To address supply chain and logistics issues—in food and agriculture and applicable to other industrial sectors—Farm Foundation has been a founding member of the Supply Chain Optimization & Resilience (SCORe) Coalition. The SCORe Coalition is building an ecosystem of supply chain participants, including port and rail operators, carriers, government and intergovernmental organizations. An element of the SCORe Coalition is the establishment of standardized digital data solutions for supply chains in a process being led by ASTM, the 100-year-old leading institution in standards formation.

Through this work, Farm Foundation is bringing its proven Interoperable Data to Enhance Agriculture (IDEA) Approach to the development of digital supply chain solutions that can be standardized by ASTM and promoted through the SCORe Coalition for adoption across industry. IDEA aligns the efforts of organizations like the Farm Foundation, Purdue University’s Open Ag Technology & Systems (OATS) Center, OpenTEAM, AgGateway and others. The IDEA Approach has been used for transportation supply chains including land, rail, ocean, and port, as well as for products like fresh produce (strawberries), livestock (pork, cattle), soil health.

Related Events

March 2021,The Great Pork Hackathon Series  

This was the first of a three-part hackathon series intended to solve problems for the pork industry through creating lasting code that will improve data flow and processes through open source interoperability.

August 2021, Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up

The Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up gathered a large, diverse, and global group of regenerative ranchers, landholders, value chain partners, software providers, conservationists and land trust representatives, scientists, academics and more to link the information flows necessary to implement and scale the practice of regenerative grazing. Participants placed ‘sticky-notes’ on a virtual whiteboard to develop a community-led understanding of the regenerative ranching sector and highlight common data challenges.

August 2022, Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack: Gathering for Action

Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack: Gathering for Action was a two-day virtual conference that was held August 23-24, 2022. It was comprised of three interwoven activities: a soil sampling campaign, a soil data hack, and the “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” virtual conference. The “Soil Health Tech Stack” is a term coined by Seana Day in an article that outlines the challenges she sees based on, among other things, her work co-authoring the USFRA Transformative Investment report about how technology and finance could scale climate smart, soil-centric agriculture practices as well as on information gathered during the Farm Foundation Regenerative Ranching Data Round Up. The “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” activities will build upon those efforts and others. As such, the event will leverage pasture/rangeland data but with the goal of extending solutions to all soil-based agriculture production ecosystems.

November 2022, Where’s My Stuff?: Supply Chain Virtual Event Storming

Farm Foundation, in partnership with the Supply Chain Optimization and Resilience (SCORe) Coalition/ASTM standards development process, held a multistakeholder, virtual event on November 7 and 8, 2022, that focused on creating shared understanding of the role standardized, interoperable digital data can play in the supply chain.

 October 2023, Building Beta Data Management Protocols for Soil Carbon GHG Quantification

To assist USDA in initial designs for their “Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Quantification Program,” Purdue Open Ag Technology and Systems Center (OATS), Semios, The Mixing Bowl, and Farm Foundation are hosting the Building Beta Data Management Protocols for Soil Carbon GHG Quantification virtual “event storming” which will take place on October 24, 2023.

Collaborate with Us

The post Data Interoperability appeared first on Farm Foundation.

Upcoming Events:

Agricultural Policy, Economics, and Diverse Farms and Farmers Virtual Conference, will be a two-day event on Tuesday, March 5th, and Wednesday, March 6th, 2024, focused on diversity and agricultural policy.

The understanding about issues surrounding equity and inclusion in agricultural programs is currently limited. This includes how different farmer characteristics interact with agricultural policy to shape producer enrollment and participation in government programs, the allocation of resources for producer support, program access and eligibility, as well as evaluation and reform.

Through a mix of panel discussions and paper presentations, the goal of this conference is to:

• Expand on the existing knowledge base of how diversity in U.S. agriculture, both of farmers and farm operations, interacts with agricultural policy
• Initiate discussion on farmer equity and inclusion in U.S. agricultural policy
• To better understand data available to explore these linkages, as well as identify data gaps
• Foster networks of researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals working on these issues

Call for Abstracts:

We invite submission of research papers at the intersection of agricultural policy and the diverse characteristics of U.S. farms and farmers. Submissions from researchers and students from minority-serving institutions are especially encouraged. The deadline for submissions for consideration for this conference is Thursday, January 25, 2024. 

LEARN MORE AND SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT

Important Dates:

• Call for submissions deadline/abstracts due: Thursday, January 25, 2024
• Submitters notified of decision: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
• Conference dates: Tuesday, March 5, 2024–Wednesday, March 6, 2024

The post Emerging Research on Agricultural Policy and Diverse Farms and Farmers appeared first on Farm Foundation.

About the Workshop

Innovation through investment in public and private research & development (R&D) is the key driver of productivity growth in agriculture. However, in the short term, the increasing frequencies of adverse weather events under climate change have resulted in total factor productivity (TFP) estimates variations from year to year that can hinder our understanding of overall technology advancement. A properly measured TFP indicator can help to inform policy on the patterns of productivity growth and the results of science policy. Furthermore, it can be used to identify the linkages between TFP and climate change, environmental factors, and world trade.

Workshop Priorities and Goals

The workshop will address four key questions:

1. How can different methodologies result in distinct productivity estimates, and does it matter?
2. How does public R&D and patent knowledge stock affect agricultural productivity growth?
3. How does climate change influence agricultural productivity growth and what are the consequences?
4. What are the causes and consequences of agricultural productivity growth?

The workshop also aims to convene and develop a network of researchers who study productivity-related topics to support the ERS research agenda on identifying the causes and effects of agricultural productivity growth. Another goal for this network is to support the quality of ERS productivity data products.

In-person participation in the workshop is restricted to invite-only. The public is invited to view the event live for free via Zoom. Register to access the workshop as a virtual attendee at the link below. Contact us for more information.

REGISTER AS A VIRTUAL ATTENDEE

Meet the Organizers

Farm Foundation leverages the power of collaboration between food and agricultural stakeholders to advance agriculture in positive ways. Our unique approach combines the trust and reliability of a “think tank” with the impact and urgency of a “do tank.”

Virginia Tech took over the responsibility for producing the Global Agricultural Productivity Report® (GAP Report®) in 2019. It was created by the Global Harvest Initiative (GHI), a non-profit founded in 2010 to look at what production agriculture would have to achieve to keep pace with a growing global population.

T­he mission of USDA’s Economic Research Service is to anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision-making.

ERS shapes its research program and products to serve those who routinely make or influence public policy and program decisions. Key clientele includes White House and USDA policy officials; the U.S. Congress; program administrators/managers; other Federal agencies; State and local government officials; and organizations, including farm and industry groups. ERS research provides context for and informs the decisions that affect the agricultural sector, which in turn benefits everyone with efficient stewardship of our agricultural resources and the economic prosperity of the sector.

About the Global Agricultural Productivity Report®

The annual Global Agricultural Productivity Report is produced by Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in collaboration with partners in the private sector, NGOs, conservation organizations, universities, and global research institutions. The 2022 report, Troublesome Trends and System Shocks, discusses how global agricultural systems are being affected by COVID-19, climate change, extreme weather events, and conflicts in Ukraine and elsewhere, driving up prices for food and agricultural inputs.

DOWNLOAD THE 2022 GAP REPORT

*This workshop was supported in part by USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The findings and conclusions in the presentations are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent any official USDA or U.S. Government determination or policy.

The post Agricultural Productivity Growth: Measurement, Drivers, and Climatic Effects appeared first on Farm Foundation.

“Fixing The Soil Health Tech Stack” activities will gather those players committed to taking collective action right now to bridge soil data interoperability, calibration, or standardization to ease the movement of digital information between those collecting, analyzing, and taking action upon soil-centric data.

“Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” is comprised of three interwoven activities: the soil sampling campaign, the soil data hack, and the “Fixing the Soil Health Tech Stack” virtual conference. These activities will take place between mid-May and August, 2022.

Learn More

The post Three-Part Project: Fixing the Soil Health Stack appeared first on Farm Foundation.

Emerging voluntary carbon markets are being touted as the new cash crop in U.S. agriculture. In essence, large companies would purchase carbon credits from multiple sources, including agriculture, to achieve their net zero-emission goals. Farmers and ranchers would implement conservation practices following protocols from a carbon program to sequester carbon from the atmosphere into the soil or avoid greenhouse gas emissions in exchange for compensation. The carbon program would connect purchasing entities with farmers, and direct the flow of payments, data, methods, and carbon credits throughout the system (Plastina 2021).

Agricultural conservation practices must be additional and permanent to generate carbon credits (Plastina and Wongpiyabovorn 2021). Additional practices are different from baseline practices. Evaluating the additionality of a practice requires judgement on whether it would have been implemented in the absence of the carbon program. Permanence refers to the length of time that a specific practice sequesters carbon from the atmosphere.

Annual conservation practices can be adopted with certain annual patterns in mind that would make them hard to qualify as permanent practices. For example, cover cropping could be highly desirable for some farmers before corn in a corn-soybean rotation, but less desirable in every single year. In the former case, carbon sequestration would take longer to occur than in the latter case. When annual practices are temporarily discontinued due to factors external to the farm, most carbon programs include penalties associated with skipping payments for the discontinued practices until reinstated (Plastina and Wongpiyabovorn 2021).

Even if annual conservation practices are adopted with the intention to implement them every single year, there could be agronomic or economic reasons that would justify a temporary discontinuation. For example, the adoption of a no-till system requires a long-term commitment because it requires new implements and a different timing of certain practices. However, if weed resistance builds up to a point where chemicals become ineffective, then vertical tillage could be used as a weed management strategy one year before returning to no-till. When tilling a soil that has been in a no-till system for multiple years, the sequestered carbon from previous years leaves the soil and returns to the atmosphere. Some carbon programs address the risk of “reversal” through a voluntary carbon reserve, which consists of carbon credits generated by agricultural practices that are kept untraded (outside the carbon market) for 10 years or more. (Plastina and Wongpiyabovorn 2021).

In an attempt to shed light on regional patterns of adoption and disadoption of conservation practices, Plastina and Sawadgo (2021) evaluated changes in acres on cover crops and no-till in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa between the last two Censuses of Agriculture  2012 and 2017.

Cover Crops

In 2017, cover crops were planted in 2,617,335 acres in the I-States, equivalent to 4.12% of their total cropland area. An analysis of changes in adoption rates by county indicates that 199 counties out of the 289 counties in the I-states for which there is complete data (69%) increased their rates of adoption by at least 1 percentage point between 2012 and 2017, while 59 counties (20%) kept it relatively stable (change between 0 and 1 percentage points), and 31 counties (11%) experienced declines in their rates of adoption, or disadoption (see figure 1). The biggest gain in cover cropped area (20,001 acres) occurred in Keokuk County, Iowa, and the largest drop (-6,374 acres) was observed in Orange County, Indiana.

In Indiana, twenty counties experienced a total decline in cover crop area of 40,616 acres, equivalent to 22.7% of their 2012 cover cropped area. In Illinois, seven counties reduced their cover cropped area by 5,603 acres, equivalent to 28.0% of their 2012 levels. In Iowa, four counties experienced a total decline of 8,572 acres, equivalent to 42.5% of their 2012 levels.

No-Till

In 2017, no-tillage systems were implemented on 19,571,098 acres in the I-States, equivalent to 30.84% of their total cropland area. An analysis of changes in adoption rates by county indicates that 175 counties out of the 291 counties in the I-states for which there is complete data (61%) increased their rates of adoption by at least 1 percentage point between 2012 and 2017, while 20 counties (7%) kept it relatively stable (change between 0 and 1 percentage points), and 96 counties (33%) experienced disadoption (see figure 2). The biggest gain in no-till area (62,616 acres) occurred in Plymouth County, Iowa, and the largest drop (-35,435 acres) was observed in Jasper County, Indiana.

In Indiana, forty-six counties experienced a total decline in no-till area of 369,247 acres, equivalent to 14.6% of their 2012 cover cropped area. In Illinois, thirty-nine counties reduced their no-till area by 292,086 acres, equivalent to 12.1% of their 2012 levels. In Iowa, eleven counties experienced a total decline of 95,457 acres, equivalent to 11.1% of their 2012 levels.

Disadoption and Carbon Programs

Plastina and Sawadgo (2021) highlight the non-permanence of two annual conservation practices between 2012 and 2017 in the I-States: 11% and 33% of the counties in the region disadopted cover crops and no-till, respectively, reducing their areas in those conservation practices by 25% and 13% with respect to 2012 levels. If these percentages are indicative of the probability that farmers participating in voluntary carbon programs could temporarily discontinue contracted practices and trigger penalties from carbon programs, their findings suggest that farmers planting cover crops and using no-till would face non-trivial probabilities of being penalized over the life of a multi-year carbon contract.

Read the paper

For more information

Plastina, A. 2021. “How do Data and Payments Flow through Ag Carbon Programs?” Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Ag Decision Maker File A1-77. Available at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/html/a1-76.html.

Plastina, A., and O. Wongpiyabovorn. 2021. “How to Grow and Sell Carbon Credits in US Agriculture.” Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Ag Decision Maker File A1-76. Available at https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/html/a1-77.html.

Plastina, A. and W. Sawadgo. 2021. “Cover Crops and No-till in the I-States: Non-Permanence and Carbon Markets.” Agricultural Policy Review, Fall 2021. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University. Available at www.card.iastate.edu/ag_policy_review/article/?a=133.

The post Non-Permanence of Conservation Practices and Carbon Markets appeared first on Farm Foundation.

July 27, 2021: McHenry County Dialogues
July 29, 2021: Will County Dialogues

Post-Event Report

Project Steering Committee

Nathan Aaberg
Liberty Prairie Foundation

Rob Baren
Illinois Department of Agriculture

Lenore Beyer
Kinship Foundation

Janice Hill
Acreage43560, LLC

Austin Omer
Illinois Farm Bureau

Kris Reynolds
American Farmland Trust

John Rogner
Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Tyler Strom
Illinois Agri-Food Alliance

Daniel Suarez
Audubon Great Lakes

The project was made possible through a grant from:

Funded through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, Food:Land:Opportunity is a collaboration between Kinship Foundation and The Chicago Community Trust.

ARCHIVED MATERIALS

McHenry County Dialogues

Examining land use in McHenry County, Illinois and southern Wisconsin

Conversation 1: The State of Farmland in McHenry County

The geography and land use in McHenry County is a tapestry of productive agricultural lands, picturesque conservation properties, and small towns and larger cities. In this day-long conversation, attendees will discuss state and county data around land use, and the needs and challenges for agricultural producers in McHenry County today, as well as opportunities to support farming into the future.

Featured Speakers Include:

Dan Volkers
McHenry County Farm Bureau

Raghela Scavuzzo
Illinois Farm Bureau

Michael Gill
Illinois Soybean Association

Check out the full agenda to see more information about planned topics and speakers.

We’ll explore topics vital to the region

• Is nature good for the local economy?
• What are some new ways to capture recreational spending?
• Did the pandemic change consumer demand for locally grown foods?
• What does the new Illinois cover crop funding offer farmers?
• How can open space and farmland coexist in a mutually beneficial way?
• And more! Attendees are encouraged to bring questions, comments and issues of interest to add to the discussion.

Register now for our first conversation

July 27, 2021

McHenry County Dialogues

Join us for a day of sharing and conversation around land use in McHenry County, including areas surrounding the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge. This event will be held at the Holiday Inn Crystal Lake. Please follow event signs once you arrive. All state and local guidelines for gatherings will be followed. Registration is free but capacity is limited; click the button below to see the full agenda and reserve your spot. Lunch will be provided!

Community Resources

Joining us for an upcoming dialogue? Check out these resources to learn more about the conversation around land use as it relates to conservation, farming and food. Find general topic resources here as well as applicable information from the state level to the McHenry County area, including Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge. Check back often, as new resources are being added all the time!

• Illinois & Chicago Area
• McHenry County
• Hackmatack Region
• General Conservation
• General Food

• Advancing Conservation Cropping Systems in Illinois [LINK]
• Illinois Assessment of Parks and Conservation Funding Needs and Economic Benefits [PDF]
• The Working Lands, Water and Wildlife Conservation Partnership—Illinois [PDF]
• S.T.A.R. (Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources) Annual Report [PDF]
• Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Podcast [LINK]
• Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Priority Watersheds [PDF]
• Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership Free Webinar Series for Farmers [LINK]
• Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) Lands in Transition [LINK]
• CMAP Lands in Transition Strategy Paper [PDF]
• Chicago Wilderness Webinar Series [LINK]
• Illinois Specialty Crop Podcast Series [LINK]
• Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership 2020 Annual Report [PDF]
• Illinois Takes Big Regenerative Agriculture Steps [LINK]
• Forest Preserve and Conservation Districts in Northeastern Illinois: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century [PDF]
• Illinois Food Market Maker [LINK]
  Search for farms and markets by location and type.

• McHenry County 2030 and Beyond – 2016 Update to the McHenry County 2030 Comprehensive Plan [PDF]
• Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP) McHenry County Snapshot [PDF]
• McHenry County Census of Agriculture [PDF]
• Food Insecurity in McHenry County [LINK]
• McHenry County Community College Center for Agrarian Learning [LINK]

• Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge Background [PDF]
• Proposed Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge Executive Summary: Environmental Assessment, Land Protection Plan, and Conceptual Management Plan, 2012 [PDF]
• Resolution in Support of the Establishment of the Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge [PDF]
• Hackmatack Map [PDF]

• Report to the National Climate Task Force: Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful [PDF]
• Report: U.S. Farmer Perspectives on Water [PDF]
• Quantifying Economic and Environmental Benefits of Soil Health [LINK]
• American Farmland Trust Transition Recommendations for USDA [LINK]
• Combatting Climate Change on U.S. Cropland [PDF]
• Carbon Reduction Potential Evaluation Tool [LINK]
• Promoting Soil Health on Protected Agricultural Lands [PDF]
• American Farm Bureau Federation: Sustainability in Agriculture [LINK]
• Zoning Limitations and Opportunities for Farm Enterprise Diversification [PDF]
• Grassland Birds: Fostering Habitats Using Rotational Grazing [PDF]
• Neonicotinoids and Decline in Bird Biodiversity in the United States [PDF]
• Research Report: Farmer Perspectives on Data 2021 [PDF] 
• Conservation’s Impact on the Farm Bottom Line [PDF]
• Growing for the Future: Business Lessons from Ag Retail’s Conservation Leaders [PDF]
• A Practitioner’s Guide to Conducting Budget Analyses for Conservation Agriculture [PDF]
• American Farmland Trust Report –  Farms Under Threat: The State of the States Executive Summary [PDF]
• Farms Under Threat: The State of the States Project Technical Report [PDF]
• American Farmland Trust Report – Wildlife on the Working Landscape: Charting a Way for Biodiversity and Agricultural Production to Thrive Together [PDF]

• An Overview of the Fall 2020 Consumer Survey on Food Choices During COVID-19 [PDF]
• Local Food Systems Response to COVID: Use of Food Market Channels [PDF]

The post Dialogues on the Future of Food, Farming and Conservation appeared first on Farm Foundation.

The Trade and Climate Change conference is a joint effort of Farm Foundation and the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute to explore topics in the context of a global trading environment where climate change policies have become increasingly ambitious and diverse among international players.

This free, virtual conference took place April 7 and 9, 2021. Topics included:

• Climate change policies and their impacts on agricultural production and trade
• Border carbon adjustments as a mechanism for adjudicating among climate change policies amidst global competitors
• How various industry players are adapting to new policies through opportunities like carbon markets and offsets, sustainable sourcing, and investments
• And more—see the full agenda

All sessions were recorded and are now available for viewing on the Farm Foundation YouTube Channel.

This work builds on the recent collaboration between Farm Foundation and CAPI on “Trade and Sustainability” and “Managing Trade in an Increasingly Chaotic World.”

The post Dialogues on Trade and Climate Change appeared first on Farm Foundation.

Soil health is a foundational principle of regenerative and sustainable agriculture. To address the importance of healthy soils, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and Farm Foundation partnered in 2013 to design and initiate the Soil Renaissance. The mission of the Soil Renaissance was to reawaken the public to the role of soil health for enhancing healthy, profitable and sustainable natural resource systems, with an overall goal of making soil health the cornerstone of land use management decisions.

Safeguarding Soil Productivity

The success of that initiative led to establishing the Soil Health Institute in 2015 as a nonprofit to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soils through scientific research and advancement.

Today, the Soil Health Institute is recognized globally for advancing the science and practical application of soil health measurements, on-farm economics, farmer training, environmental assessments, consumer education, policy, management impacts and others.

At Farm Foundation, we are proud to continue serving as a founding member of the Soil Health Institute’s Board of Directors, and several Farm Foundation Board members and program participants are also active with the organization.

Learn more about the Soil Health Institute at soilhealthinstitute.org.

The post Soil Health Institute appeared first on Farm Foundation.

A group of major food companies, retailers, livestock producers, and trade and professional association announced a comprehensive framework to strengthen stewardship of antibiotic use in food animals.  This framework was the product of a two-year dialogue among stakeholders moderated by Farm Foundation the Pew Charitable Trusts to ensure that antibiotics are used judiciously throughout production to protect animal and public health.

In collaboration with USDA’s Economic Research Service, Farm Foundation presented the workshop, Challenges to Changing Antibiotic Use in Food Animal Production, at which researchers, agency staff, educators and medical personnel examined the economics, data and policies relevant to the issue.

Farm Foundation collaborated with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in hosting 12 workshops focused on implementation of Guidance #209 and #213, as well as the revised Veterinary Feed Directive rule. The sessions were targeted to producers, veterinarians and feed suppliers. Many attendees acknowledged the importance of being able to communicate directly with the representatives of FDA and USDA who attended each session. Those workshop discussions were summarized in the 2016 report, Stewardship of medically-important antimicrobial drug use in  food animals.

In 2022, Farm Foundation worked with industry partners to spread the work on the enactment of FDA’s revised recommendations on antibiotic use in farm animals. Outputs included a Farm Foundation Forum and an informational flyer.

The post Antibiotic Stewardship in Food Animal Production appeared first on Farm Foundation.

The post Changing Dynamics in Farm Ownership & Agricultural Finance appeared first on Farm Foundation.