May 24, 2025
Spotlight Stories
Spotlight 1 – Agri Investor asks if regenerative farming can escape the ESG backlash. Check it out, here.
Spotlight 2 – Modern Farmer discusses silvopasture and why we need trees on grazing lands. Read the story, here.
Spotlight 3 – Successful Farming offers a great report on how the USDA plans to remove obstacles for small farms. Take a read, here.
Industry Updates
The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA) is seeking project proposals from Indiana’s specialty crop sector for funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. The USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program offers federal funding annually to state departments of agriculture to support their specialty crop industries. This year, Indiana will be allocating $416,350 to selected projects. Eligible projects must enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in Indiana, defined as fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops. [link]
Widespread adoption of practices that may capture carbon in soils, including planting cover crops and avoiding soil tillage, could lead to lowering crop production, finds a new study by a team of scientists. With rising food demand, practices that reduce crop yields can undermine food security and sustainability goals, note the authors of the research, which appears in the journal Nature Climate Change. But they add that the findings nonetheless point to ways to balance sustainability and productivity. The insights gained from this study, say the authors, offer valuable guidance for policymakers, farmers, and sustainability advocates seeking to balance climate goals with the need for increasing crop production. [link]
A recent survey of Wisconsin’s farmers found that 56 percent of them believe climate change is happening. Another 26 percent think it isn’t happening, and 18 percent are unsure. The same survey asked farmers if they are practicing any of 15 different sustainable agricultural practices. Only 5 percent of respondents said they weren't doing anything sustainable, an encouraging sign that producers enact sustainable practices for a variety of reasons. The survey was sent out in 2024 to 3,200 farmers around the state, and 942 of them responded. [link]
The Crown Estate is offering 15-year farm business tenancies in a bid to support the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices across its extensive portfolio of British land (83,000 ha). Typically, farm business tenancies (FBTs) in the UK have a duration of four years or less, making it challenging for farmers to invest in long-term changes to processes in the name of environmental impact management. Under the 15-year FBTs from the Crown Estate, tenants must come forward with ideas for environmental enhancements on 15% of the land. The Crown Estate will request baseline data on biodiversity and carbon impacts, and then monitor progress throughout the duration of the FBTs. In return, the Crown Estate will consider supporting tenants with the uptake of technologies or processes which diversify farmer income. It also said it is “actively reducing” rents on land supporting nature recovery. [link]
The European Union's agriculture sector loses an average of 28.3 billion euros ($31.9 billion) each year from extreme weather made worse by climate change, according to new EU-backed analysis. Most of these losses - which are equivalent to 6% of annual EU crop and livestock production - are not insured. Just 20-30% of farmers' climate-linked losses were covered by public, private or mutual insurance systems, said the report, backed by the European Commission and European Investment Bank, and produced by insurance broker Howden. [link]
Bayer Crop Science Puerto Rico and the Office for Socioeconomic and Community Development, known as ODSEC in Spanish, have renewed and expanded their collaboration agreement to support agricultural education, food security and community development in Puerto Rico. The agreement includes two initiatives. The “Crece y Aprende” (“Grow and Learn”) program works with schools and community organizations to incorporate sustainability and self-management into classroom instruction. The “Siembra” (“Plant”) program focuses on youth and adults, providing training in agricultural practices with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. Participants learn to grow food, start small businesses or lead community agriculture efforts. [link]
A traditional agroforestry system for cultivating yerba mate in Brazil and an ancestral farming system that preserves vital food crops and biodiversity in Mexico have become the latest additions to the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Latin America and the Caribbean. GIAHS are living heritage systems inhabited by communities that maintain a deep connection with their territories. These evolving and resilient systems are characterized by remarkable agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, cultures, and invaluable landscapes sustainably managed by farmers, herders, fishers, and forest dwellers to support their livelihoods and food security. [link]
As Republicans push forward with the "big, beautiful" tax bill in the U.S. Congress, federal food assistance may see big cuts. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, may be cut about 30% under the terms of the bill, which would be the "biggest cut in the program's history," according to Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, currently provides food assistance to more than 40 million individuals including children, seniors and adults with disabilities. [link]
The Trump administration released a sweeping report this past week, offering its analysis of what's driving chronic disease among the nation's children. "The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again" catalogues in detail a "chronic disease crisis," including high rates of obesity, asthma, autoimmune conditions and behavioral health disorders among kids. The report identifies four major drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic illness: poor diet, environmental chemicals, chronic stress and lack of physical activity, and overmedicalization. This lays the groundwork for the MAHA commission to develop a strategy for addressing childhood disease, which is supposed to happen by mid-August. [link]
PepsiCo announced that it will not be meeting some of its forward sustainability goals due to external factors like lack of progress on recycling, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and electric grid modernization, alongside internal growth of its business. The company expects delays on realizing its plastic packaging goals, and it also now expects to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 instead of 2040, previously. That said, PepsiCo has increased its regenerative agriculture goal, aiming to drive the adoption of regenerative, restorative, or protective practices across 10 million acres by 2030. This is an expansion of the original 7-million-acre regenerative agriculture goal and expands the ambition both in scale and depth, as it includes specific objectives for nature within the goal. As of 2024, against the newly released goal, PepsiCo has already delivered approximately 3.5 million acres. [link]
Parts of northern Europe have seen their worst drought in decades in recent weeks, with farmers from Scotland to the Netherlands fearing the dry spell will dent harvests if it continues. Countries including France, Belgium, Britain and Germany have seen much lower levels of rainfall than usual in some areas this spring, leaving the soil parched and dusty. The dry spell in northern Europe contrasts with southern Europe, including Spain and Portugal, where rainfall has been up to twice the usual amount for the time of year. [link]
China recently disbursed 1.4 billion yuan ($194.42 million) of central government funds earmarked for agricultural production disaster prevention and relief, according to a statement from the Agriculture Ministry. The funds from the Agriculture Ministry and Finance Ministry will support 30 provinces including Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Henan. The central government will focus on providing appropriate subsidies for pesticides, equipment and unified services for disaster prevention and control. [link]
In Case You Missed It…
Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the final version of its “Insecticide Strategy,” part of an ongoing initiative to bring the agency in compliance with the Endangered Species Act and avoid litigation. See more, here.