Agriculture Policy

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released the 2020 county average cash rental rates for non-irrigated cropland that will serve as the starting point for calculating rental rate offers for this year’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signups. The current CRP general signup is open until Feb. 28 and a CRP continuous signup is open and will be ongoing. Importantly, the 2018 farm law for the first time imposed statutory limits on rental rates, as advocated by NGFA. For the current CRP general signup, the CRP rental ... Read More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Dec. 27 it has approved the first set of plans submitted by states and Indian tribes for the domestic production of industrial hemp under the new federal hemp production program. The plans were submitted by the states of Louisiana, New Jersey and Ohio, as well as the Flandreau Santee Sioux, Santa Rosa Cahuilla and La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indian Tribes. The interim hemp production rule – as authorized under the 2018 farm law – took effect Oct. 31 and established testing protocols to distinguish between legal hemp and federally controlled ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media After requests from lawmakers and state officials seeking additional time to provide feedback, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is allowing an extra month for public comment on its proposed industrial hemp regulations. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announced Dec. 17 it is extending the comment period for the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program interim final rule from Dec. 30 to Jan. 29. The interim rule – as authorized by the 2018 farm law – took effect Oct. 31 and established testing ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Vice President of Economics and Government Relations, and Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced Dec. 5 it will open the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) general signup from Dec. 9 to Feb. 28 – the first general signup since 2015. Signup includes “general” enrollment of large tracts of land, as well as continuous signup for high-priority stewardship practices. The deadline for agricultural producers to sign up for general CRP is Feb. 28, 2020, while signup for continuous CRP is ongoing, USDA ... Read More

By Max Fisher, Director of Economics and Government Relations After Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced on Nov. 15 the second tranche of 2019 Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments, USDA began issuing them this week. The first tranche was issued in late summer and equaled the higher of either 50 percent of the total payment expected or $15 per acre. The second tranche will equal 25 percent of the total payment expected, and the third tranche – if implemented – will equal the remaining 25 percent and occur in January 2020. Producers in counties receiving the ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Oct. 29 issued its long-awaited interim rule for the domestic production of hemp, launching a major step in the implementation of the 2018 farm law and providing clarity about how the crop will be federally regulated. Under the 2018 farm law, Congress legalized the commercial production of hemp and directed USDA to establish a national regulatory framework for hemp production in the United States. The advocacy group Vote Hemp estimates that farmers have planted more than ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media, and Max Fisher, Director of Economics and Government Relations NGFA is providing several recommendations to improve the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) draft environmental assessment of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which it completed as part of the rulemaking process for implementing the 2018 farm law. NGFA’s comments, which will be submitted to USDA on Oct. 27, counter portions of the USDA Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) draft report, in which the agency assessed the anticipated environmental impacts of ... Read More

By Sarah Gonzalez, Director of Communications and Digital Media After a controversial decision issued in August to exempt some small petroleum refineries from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Trump administration announced Oct. 4 that it will propose expansions to biofuel blending requirements beginning in 2020. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will propose actions that would ensure that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol are blended into the nation’s fuel supply beginning in 2020, and that the volume obligation for biomass-based diesel is met. ... Read More