For those of you who are interested in where the funding fell in the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, here is a breakdown of funding that relates to Grass-fed Causes:

FARM SERVICE AGENCY
$50 million to maintain and modernize the information technology system (Salaries and Expenses).

USDA BUILDINGS & FACILITIES
$24 million for construction, repair and improvement of the USDA buildings and facilities

USDA RESEARCH SERVICE
$176 million for maintenance of the USDA’s laboratory and research infrastructure

NUTRITION PROGRAMS
$100 million for the National School Lunch Program equipment assistance
$500 million for Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC); $400 million to be placed in reserves
$150 million for emergency food assistance program

CROP DISASTER ASSISTANCE
$193.807 million for farm operating loan program
$50 million for aquaculture producers to accommodate for losses associated with high feed input costs during 2008

NRCS (National Resources Conservation Service)
$290 million for Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations
$50 million for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program

BLM
$125 million for management of lands and resources, including deferred maintenance, abandoned mine and well site remediation, road and trail maintenance, watershed improvement, and high priority habitat restoration

FOREST SERVICE
$500 million for wildland fire management

RURAL BUSINESS-COOPERATIVE SERVICE

$150 million to support $3.010 billion in rural business loans and grants

What does all of this mean for Grass-fed? For the most part, agencies such as the BLM, Forest Service, NRCS, the USDA and the FSA will be able to update their information systems, bringing new jobs to rural America while improving our food inspection facilities and giving more support for the maintenance of public lands and water sources, which will benefit many western ranching families who ranch on or near public lands.

Will this be enough? Although more jobs will be created, which President Obama offered as his main objective, it is questionable as to whether or not this will be enough to keep small independent farms alive if some of the pieces of this great machine that is food and agriculture in this country begin to fall out, as exemplified in the Wall Street Journal Story on the Chicken Housing Crisis.

I blogged last week about supporting the funding for the Farm Agency and Loan Program. Although the Senate passed funding for the Agriculture Credit Insurance Fund Program of the FSA, the final Conference Report did not allocate funds to this program.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition noted last Friday on their scorecard that there will funding which will offer more support to regionally distributed food:

“The final bill mirrors the Senate bill in providing for nearly $3 billion in Rural Business and Industry loan guarantees. Combined with regular funding, this additional money will bring the program up to about $2.5 billion a year in loan guarantees for each of the next two years. As a result of a 2008 Farm Bill provision championed by NSAC, five percent ($125 million) of this amount will be targeted to local and regional food enterprises that process, distribute, aggregate, store, and market foods produced either in-state or transported less than 400 miles from the origin of the product.”