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Rural Development honors water quality management this Earth Day USDA Rural Development is celebrating Earth Day by announcing projects to improve water quality and benefit rural residents. As part of the celebration, USDA is providing $105 million in funding for 53 water, wastewater, and community facilities projects across the country. USDA and EPA officials tour Iowa farms Secretary Continue reading Earth Day Edition of Farm and Food News 4/22/11 The following testimony on “Creating Abundant Water and Power Supplies and Job Growth by Restoring Common Sense to Federal Regulations” was given by Jon Scholl, President of American Farmland Trust, on April 5, 2011 to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water Power. I begin my testimony today by acknowledging the Continue reading Collaboration, Incentives and Certainty Needed to Protect Water Resources Fresh water across America is threatened by many sources, from manufacturing and waste treatment emissions to storm water drainage. Agriculture also plays a role—nutrient runoff from agriculture is a primary cause of degradation in two-thirds of our coastal waterways. But as the single largest user of land and water resources in America, farmers and ranchers can Continue reading A Pledge to Protect Our Nation’s Water This opinion piece was featured in The Delmarva Farmer. As a person involved in my family’s farm operation, a former EPA agricultural appointee, and the President of American Farmland Trust, an organization that supports farms and conservation, let me be the first to say that our nation faces serious environmental challenges and that agriculture has Continue reading Courtroom Drama Doesn’t Save the Chesapeake Bay Alien-looking contraptions with metal arms protrude out of farm fields throughout the state of Washington. Look closer and you’ll see gauges on the arms measuring all kinds of weather data, from temperature and precipitation to wind, dew point, solar radiation and humidity. The stations—part of Washington’s AgWeatherNet—relay data to a Continue reading Which Way the Wind Blows: AgWeatherNet Gives Washington Farmers the Data They Need to Grow Greener Washington’s Yakima Valley, a terrain of rugged hillsides and golden desert, is one of the top wine regions in the country. With an ideal climate for grapes and well-drained soils deposited by prehistoric floods, the valley is home to a third of the state’s vineyards. But the region’s many growers of Continue reading IPM Research Helps Washington’s Renowned Wine Industry Get Greener A weekly roundup of news and events concerning food, farms, the environment, local communities- and anything else that may catch our eye. Beginning farmers are getting a boost from the USDA through a program that helps them gain access to affordable land. The Transition Incentive Program (TIP) preserves existing farmland and supports new sustainable agriculture operations Continue reading Friday News Roundup 6/4/10 Recently I headed up an American Farmland Trust study where a team of researchers from the University of Arizona, Colorado State University and New Mexico State University looked at the potential effects of climate legislation on the agricultural economies in their region. This was an interesting question to look at since agriculture in these states is very Continue reading Southwestern Agriculture and the Effects of Climate Legislation Before I came to American Farmland Trust, I was the Counselor to the Administrator for Agricultural Policy at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One of my primary efforts at EPA was to start the first-ever agricultural advisory committee for the agency so that they might advise the agency on how environmental policy issues affect Continue reading Farmers and Environmentalists: Working Toward Mutual Understanding On the outskirts of Wenatchee, a city in the heart of central Washington where golden hills surround endless miles of irrigated fruit orchards, a large apple-shaped sign reads, “Apple Capital of the World.” In a region that ships over 100 million boxes of apples a year around the nation and the world, education has been Continue reading Education Helps Limon and Sons Orchard in Washington Go Natural |
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