Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

press@sustainableagriculture.net

Release: Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship Welcomes Applications for its Eighth Cycle

The Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship honors the co-founder of the first network for African American organic farmers in the United States

Washington, DC, April 3, 2026 – Last week, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON) opened applications for the eighth cycle of the annual scholarship honoring Cynthia Hayes, the late co-founder and former director of SAAFON. 

The scholarship welcomes applications from Black and Indigenous undergraduate and Masters students from all Tribal Nations, US states, and territories. In their application essay, students should describe their interest in and experiences with food justice and sustainable agriculture with a focus on Black farmer communities in the United States or the interconnected futures of Black and Indigenous farmers. The Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship will offer one graduate and two undergraduate students a $5,000 award

“The Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network is proud to announce another year of the Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship, honoring our co-founder and visionary organizer. As SAAFON celebrates our 20 year anniversary this year, we are reminded of the importance of investing in the next generation of leadership in the sustainable agriculture sector, and we look forward to joining NSAC in welcoming our new scholars to the movement,” said Whitney Jaye, Co-Executive Director at SAAFON. 

“It is an honor to help administer the Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship. The applicants represent the best and brightest of the upcoming class of Black and Indigenous leaders in sustainable agriculture, and I am so grateful that NSAC and SAAFON are able to invest in them in memory of Cynthia Hayes,” says Tyler Edwards, Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator at NSAC.

To be considered, undergraduate students must be either entering their third year of enrollment or the first semester of their fourth year during the Fall semester of 2026. Graduate students must have completed at least 4 courses by Fall 2026. All applicants must have at least one semester left before graduation. Applicants will be evaluated on their interest in sustainable agriculture, policy, and grassroots organizing, and must have demonstrated knowledge or experience in racial equity and an interest in pursuing leadership or a career in the sustainable food and farm movement.

The deadline to apply is May 1, 2026. To apply, visit our job website. 

Questions related to the Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship should be directed to scholarship@sustainableagriculture.net.

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities.

Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net

The post Release: Cynthia Hayes Memorial Scholarship Now Accepting Applications appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Despite the winter weather blanketing much of the nation and Washington, DC, an ongoing shutdown, and continued national debates on food and agriculture policy, NSAC’s advocacy work continues. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) held its annual Winter Meeting from February 9 to 12 in Washington, DC. Over 150 farmers and advocates from NSAC’s network gathered to strategize, build community, and bring the voice of sustainable agriculture to policymakers in DC. We gathered this year within the context of the ripple effects the Administration’s actions on immigration, international trade, and foreign policy have had across our entire country, including our food system.

Farmers’ Voices

Our time together included opportunities to plan our strategy for the year ahead. NSAC members talked about shared policy priorities in the political landscape and prepared for our Day of Action, when NSAC members and farmer advocates visit Congressional delegations. Many farmers are experiencing federal policy and programs that fail to meet their needs. This year, NSAC members were joined by nearly 50 farmers who came to share their experiences directly with policy makers in Washington, channeling their frustration into pragmatic, solutions-oriented advocacy, almost doubling farmer participation from recent years.

Policy work can be overwhelming to anyone who is new to it. However, despite that perception, policy aims to codify practices based on the real experiences of people who inform those policy decisions. At NSAC, this includes making sure that policy decisions are informed by the lived experiences of farmers who are working through their practices on building a better food and agriculture system. It is critical that farmers can equitably access opportunities to succeed, and that they have a voice in shaping what those opportunities look like. To that end, for the second year in a row, our Winter Meeting focused on providing opportunities for farmers to voice what has worked and what has not worked for them through storytelling and advocacy. 

Coalition Work

An important aspect of coalition work is strategizing collectively over shared priorities. While our time together certainly does that, it is also an important opportunity to build a stronger community where we can hear everyone’s ideas and concerns. In the end, the ability to work together allows our work to be more impactful during our time together in Washington as well as in our collective action going forward. One way our impact can be measured is in the number of attendees at the meeting and their time spent on the Hill, meeting with members of Congress and their staff, and with decision-makers at USDA. Over 150 coalition members attended the Winter Meeting, likewise logging over 150 meetings with members of Congress, offering practical solutions and opportunities to benefit all farms. Additionally, NSAC members were able to meet with USDA officials across the department to talk about the benefits of the programs available for farmers, and areas where the programs could improve. 

Beyond the numbers, creating opportunities for NSAC members and farmers to meet directly with their elected representatives can have a transformational, long term impact. These conversations strengthen our ability to communicate clearly and persuasively with members of Congress about the changes we would like to see in our food system. That impact can extend beyond numbers as it forms the basis of a representative democracy.

Our Voices Heard

A group of Buddhist monks walking for peace between Texas and Washington, DC, happened to be on Capitol Hill for an additional walk along the National Mall on the same day we held our traditional Day of Action. As

NSAC members and advocates visited Congress to have our collective voices heard, many were able to catch a glimpse of the pious trekkers between their walks to and from the Capitol grounds. The monks, however, were not the only travelers on Capitol Hill that day with a mission. Our day of advocacy has become a fixture of our winter meetings, and is also an opportunity to educate members of Congress about policy solutions that better serve farmers.

As Ed Dubrick of DuChick Ranch, LLC, and NSAC member, the Illinois Stewardship Alliance shared: 

“We came directly to Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on issues important to our farm and the farms of our neighbors. We shared personal stories that highlight the impact recent and current investments in conservation and local food systems have made in our community and why continued support for these programs is needed.” 

Despite the Administration’s efforts to downplay the diversity of our nation, our food system is as diverse as the people who participate in it. Yet, not everyone has equal access to the opportunities that government programs offer or to the benefits many of those programs were designed to address.

Zach Ben, of Bidii Baby Foods in Navajo Territory, traveled to the Winter Meeting with NSAC member Farm to Table New Mexico. Although he has already had the opportunity to educate members of Congress on the challenges he and his community face as active participants in our food system, he further reflected on the experience:

“Coming from a disenfranchised culture, this is my opportunity to enfranchise our farm because I want to continue using Indigenous knowledge in my farming practices as a traditional baby foods producer.”

As part of our advocacy during our day of action, we also delivered a letter signed by over 500 farmers from across the nation to House and Senate Agriculture Committees leadership urging Congress to provide economic relief for farmers as the farm crisis continues to ravage rural communities, putting farmers at risk of losing their livelihood amid high production costs for fertilizers and equipment, while decreasing access to programs that help farmers implement conservation practices, as well as to domestic market initiatives. The letter calls for the development of more robust domestic markets and local supply chains, and for broad eligibility to maximize its impact. This letter is part of NSAC’s ongoing effort to work with Congress to address the severe challenges farmers are facing in the immediate and longer-term, and we hope its delivery will help Congressional leaders prioritize this in their committee work.

Perennial Advocate Award

Last year, we presented the NSAC Perennial Advocate Award for the first time, and this year, we took the opportunity to honor another champion of our movement. NSAC created the Perennial Advocate Award to honor someone who, through their lifetime, has proven to be a leader through years of dedication, participating in more than one farm bill campaign, providing insight and input in many coalition campaigns, and contributing significantly to policy development through research, grassroots work, advocacy, and thought partnership. The Perennial Advocate Award goes to someone who exemplifies NSAC’s values of integrity, stewardship, collaboration, and justice. 

This year, NSAC was proud to honor Margaret Krome. Margaret served as Policy Program Director at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute before she retired last year. In introducing the award, NSAC Coalition Director Sarah Hackney spoke of Krome’s work as grassroots-led policy advocacy, and reminded the audience of Krome’s constant grounding question in policy advocacy work, “Have you talked to a farmer?”

In receiving the award, Krome expressed gratitude and reframed her role in the sustainable agriculture movement, humbly stating, “I don’t believe in stars, but I believe in constellations.” Her anecdotes of being able to convince lawmakers of the benefits and utility of foundational programs to the movement, like the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SARE), exemplified in her own words, the tenets of a representative democracy.

As our time together wrapped up, we left as we do every year: exhausted and inspired for the road ahead. Unlike other years, we wrapped up our winter meeting with the news of an upcoming farm bill markup. We left our meeting with the sense that, as our work continues, our time together had been worth it, helping us continue to lay the groundwork for farm policy that invests in healthy communities, levels the playing field for small and mid-sized farmers, equips farmers with the tools and resources they need to build resilient and viable operations, and foster the next generation of farmers and ranchers. While the draft farm bill falls short of these goals, we will carry the momentum from our Day of Action forward and continue pushing for food and farm policy that works across the food system, from the natural resources our farmers steward to the producers and farm workers, and across the supply chain.

The NSAC staff is grateful for all of our members, partners, vendors and donors who help make this work possible, and of course for the farmers on the front lines! Thank you to photographer Ruth Annan for capturing so many special moments from this winter’s Lobby Day!

The post “Have you talked to a Farmer?” NSAC’S 2026 Winter Meeting Recap appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

press@sustainableagriculture.net

Release: Farmers and Advocates Converge in DC for NSAC Lobby Day 

Washington, DC, February 12, 2026 – Yesterday, nearly 150 farmers, ranchers, and food system advocates from Alaska to Florida, joined the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) in Washington, DC to press for action on federal agriculture and food policy. Participants held more than 150 meetings with members of Congress, congressional staff, and USDA, nearly doubling farmer participation from recent years and underscoring mounting frustration across farm country.

Farmers and ranchers representing a wide range of regions, production types, and farm sizes met with decision-makers to share firsthand accounts of how they’re leveraging federal programs to build thriving farm businesses and feed their communities.  

“We came directly to Capitol Hill to educate lawmakers on issues important to our farm and the farms of our neighbors. We shared personal stories that highlight the impact recent and current investments in conservation and local food systems have made in our community and why continued support for these programs is needed” said Ed Dubrick of DuChick Ranch, LLC and the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, an NSAC member. 

Participants emphasized the need for a farm bill that meets the moment by making long overdue, robust investments in farmers and their communities. They called on Congress and USDA to restore stability to and funding for federal food and agriculture programs that support conservation efforts, local food access, and the economic health of farmers and the communities they call home.

“Storytelling has the power to bridge divides, change minds, and inspire real progress. Today, we saw this power in action as 50+ farmers took precious time away from their farms and families to travel to DC and share how federal food and farm policies have hit home. These farmers aren’t just articulating hardships they’ve faced, they are offering Congress a roadmap for practical solutions and opportunities that would benefit all farms,” said Stef Funk, NSAC Grassroots Co-Director. 

Earlier in the day, a letter signed by 500 farmers and ranchers from across the country, some of whom attend NSAC’s Lobby Day, was delivered to key members of Congress urging immediate action to address the ongoing financial crisis facing America’s farmers and ranchers. The letter outlined the severe challenges facing farmers, including high production costs, volatile markets, low prices, and overproduction, and warns that without meaningful congressional action, more farmers will be forced out of business, putting rural communities at risk.

NSAC has been a leader in agricultural policy for more than 35 years and has been instrumental in helping to develop some of our nation’s most successful agricultural programs for conserving natural resources, advancing the next generation of farmers, supporting agricultural research, and creating sustainable market connections. 

NSAC is grateful to all of the farmers and advocates for taking time out of their busy lives to join Lobby Day, as well as the Senators, Representatives, USDA officials, and staff members.

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. 

Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net

The post Release: Farmers and Advocates Converge in DC for NSAC Lobby Day appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Washington, DC, February 11, 2026 – Today, a letter signed by 500 farmers and ranchers from across the country was delivered to key members of Congress urging immediate action to address the ongoing farm crisis.

The letter outlines the severe challenges facing farmers, including high production costs, volatile markets, low prices, and overproduction. Signatories warn that without meaningful congressional action, more farmers will be forced out of business, putting rural communities at risk.

“Farmers want an honest opportunity to build their business while supporting their community. Congress can provide that opportunity by making urgently needed farm assistance investments that build reliable domestic markets and local supply chains for wholesome food, and expanding access to conservation practices that help farmers reduce persistently high input costs. As these investments take root, financial assistance should be designed to stave off foreclosures and reflect a farmers’ expected revenue,” said Mike Lavender, Policy Director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

In the letter, farmers call on Congress to deliver comprehensive farm and ranch assistance that keeps producers on the land, strengthens domestic markets and local supply chains, expands access to conservation practices that reduce costly inputs, and prevents another wave of farm foreclosures. The letter emphasizes that short-term relief alone is insufficient and urges investments that support long-term viability and resilience.

Read the full letter here.

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities.

Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net

The post Release: 500 Farmers Urge Congress to Act Amid Growing Farm Crisis appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

A Year Like No Other

As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a year that reshaped the food and farm policy landscape: from major disruptions in federal agencies to stalled policymaking in Washington, farmers and communities continue to feel the impacts. The historic government shutdown this fall was just the most recent situation to put our food and farm system under strain. Stable federal programs are critical for farmers and families across the country, and funding delays and terminations, shifting agency decisions, and the loss of experienced staff at USDA have created hardship for millions, especially those who already faced systemic barriers to accessing USDA programs and services. 

At NSAC we are always guided by our members and the federal policy priorities we set together – this year those included strengthening the farm safety net, advancing climate resilience in food and agriculture, and building strong local and regional food systems that benefit farmers and families.  We moved quickly and creatively to introduce bills in Congress designed to carry reforms and investments forward, we supported farmers and nonprofits navigating agency funding disruptions and terminations with guidance and peer support, and we organized our coalition to speak out in hundreds of channels nationwide – from social media to radio to local and national news – to elevate farmers’ and families’ stories about what was happening on the ground. This blog post reflects on that work, the progress made, the setbacks we faced, and the resolve that carried our coalition through a year marked by both instability and extraordinary collaboration.  

Building Better Policies in Washington for the Farm Bill and Beyond 

Congress failed to pass a full five-year farm bill again this year – leaving everyone who relies on this critical major legislation stuck for another year without an opportunity for real policy reforms or investments. NSAC and nearly 600 national, state, and local organizations delivered a joint letter to Senate and House leadership, as well as Agriculture Committee chairs and ranking members, urging Congress to advance not only an overdue farm bill but one that truly supports family farmers, strengthens rural communities, expands healthy food access, and more. The letter also called on Congress to correct harmful provisions enacted through the recently passed budget reconciliation bill.  

We still saw some legislative wins this year:  we helped draft, refine, and introduce nearly a dozen “marker bills” this year that together will build better farm and food policy in a future farm bill.  

Farm Safety Net

• Save Our Small (SOS) Farms Act – modernizes federal farm safety net programs to make crop insurance and disaster assistance more accessible for small, specialty, and beginning farmers, helping them stay on the land despite economic and climate challenges.
• Crop Insurance for Future Farmers Act – makes crop insurance more affordable and accessible for new and veteran farmers by increasing the premium‑subsidy support and extending the time they’re eligible. 
• Farm Ownership Improvement Act – establishes a five‑year pilot program allowing farmers and ranchers to get pre‑qualified or pre‑approved for direct farm‑ownership loans to make it easier for new and beginning farmers to secure land. 
• Capital for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Act – creates a multi-year FSA loan pilot to help new farmers access flexible capital for startup costs, infrastructure, and management systems, addressing high barriers to entry and supporting the next generation of farmers.
• Withstanding Extreme Agricultural Threats by Harvesting Economic Resilience (WEATHER) Act of 2025 – modifies the federal crop-insurance program to create a new type of coverage that pays farmers quickly and automatically when severe weather hits their area, giving them a simpler and more reliable safety net as extreme weather and natural disasters become more common.

Local and Regional Food Systems 

• Strengthening Local Food Security (SLFS) Act of 2025 – helps small and mid-sized farmers sell more locally grown foods to schools and community programs, boosting farmer income while giving families better access to healthy food.
• Local Farmers Feeding Our Communities Act – helps small and mid-sized farmers sell more local food through state and tribal programs, creating stable markets for producers while improving access to fresh, nutritious food for families in need.
• Strengthening Local Processing Act (SLPA) – standing challenges in the livestock and poultry supply chain. It advances a more resilient, competitive, and regionally rooted meat processing sector by updating the Cooperative Interstate Shipment (CIS) program, increasing size eligibility, improving state cost shares, and requiring FSIS outreach. Together, these reforms would enable small and mid-sized processors to expand sales across state lines and strengthen regional food systems.

Climate Resilience

• Agriculture Resilience Act – would adapt the farm bill to today’s realities by investing comprehensively across  conservation, research, renewable energy, and rural development to help producers build resilience, boost profitability, and achieve net-zero agricultural emissions by 2040.
• Strong Farms, Strong Futures Act – strengthens the Conservation Stewardship Program by creating region-specific climate mitigation practice bundles and higher cost-share incentives, giving producers more options and greater support to build complex and resilient conservation systems.
• Support the WEST Act – strengthens key USDA conservation programs by boosting cost-share for water-saving and drought-resilient practices, expanding support for perennial systems, and enhancing soil-health outreach and testing to better serve producers in Western arid regions.
• Organic Science and Research Investment (OSRI) Act – strengthens USDA’s organic research and data programs by boosting funding, coordination, and support for organic and transitioning farmers so that innovations in soil health, climate resilience, and sustainable production can benefit all producers and bolster rural economies.
• Innovative Practices for Soil Health Act – strengthens USDA conservation programs to better support farmers adopting perennial and agroforestry systems, enhancing technical assistance, research capacity, and incentives to improve soil health, resilience, and long-term sustainability across US agriculture.
• Converting Our Waste Sustainably (COWS) Act of 2025 – offers incentives for livestock and dairy farms to manage manure sustainably by funding practices and composting methods that cut greenhouse‑gas emissions and improve soil and water quality. 

The government shutdown resolution package passed in November included a one-year extension of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 – the farm bill. This extension is largely “clean” – meaning without major changes to the 2018 bill – but it does have one problematic change that NSAC is fighting to remove in future bills: the bill removes key payment limits and income eligibility rules for EQIP and CSP, effectively enabling the largest operations to access unlimited conservation funding, shifting conservation resources away from smaller and mid-sized producers, and exacerbating existing trends where demand far exceeds available resources, shutting out access to these popular programs. 

Protecting Federal Investments in Sustainable, Equitable Policy

This year’s federal budget process, shaped by a major reconciliation package and competing House and Senate spending proposals, set in motion decisions that will influence conservation, farm viability, and community resilience for years to come.

The spring and early summer centered on the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB), a major reconciliation package that folded remaining Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) conservation dollars into the permanent farm bill baseline, securing long-term funding but removing the climate guardrails that ensured those dollars supported climate friendly practices. OBBB shifted significant resources away from nutrition assistance programs and toward commodity programs, putting vulnerable communities at risk while abandoning programs that support the vast majority of farmers and rural communities. Overall OBBB represented a mixed outcome: a long-term win for conservation funding, but a failure to invest in long-term solutions that promote markets and invest in production systems that build all farmers’ autonomy and self-determination.

Appropriations debates intensified through the summer. The House advanced a $25.5 billion FY26 agriculture bill along party lines with major cuts to conservation, research, and local food systems programs, along with several harmful policy riders. The Senate, in contrast, passed a bipartisan $27 billion bill that largely preserved funding for core farmer- and community-serving programs. With no agreement in place by September 30, the government entered the shutdown that lasted from October 1 to November 12.

The FY2026 agriculture appropriations bill included in the shutdown resolution reflected continued funding cuts to several important USDA programs. While some programs maintained their current funding levels, others saw reductions, limiting USDA’s capacity to provide technical assistance, support innovative production, and strengthen local and regional food systems at a time when farmers need those services most.

Pressing USDA to Better Serve Farmers

With the start of the new Trump Administration came major shifts in USDA leadership and direction. Throughout the year, NSAC challenged the agency’s harmful program terminations, staffing cuts, and policy reversals, while lifting up farmer stories and working to advance our coalition’s priorities wherever possible. NSAC and partners worked extensively to secure funding from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for critical conservation and rural energy programs this year. Delays and cancellations in payments by the Trump Administration left tens of thousands of farmers and ranchers without funds that were already contractually committed by the federal government. Despite over $2.3 billion in signed contracts nationwide, these interruptions forced farmers to cover project costs out of pocket, threatening farm viability and undermining trust in federal programs. Across all of our campaign priorities, our coalition worked to ensure USDA hears from the producers most affected by its decisions and remains accountable to the communities it is meant to serve.

Proposed USDA reorganization: In July, USDA announced a reorganization proposal with little detail and no meaningful input from farmers. NSAC submitted extensive comments outlining how the plan could destabilize critical functions, from agricultural research to conservation programs to components of the farm safety net. We also mobilized farmers, advocates, and partner organizations to weigh in, despite USDA’s failure to follow the standard Federal Register comment process for a proposal of this scale.

USDA staffing crisis: This year revealed the depth of USDA’s ongoing staffing crisis. Through our multi-part blog series, we highlighted how the loss of more than 18,000 staff positions, and additional reductions expected under proposed restructuring, has already weakened the agency’s ability to deliver conservation assistance, research, technical support, and other essential services. By documenting impacts across key agency mission areas, especially at NRCS, we helped policymakers and the public understand the stakes and the urgent need for a transparent, farmer-informed process to rebuild USDA’s capacity. 

With these agency-wide challenges in view, our campaigns worked on multiple fronts to hold USDA accountable and push to safeguard the programs farmers rely on.

Farm Safety Net 

• NSAC recently published a major analysis of the current farm crisis, highlighting rising production costs, collapsing crop prices, and unprecedented instability in federal programs. NSAC has continued to press USDA to take immediate action to restore program stability, provide revenue-based relief and loan protections, and strengthen the farm safety net so that farmers can weather this crisis and stay on their land.
• In early December, USDA announced the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program to address the economic impacts of tariffs and provide needed economic relief. NSAC, in partnership with the National Young Farmers Coalition, provided a swift analysis of the announcement and the limited program details that were released. NSAC highlighted the importance of FBA as a first step in providing economic assistance to farmers, but underscored the need for additional action to repair and expand the safety net to support all farmers. 
• 2025 marked ten years since the first Whole Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP) crop insurance policies became available for producers. Since the introduction of this new risk management option in the 2014 Farm Bill, NSAC continues to advocate for improvements via legislation and regulatory changes at USDA that would make the product more accessible and functional for a broader set of producers. 
• USDA has continued to distribute disaster relief funding through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) throughout this past year. Prior to the announcement of SDRP Stage 2 in late November, which specifically provides assistance for non-insured crop producers, NSAC provided guidance to Farm Service Agency (FSA) leadership on how to ensure accessibility to program funds for those producers. These recommendations included streamlined and reduced paperwork, clearer instructions in USDA documentation, and exemptions to the requirement for crop insurance enrollment among others. NSAC continues to provide support to our members as Stage 2 of SDRP applications remain open through April of 2026. 

Local and Regional Food Systems

• Early in the year, USDA abruptly paused and then later terminated the Local Food Purchase Agreement (LFPA) program, a nationally popular program with bipartisan support that helped farmers grow and sell produce into local schools, hospitals, and institutions. NSAC swung into action in partnership with  National Farmers Union to deliver a letter with more than 1,000 signatures urging the program’s reinstatement. We helped over 100 farmers share their stories about why this program matters for their communities and businesses in press stories nationwide and raised the alarm on Capitol Hill, hosting briefings and meetings led by affected farmers, which led to bipartisan support for legislative solutions for the future of this program. 
• This year, NSAC focused on deepening stakeholder engagement around the FDA Food Traceability Rule, working closely with the Reagan-Udall Foundation to explore new possibilities for future food safety improvements and gather industry insights to inform more practical, effective implementation.
• In October, USDA’s Beef Strategy Report offered modest wins for small and very small processors, such as reduced fees for overtime and holiday inspections. But limited funding in the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program underscored the need for continued advocacy to ensure these processors can access the resources they need.

Climate Resilience 

• At USDA, shifting priorities in the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and the Rural Development Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan programs created uncertainty for farmers seeking to adopt renewable energy. An August memo from USDA deprioritizing larger ground-mounted solar projects and raising questions about whether grants can be used to purchase solar technologies manufactured outside of the US, left producers with few clear answers, even as NSAC pressed USDA for needed guidance.
• NSAC opposed EPA’s proposal to repeal the 2009 Endangerment Finding, as removing the scientific and legal basis for regulating greenhouse gases undermines climate protections. The proposal leaned on a discredited draft claiming climate change is “neutral or beneficial” for most agriculture, contradicting decades of research and farmers’ experience on the ground.
• In September, NSAC worked for weeks both behind the scenes and in the press to persuade USDA to open its SARE funding pool, which helps farmers and researchers address sustainability and profitability concerns on farms. We helped coordinate a letter with more than 500 farmer signatories urging USDA to ensure the timely release of SARE funding. While we succeeded in seeing the RFA released, the delay until September 11 left host institutions little time to secure awards before the fiscal year ended, jeopardizing farmers’ access to regionally specific research. 

Stronger Together

One of NSAC’s longtime coalition sayings reminds us that “No one knows everything. Together we know a lot.” Our coalition is at its strongest when we lean into our shared values and practice relationship-centered, collaborative advocacy. This felt especially true in a year as complex as 2025.

In February, nearly 100 member organizations and more than 30 farmers from 17 states gathered in Washington, DC for our winter meeting and lobby day, one of our largest to date. Meetings were held with roughly 150 lawmakers to share farmer stories and underscore the critical importance of federal agriculture programs. Despite funding freezes and political chaos, our coalition’s collective voice made it clear that Congress must ensure USDA fulfills its commitments.  In August, NSAC coalition members from across the country attended our summer meeting in Stowe, Vermont, to ground ourselves in shared strategy – and of course visit amazing local farms and eat lots of maple creemees.

After many years of planning, NSAC completed a new 5-year strategic plan and has begun a new 2-year policy priority-setting process to be ready for 2026-2028 and beyond. Earlier this year, NSAC also developed an interactive time of our coalition’s history.

Looking Ahead to 2026

2025 presented steep challenges, requiring us to defend decades of hard-won progress while continuing to push forward. This year reinforced the importance of being resourceful and creative in a rapidly changing policy landscape – and we’ll keep it up next year too. Farmers, ranchers, and families nationwide all deserve a food and farm system that nourishes people, stewards our environment, and builds strong economies: we believe this is a future everyone can help create. Here’s a preview of what’s to come from us in 2026:  

• We will continue to campaign around the priorities our members and their thousands of farmer and community leaders bring to our shared table: reforming the farm safety net, bolstering resilient local and regional food systems, and fostering climate change resilience. We’ll bring these priorities to appropriations, to a potential new farm bill, to USDA, and everywhere in between here in DC. 
• We’ll gather in person together with our members and farmer leaders as always: in DC this winter and out in the field in August. This time together helps us build our strategies and strengthen our relationships as we learn from one another and advocate together. 
• Our analysis – always free and available to the public here on our blog – will continue. We will continue to highlight what’s happening in DC, what it means for farmers and eaters, and lift up ways for all of us to be heard on the issues that matter for food and farms. 

Throughout 2026, we will continue mobilizing grassroots action, delivering timely analysis, and supporting our members and partners as we build momentum for a sustainable, resilient, and equitable farm and food future. 

The post Chaos, Collaboration, and Courage: A Look Back at 2025 appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Editor’s Note: NSAC has been shaped for decades by creative, joyful, and smart leadership from hundreds of advocates and farmers. Today we mourn the recent loss of our longtime colleague Michael Sligh and are proud to celebrate his life and contributions to building a better world for farmers. This guest post was written by Kiki Hubbard, who is a researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she studies the market dynamics shaping the seed industry. Kiki is the former Advocacy and Communications Director of the Organic Seed Alliance, an NSAC member. The team at RAFI-USA, another NSAC member and Michael’s longtime professional home, also published this remembrance. 

The first time I met Michael Sligh, I was working as an intern for the Center for Food Safety (CFS) in Washington, DC. It was 2002, and he walked past my desk where I was organizing a mailing for a new book that my boss had edited, called Fatal Harvest. I remember his steady gait and stoic face under a Kerry cap. He wore a trench coat. I felt a jolt of recognition as I thought to myself, That’s Michael Sligh. I was a bit starry-eyed after reading his chapter in the book sitting in front of me.

My time at CFS led me down the seed policy path, and if you’re doing that work through a lens of justice, fairness, and public benefit, you inevitably find yourself in room after room with Michael Sligh. In the years that followed, Michael became a close colleague and friend – ultimately the most impactful mentor of my career. He was a treasured and deeply dedicated collaborator, and he had a way of keeping me grounded and hopeful, even when the work felt downright discouraging. As a true connector and skilled organizer, he brought people together, including many of the colleagues I now consider dear friends.

Michael came from a family of farmers and ranchers in west Texas and left home in the 1970s to farm himself in Tennessee, Florida, and other places, ultimately landing in North Carolina. During the farm crisis of the 1980s, he became acutely aware of the obstacles family farmers face and began protesting at farm foreclosures and standing up for farmers in other ways. He told me and other colleagues that he left the farm to be an organizer, thinking he’d return to farming full-time once the problems were “fixed.” His legacy shows that his work at that time had only begun. It’s no wonder he would refer to policy work as “watching a tractor rust.”

The throughline of his career was ensuring that policies related to food and farming, antitrust and competition, and intellectual property rights worked for family farmers, farm workers, and the communities they feed, not extractive firms. And that commitment to fairness, and to farmers, permeates the many groundbreaking initiatives he helped to create. He was a founder of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, National Organic Coalition, and Domestic Fair Trade Association; a founding partner of the Agricultural Justice Project and co-creator of the Food Justice Certified label. For nearly 30 years, Michael served as a program director for the Rural Advancement Foundation International – USA. During his tenure there, he served leadership roles in various coalitions, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. He helped to establish Southern SARE, and in every Farm Bill debate he served as a voice for farmers in the South and organic farmers, specifically. Michael was active in international circles as well, regularly participating in the International Federation of Organic Movements’ Organic World Congress and serving on the International Organic and Sustainable Accreditation Board. 

Michael was steady but not rigid. He was diplomatic but bold. His southern drawl, gentlemanly manners, and facilitation skills helped to put people at ease, including farmers visiting Capitol Hill for the first time and even congressional staff members themselves. He embraced a participatory approach to policy solutions, evidence that he practiced what he preached: A decentralized and diverse agricultural system required a diversity of decision-makers. Indeed, the root of just about every problem he tackled lay in concentrated power.

While Michael could push the envelope by offering big, seemingly unachievable ideas, he also took the long-view, understanding that incremental progress toward solving the biggest challenges of our time – climate change, market consolidation, biodiversity loss – was the pragmatic path. In so doing, Michael proved that incrementalism could achieve systemic change.

For example, the National Organic Program (NOP) continues to be the strongest food production standard available to consumers today, and Michael played no small part in making that so. We should all be thankful that he was the founding chair of the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) from 1992 to 1997, since the first order of business was creating the NOP and making significant decisions about what should and should not be allowed in certified organic production, such as whether transgenic organisms were compatible with organic farming, and who would benefit most if they were allowed. 

Michael remained a consistent presence and voice at NOSB meetings long after his tenure ended. His dedication to the success of organic farmers and the integrity of the label spanned 40 years. As the organic program matured, and regulations necessarily evolved, Michael advocated for the concept of continuous improvement as a touchstone of policy decisions. He would acknowledge that the concept may be difficult for regulators to understand, but that farmers live it every day.

Michael was the vision and heart behind the National Organic Action Plan, a 10-year blueprint for organic food and farming that was derived from grassroots input spanning farmers, farm workers, regional processors and retailers, and other community members. The charge was clear: create a policy platform for ensuring that the rapidly expanding organic market supports family farmers, protects human health, and benefits the environment. Embedded in this blueprint was Michael’s uncompromising commitment to the founding principles of organic agriculture. I can still hear him asking: “Does this pass the fairness test?” He was like a moral compass for the organic movement. 

Michael was vocal about the need for improving regulations on agricultural biotechnology so that farmers weren’t pitted against each other – those who used the technology versus those across the fence who didn’t. He was one of the few people who would provide testimony to the USDA’s Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21^st Century Agriculture, which was charged with looking at coexistence challenges and policy needs between different production systems, such as biotech and organic. He also advocated regularly for more financial support of our public seed collections, be it in the Farm Bill or through the work of the USDA’s National Genetic Resources Advisory Council. And he always organized others to do the same.

As a co-founder of the Seeds & Breeds Coalition for 21^st Century Agriculture, Michael was dogged in his commitment to our nation’s plant breeders. This initiative began in the early 2000s as public plant breeding programs continued to experience budget and staff cuts. Seeds & Breeds brought together – and still brings together – plant breeders, small seed companies, farmers and seed growers, and policy experts to identify ways to reinvigorate our public plant breeding infrastructure to help meet the regional seed needs of farmers. A major focus of the coalition’s work were the increasingly restrictive forms of intellectual property rights on seeds, especially utility patents, and the egregious contracts that accompany them, which strip a farmer’s right to save seed and a breeder’s right to innovate. This ultimately led to a 2016 summit on Intellectual Property Rights and Public Plant Breeding. This important event resulted in a set of best practices that universities still rely on to ensure new varieties remain publicly accessible while also generating revenue to sustain breeding programs. 

Michael was a broken record in congressional and USDA offices: the department’s competitive grant programs should prioritize breeders developing “farmer-ready” varieties, as he called them. Michael would explain the urgency by underscoring three things: First, public breeding programs were increasingly important in the face of market consolidation, where a handful of firms control much of the commercial seed supply, narrowing seed options and increasing prices for farmers. Second, changing climates required access to more regionally adapted and resilient varieties tailored to specific environmental conditions, production practices (e.g., organic), and pest and disease pressures. And third, data showed that most plant breeding grants were favoring molecular biology and genomics projects as opposed to field-based, conventional plant breeding. We can learn a lot from lab-based techniques, Michael would say, but we can’t adapt the crops that feed us in a lab. We need to breed them in the open environments of their intended use.

It took a decade of advocacy, but in 2014, the USDA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative created a separate program for Conventional Plant Breeding and Public Cultivar Development. In 2024, more than $2.7 million was put toward proposals in this program area, and thanks to Michael, Seeds & Breeds policy work remains a priority for influential coalitions, like the National Organic Coalition and National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. 

In the current political climate, it’s easy to forget how much progress the organic and sustainable agriculture movement has made toward embedding fairness, health, ecology, and stewardship into our food and farming policies and practices. And while, as Michael said, “A good organizer doesn’t look for credit,” boundless credit is now due. We applaud you, Michael, for helping us inch that much closer to a more livable and just planet. And we thank you.

In addition to this legacy, Michael will live on in the form of his favorite refrains, which I find myself repeating on the regular. As an organizer, he’d ask: “Are they on our side of the river?” As a meeting facilitator closing out a meeting: “Shall we declare victory?” And as a friend: “We must find rest in our work.”

On November 7, 2025, Michael left this world peacefully after a short battle with cancer. I trust he can now rest, knowing that he helped to seed movements that are alive and growing – movements that remind us that concentrating our own power as advocates is our greatest strength. Because when we’re on the same side of the river, we have the ability to make waves.

The post Guest Post: Remembering Michael Sligh, a champion for farmers and food justice appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

While the longest federal government shutdown in US history has finally ended, its impacts on farmers, families, and communities nationwide are complex and ongoing. No two government shutdowns are identical since each Administration makes their own determination about what essential services and staff will continue to operate during the shutdown. Some federal services remain in operation, while many others go dark, though there is a consistent throughline – the longer a shutdown lasts, the more severe the disruptions become. 

In a previous post, published near the start of the shutdown, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) outlined how the pause in government operations and furlough of employees at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) would impact agricultural programming and many important functions of the government, such as farm loan application approvals, conservation program reimbursement processing, appeals of terminated grant funding, and ensuring that vulnerable families receive nutrition benefits. 

In this post, we highlight specific examples of how farmers and other food and agriculture stakeholders across the nation were impacted by the 43 day lapse in government services. The post concludes by examining how other changes at USDA – from staffing cuts to a proposed reorganization – can interrupt services in much the same way as a government shutdown, underscoring the need to center farmers, their families, and the most vulnerable in our communities in all of the Department’s decisions.

Conservation Assistance

A core part of USDA’s mission is to preserve natural resources through conservation. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) works with farmers across the nation to implement conservation practices that make farms more self-sufficient and resilient. During the shutdown roughly 95% of NRCS staff – which had already been drastically reduced – were furloughed, resulting in significant disruptions. Most conservation programs involve financial incentives, but are typically structured to require the farmer to pay out-of-pocket and receive reimbursement later. This, combined with razor thin production margins, means any delays in payment processing not only add to the stress farmers are already experiencing, but threaten farm viability. For example:  

• Molly, a rancher at MoSo Farms in Ohio, shared that they were owed $4,000 for a conservation contract with NRCS. During the shutdown, USDA personnel could not come to her farm to confirm that the work was carried out as agreed upon in the contract. “We could really use this cash right now during our most lean time of the year when we’re paying for over $30,000 in processing fees to have our more than 50 hogs and 10 cattle butchered,” she explained. 
• Lindsay, who farms at Trouvaille Farm in Ohio, was unable to communicate and coordinate with NRCS during the shutdown. They were expecting another $5,000 from NRCS for a Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) contract but could not get any information from their NRCS officer, who was presumably furloughed. To make ends meet, she found herself having to put expenses on a personal credit card.

Farm Safety Net 

Another vital function USDA provides is resources to support farmers as they navigate external factors like droughts, natural disasters, and market volatility. Most of these services are administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA), which furloughed 67% of its staff during the shutdown. Farmers reported being unable to access payments allocated for disaster assistance and being unable to complete loan applications, leaving them in the dark about the status of their application and adding to their financial stress and uncertainty. For example: 

• Antonio submitted an FSA loan application before the shutdown, and then received a response asking him to address a few things on his application with a new deadline of October 15th. After resubmitting the revised application, he received no response from FSA staff. At the time of this writing, he has not heard back and presumes the application is still in queue as incomplete. 
• Jane, of Wheelers Orchard, a fruit farm in Tennessee, reported having been awarded an Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) contract in addition to the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP), which provides financial assistance to farmers growing crops that are ineligible for traditional crop insurance. “We had crop failure in our orchard and are waiting for our NAP insurance payment, which is now in hold.”
• Celeste, of Free Range Flowers in Washington shared that they rely on an annual $50,000 FSA operating loan to get them through the slow, cold season. She pointed to what this means not just for their operations, but their workforce as well. “We are not able to predict how we will staff in 2026, which leaves our coworkers adrift.” Her story highlights the thin margins on which small and mid sized farms operate and how critical it is to have a responsive and well-staffed USDA to timely process loan applications. Her story also illustrates how connected USDA services are to a strong and robust agricultural workforce, which is essential for farm viability and longevity.

Nutrition 

The shutdown delivered significant impacts that delayed and reduced Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for children, the elderly, and our most vulnerable community members. A lesser known result of a SNAP benefits lapse is the impact to farmers and small food retailers. There are several USDA programs that are designed to leverage nutrition benefits to increase both access to healthy, high quality local food and improve local farmers’ bottom line. When nutrition benefits are cut, farmers experience that impact. For example:

• Caroline, of Chez Nous Farm, a fruit and flower farm in Ohio, said the government shutdown was impacting her on a more personal level. She is a SNAP benefit recipient while those funds were also suspended. Her farm demonstrates how to produce the best food while also caring for the entire ecosystem and all its components. As a responsible and ethical land steward she has an active CSP contract, but the NRCS conservationist she works with had been furloughed. Her annual payment was suspended until federal employees return to work. It’s not uncommon that farmers and farm owners, with thin profit margins and revenue varying significantly month to month, also rely on federal benefits like SNAP. 
• Bradley runs a small certified organic vegetable farm called Full Hollow Farm in Michigan. They proudly use earth-friendly, sustainable growing practices to encourage biodiversity and soil health. They typically see about $500-$800 worth of produce purchased with SNAP at farmers markets each month, and anticipate taking a serious financial hit in November due to the government shutdown and SNAP benefits being delayed. 
• Carine, of Sun Tracker Farm, a diversified vegetable and egg farm in California, was concerned about the impact the lapse in nutrition benefits would have on both her and the community at large. As she wrote in the Napa Valley Register, it “will mean a hit in our sales, and for many of our fellow farmers,” and that “people will go hungry without programs such as CalFresh,” California’s state SNAP program.
• The lack of reliable access to USDA services does not only impact farmers. The Broad Street Food Pantry’ in Ohio anticipates increased demand from folks in need of food, but few opportunities for them to increase the amount of food available. Food banks are intended to be short term support for families who need assistance to get back on their feet. As community needs grow in size and urgency, food banks may not be able to meet the demand, which we could prevent through intentional investments in USDA resources and capacity.

We Can and Should Prevent Further Harm 

Now that the federal government and USDA have reopened and resumed normal activity, essential services for farmers and food and agriculture stakeholders are once again widely available. However, other ongoing changes at USDA still threaten to impact services for farmers.

USDA will continue to carry out the massive reorganization plan proposed this summer, which they claim will, “consolidate, unify, and optimize functions within [the Department].” As NSAC has noted, the reorganization proposal was developed without input from farmers and other stakeholders, raising significant and legitimate concerns about how it will impact USDA program and service delivery. Without meaningful stakeholder input and significant revision, we are deeply concerned that the damage done during the shutdown will be compounded if the reorganization moves forward as proposed. USDA must take the time to ensure that programs and service delivery for farmers and stakeholders will not be further disrupted by gathering public input through a fully transparent process and fully assessing potential impacts before moving forward with any proposal. We can and must do better by our farmers.

Unfortunately, the proposed reorganization isn’t the only ongoing threat to essential services for farmers – since January 2025, USDA has significantly reduced its  staff across the Department – roughly 20,000 employees have left USDA. Every agency at USDA has experienced staff resignations and separations. Some have been hit particularly hard, like the Rural Development mission area losing 36% of its staff, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) losing at least 22% of its staff.

The funding bill that was enacted in November to reopen the government provided USDA with funding to last through the end of the fiscal year 2026 on (September 30, 2026), but did not take action to mitigate or rectify the problems farmers faced during the shutdown or as the result of ongoing changes at USDA. These effects will continue to ripple throughout the agricultural sector and in communities across the US, and could continue to worsen without intervention. The stories highlighted here offer a glimpse into the acute impacts farmers, families, and communities experience when government programs and services are disrupted – impacts that stand to be exacerbated if USDA’s staff loss and reorganization plan proceeds unchecked.

The post Voices from the Field: The Real Costs of the Government Shutdown appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

press@sustainableagriculture.net

Tel. 347.563.6408

Release: NSAC Presses for More Details, Better Process on USDA Reorganization

Washington, DC, October 1, 2025 – Yesterday, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) submitted a comment outlining concerns with the proposed US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reorganization plan detailed in Secretary Memorandum 1078-015.

In its comments, NSAC emphasized that while it supports USDA’s stated goals of enhancing effectiveness, accountability, and service delivery, the current proposal was made without input from farmers, lacks sufficient detail, and risks undermining core functions of the agency. NSAC warned that the plan could destabilize agricultural research, conservation programs, technical assistance, and access to critical components of the farm safety net.

“Our members, more than 170 grassroots organizations representing family farmers, ranchers, and rural communities, are deeply concerned that this reorganization could worsen the challenges many producers are already facing,” said Mike Lavender, NSAC Policy Director, adding: “We urge USDA to revise its approach and engage meaningfully with stakeholders to ensure reforms strengthen, rather than weaken, the Department’s ability to serve our nation’s farmers, ranchers, and the broader public.”

The letter was submitted electronically to reorganization@usda.gov as part of the public comment process, which closed yesterday.

Read NSAC’s full comment here.

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/

The post Release: NSAC Presses for More Details, Better Process on USDA Reorganization appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

“In a challenging moment for farmers and the farm economy, the government shutdown will further destabilize – and in some cases stop – federal services that offer critical loans, disaster assistance, conservation funding, and more. The shutdown also threatens food safety, leaving states on the hook to fund food safety inspections once their cooperative agreements expire. With nearly half of all US Department of Agriculture (USDA) staff furloughed, farmers can expect limited services and delayed payments. These disruptions will worsen with time and be exacerbated if the Administration implements a ‘reduction-in-force’ plan to fire more USDA employees. NSAC encourages Congress and the President to set-aside finger pointing and work toward an agreement that brings stability to farmers and the communities they call home.”

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC):

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more: https://sustainableagriculture.net/

The post Comment: NSAC Laments Government Shutdown as It Harms Farmers, Halts Progress appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Contact: Laura Zaks

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

press@sustainableagriculture.net

Release: Nearly 600 Groups Deliver Joint Letter to Congress Urging a Strong and Fair Farm Bill

Washington, DC, September 22, 2025 – Today, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and nearly 600 national, state, and local organizations delivered a joint letter to Congressional leaders urging them to aim high toward a farm bill that invests in our mutual prosperity. Addressed to Senate and House leadership as well as Agriculture Committee chairs and ranking members, the letter calls on Congress to address the harmful provisions enacted through the recently passed budget reconciliation bill (P.L. 119-21). Against the backdrop of a dire farm economy, the letter calls for advancing a long overdue farm bill that supports family farmers, rural communities, healthy food access, essential nutrition programs, and more.

“The decisions made in this farm bill will touch every person in this country,” the letter states, “[we] stand together to say we will only support a farm bill that provides adequate and accessible SNAP benefits to families and individuals; makes our food safer, healthier, and more affordable; supports good, family-sustaining jobs for food workers; supports family farmers and their communities; and ensures our food is produced in ways that are consistent with our values.”

The diverse coalition of signatories includes organizations focused on  addressing hunger and nutrition, labor, farm, rural communities, and sustainability. Nearly 80 national organizations joined more than 500 state and local organizations from every region of the country including insular areas.

“As organizations representing millions of individuals, farmers, workers, and families whose lives and livelihoods are impacted by the farm bill, we urge you to aim high toward a farm bill that restores Americans’ trust in the federal government. … A good farm bill would fully address the devastating and ongoing impacts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s office closures, reorganizations, relocations, as well as the uncertainty exacerbated by funding freezes, award terminations, and staff firings – all of which have weakened the Department’s ability to serve farmers, rural small businesses, and food insecure communities… Anything short of that fails our farmers, our communities, and us all.”

Read the full letter here. 

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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net

The post Release: Nearly 600 Groups Deliver Joint Letter to Congress Urging a Strong and Fair Farm Bill appeared first on National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.