agricultural working lands by funding and improving the effectiveness of a new agricultural land easement program, improving the Conservation Stewardship Program and maintaining an effective and robust Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

This week, the Food and Agriculture Organization issued a status report on land and water resources, noting the challenge ahead: to increase agricultural production by 70 percent in coming years at a time when these resources will be put under increasing and extreme strain.

Adding to that burden, we’ve lost over 23 million acres of farm and ranch land in recent decades here in the United States. This underscores the absolute importance of the conservation title in the farm bill because of its role in supporting the health of our soils, water, air, wildlife habitat and more.

As we see more specific details of the leadership plan, improvements in the conservation title may be needed, but it appears they have put us in a good starting position.

The Safety Net

Unlike conservation, details that have emerged on the safety net cause great concern. As I have written on many occasions, the modern safety net must meet several principles:

• Producers must show they have suffered a real loss before they receive a payment.
• The new safety net should be revenue-based and adjust to volatile and dynamic global markets.
• The new program should help farmers manage long-term market risks in concert with, not duplicating, crop insurance that protects against individual farm risks within a crop year.
• Finally, we need to assure that government programs do not create artificial incentives to farm on land that may have detrimental environmental impacts. A modern farm safety net should seek to minimize such distortion or have systems in place to mitigate such impacts.

News accounts of proposals that would institute higher target prices would send agriculture in the wrong direction. We must not go back to farmers farming the government program.

Reports of an overly-generous, farm-level shallow-loss program is also concerning, as it does not acknowledge the distortion such programs have on planting and on conservation decisions. As the farm bill moves forward, we must remove, reduce and mitigate these distortions.

For decades, we have acknowledged that government payments cause distortion. As a result, we have asked farmers to maintain the minimum conservation plans through conservation compliance. As our safety net evolves, we have to insure that these conservation standards remain in place and evolve with it.

I am disappointed that the leadership proposal did not appear to include the reattachment of conservation compliance to crop insurance subsidies, along with a sod-saver provision.

These are important provisions in agriculture’s contract with the public that ensures economic stability in agriculture while protecting the resources that sustain our food supply and so much more.

Healthy Food and Food Systems

Changes to address local foods and nutrition are encouraging. The leadership’s proposal acknowledges with funding and improved programs the burgeoning public interest in healthy, locally produced food.

Some of these include funding for the Value Added Producer Grant program and creating a new Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program. These measures can also provide exciting new market opportunities for farmers and ranchers.

It is also notable that the leadership proposal maintained efforts to improve the dietary health of the 45 million of our neighbors who currently are food insecure and receive nutrition assistance by funding efforts like SNAP Education and the SNACK program.

The Clock Is Ticking.

The clock is ticking. Now that the Super Committee demise and Thanksgiving turkey are but memories, it is time to gear up for the opportunity that lies ahead early in the New Year.

Everyone touched by the farm bill must immediately analyze the leadership’s initial proposal and move quickly out of the starting gate. So much is at stake. Time is fleeting.

About the Author: Jon Scholl is President of American Farmland Trust. Prior to AFT, he served as Counselor to the Administrator for Agriculture Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Jon and his

Young farmers look to historic New Jersey crop: the cranberry

New Jersey cranberries are making a comeback among a young generation of farmers. Rutgers University is trying to increase this growth and other farm trends in the state through its revised agricultural program. The university will also be educating consumers on the value of locally grown produce.

Conservations program faces hurdle

In Minnesota, farmers enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program—a farm bill program that protects environmentally sensitive land—are considering returning protected land to production due to high crop prices. Nearly 10 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program contracts are expiring in the next few years. Find out more about the Conservation Reserve Program [PDF].

Christmas trees are looking good this year

Despite a rough hot summer in Oklahoma, Christmas tree sales are off to a good start. Why not try to get your Christmas tree from a local farm this year?

Maryland increases farmland protection

The state of Maryland has recently secured four easements, totaling 563 acres of farmland in various counties across the state. This brings the amount of farmland protected through the Maryland Agricultural Land Preservation Foundation to 286,660 acres. In conjunction with both state and county programs, Maryland has protected a total of nearly 558,914 acres.

Washington state secures additional agricultural preservation

The North Olympic Land Trust in Washington State has officially preserved the 61-acre Finn Hall Farm for perpetuity.

Still time to register for the Virginia Food Security Summit!

The second annual Virginia Food Security Summit is being held December 5 and 6 in Charlottesville, Virginia. Speakers include Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan, with topics ranging from innovative food distribution to Virginia’s farm-to-table initiative.

The state of the world’s land and water resources for food and agriculture

The Food and Agriculture Organizations of the United Nations put out a new report on the state of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture earlier this week.