>This message is forwarded from OEFFA listserve:
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
>
> A Victory for the Next Generation of Sustainable and
Organic Farmers!
>
> USDA has agreed to implement the CRP Transition
Option Early in 2010.
>
> In October, NSAC delivered a petition to Secretary
Vilsack signed by 80 grassroots family farm organizations and nearly 7,500
individuals asking him to immediately implement the Conservation Reserve
Program Transition Option. The Transition Option will offer incentives to land
owners enrolled in the CRP to sell or lease the land to beginning or minority
producers using sustainable or organic farming practices when their CRP
contracts expire.
>
> The Option was included in the 2008 Farm Bill and
was fully funded but much to our dismay, USDA was planning to delay
implementation of the CRP Transition Option for at least two years! Grassroots
pressure was key to convincing USDA to reverse course. In response to your
petition, USDA has announced it will implement the CRP transition option early
in 2010.
>
> Thank You for Signing the Petition!
>
> And thank you for helping to transform our food
system. Change happens at the transition. An aging farmer population, a new
generation of organic and sustainable farmers desperate for access to land, 4.2
million acres of land about to come out of the Conservation Reserve Program -
together these present a tremendous opportunity for transformational change.
>
>
Vicki Morrone
303 Natural Resources Bldg
C.S. Mott Group
Dept of CARRS
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-3542/517-282-3557 (cell)
www.MichiganOrganic.msu.edu for
information on organic and sustaianable farming and news & events