For more than a decade, USDA’s Climate Hubs has been at the forefront of supporting climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners. Last week, the department significantly boosted its efforts globally, by launching the International Climate Hub. The new hub builds on the experience with 10 regional Climate Hubs throughout the United States and the Caribbean to …

The Biden Administration announced the availability of $500 million in funding to advance partner-driven solutions to conservation on agricultural land through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). RCPP leverages a voluntary approach to conservation that expands the reach of conservation efforts and climate-smart agriculture through public-private partnerships. Increased funding for fiscal year 2023 is made possible …

Lab-grown meat, which is cultured from animal cells, is often thought to be more environmentally friendly than beef because it’s predicted to need less land, water and greenhouse gases than raising cattle. But in a preprint, not yet peer-reviewed, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found that lab-grown or “cultivated” meat’s environmental impact is likely to be “orders …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is announcing the availability of a pre-recorded webinar for developers who are interested in learning more about the process of requesting an Investigational Food Use Authorization (IFUA) for animals with investigational intentional genomic alterations (IGAs). IGAs in animals are alterations to the animal’s genome that are made using genome editing or rDNA technologies. An …

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announces assistance for dairy producers with the new Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Program (ODMAP). ODMAP is established to help mitigate market volatility, higher input and transportation costs, and unstable feed supply and prices that have created unique hardships in the organic dairy industry. Specifically, under the ODMAP, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is making …

Industry leaders and stakeholders from across the dairy value chain discussed priorities, best practices, challenges, work and considered opportunities that align U.S. dairy and collectively puts the industry on a path to providing sustainable solutions for people and planet during the recent 2023 Dairy Sustainability Alliance® Spring Meeting. Barbara O’Brien, who serves as president and CEO of the Innovation Center …

The non-profit Soil Health Academy announced the availability of educational scholarships for leaders in indigenous and underserved communities, as well as agriculture education professionals to attend one of SHA’s three-day, on-farm soil health and regenerative agriculture schools. In addition, the grant will provide ag educators with free access to the regenerative agriculture online course, Regen Ag 101. The scholarship and …

The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF), U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC), Consortium for Common Food Names (CCFN) and allied organizations commend today’s introduction of the Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act to promote the protection of common names in the 2023 Farm Bill. Led in the Senate by Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Tina …

The Ag Council of California presented Assemblymember Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Hills) with the Influential Legislator of the Year Award during its Legislative Conference in Sacramento this week. “Assemblymember Rubio is a fierce advocate for pragmatic thinking and her actions in the Legislature to implement practical policies are critical to our members and all of agriculture. She and her staff work …

On May 17, the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) expanded functionality for the USDA Organic INTEGRITY Database (INTEGRITY) by launching a new Trade Partner Module. This new module is an expansion of INTEGRITY called the Global Organic INTEGRITY Database (GLOBAL). GLOBAL increases access and transparency to quality data in organic supply chains worldwide, increasing our ability to protect the integrity …