From biogas systems to bike-powered equipments, our 2024 Farm Innovations show featured a lot of impressive builds as well as many elegant solutions to farming challenges.

Download the PDF to see them all!

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Descargue nuestra guía rápida para saber cómo NRCS puede ayudar a su granja.

Este recurso gratuito fue producido con el apoyo de la Coalición Nacional de Agricultura Sostenible (NSAC).

The post Una guía rápida de los programas del NRCS appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Download our quick-guide to learn how NRCS can help your farm.

This free resource was produced with support from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). 

The post Quick-Guide to NRCS Programs appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Descargue nuestra hoja informativa para saber por qué y cómo obtener un número de granja FSA.

Este recurso gratuito fue producido con el apoyo de la Coalición Nacional de Agricultura Sostenible (NSAC).

The post Lo Que un Número de Granja de la FSA Puede Hacer Por Usted appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Download our fact sheet to learn the why and how of obtaining an FSA farm number.

This free resource was produced with support from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). 

The post What an FSA Farm Number Can Do for You appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Learn how you can advocate for a more fiscally and environmentally responsible farm safety net.

The Farm Bill expired over six months ago, and we’re still many hard conversations away from a new bill. One of the principal fault lines facing members of Congress is the tension between increased spending on the farm safety net (crop insurance and commodity supports) and preserving the Inflation Reduction Act’s historic investment in conservation. Congress has not identified enough funding to do both, so elected officials are aligning with one camp or the other.

The groups advocating for higher subsidies are large, well-funded, and well-connected. While the farm safety net is critical to our agricultural system, it is far from perfect. The crop insurance and commodity programs pick winners and losers, disincentivize conservation practices, and demand a price tag that cannot be sustained.

Convincing Congress to upend the safety net status quo is an uphill battle, and they won’t address this problem without farmer input. Do you want to advocate for a more fiscally and environmentally responsible farm safety net? Watch our evening webinar to learn more about this issue and identify opportunities to make your voice heard.

Recorded April 23, 2024

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The post Farm Bill Fault Lines: Climate and the Farm Safety Net appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Learn more about Pennsylvania’s Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Program with hear others share about what elements of the program may or may not be working for them.

In 2019, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Beginning Farmer Tax Credit Program to provide tax credits to owners of agricultural assets who sell or rent to beginning farmers. The program was designed to improve land access for beginning farmers by incentivizing landowners to prioritize beginning farmers over other buyers or tenants. In this webinar, we provided an overview of how the program works and discussed whether or not it may be working.

Recorded April 9, 2024

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Learn about the growing impact of severe floods and droughts on farms and other lands and the role farmers can play in directly mitigating flood and drought damage.

Two livestock farmers highlight their different approaches to 2023’s record-breaking flooding and drought conditions. Resources farmers can access to reduce exposure, take preventive measures, and help downstream neighbors are discussed.

Recorded: March 29, 2024

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The post Flood Mitigation: A Roadmap for Pennsylvania appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

How can farms help mitigate floods and protect communities downstream? (Hint: it starts in our soil!)

The post Flood Impacts & Solutions appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

In large omnibus legislation like the Farm Bill, it’s easy for good ideas to get lost. Grouping proposed legislation into small packages focused around key issues can help get the attention of lawmakers—that’s where marker bills come in! 

Join us to learn how advocates use marker bills to build support among legislators and to raise public awareness and grow grassroots support for policy change. 

Policy experts from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) will provide an overview of the legislative landscape and offer some real-world policy solutions to your on-farm challenges. 

We’ll dig into several marker bills that have already been drafted or introduced with the hope of inclusion in the 2023 Farm Bill.

Complete this form to watch the recording:

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When it comes to stormwater management, do these temporary structures need to be regulated the same as permanent buildings? High tunnels are popping up across the landscape to help farms extend growing seasons, protect produce from an increasingly harsh climate, and provide a relatively inexpensive means of rotating crop locations.

In 2018, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a new law to clarify that these temporary structures should be regulated differently than permanent-based structures like greenhouses and barns. However, confusion still remains around the issue of stormwater management, and farmers in some Pennsylvania townships are being asked to meet costly, time-consuming requirements.

Recorded April 21, 2023

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The post Clarifying Stormwater Regulations for High Tunnels appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

From a chicken palace to a mobile herb dryer, our 2023 Farm Innovations show featured a lot of impressive builds as well as many elegant solutions to farming challenges.

Download the PDF to see them all!

The post 2023 Farm Innovations appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

In February 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a first-ever Commission on Equity to analyze how USDA programs, practices, and policies can be improved to lower barriers to inclusion and access. The commission will also work to address discrimination and perpetuation of disparities among farmers who might benefit from USDA assistance. Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Redding is one of 15 members of the subcommittee on agriculture and rural economic development appointed to this prestigious group, and has had a front-row seat in the discussions to make changes and improvements. The diversity and quality of committee members is also remarkable, and looks nothing like any other previous USDA committees.

While the committee has only been operating for six months, recommendations are already forming, and USDA administrators are already taking actions to encourage access, equity, and a fairer playing field through executive action and through the courts.

Secretary Redding provides insight on the inner-workings of the committee. He also shares his personal philosophy on the importance of diversity and inclusion and discusses his approach to growing equity here in Pennsylvania.

Recorded October 26, 2022

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The post Building Equity for U.S. Farmers: A Talk with PA’s Agriculture Secretary appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Find out how to recognize the early signs of diseases and take steps to prevent them. Taking an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach on sustainable and organic farms is all about planning, observation, and timely responses—nowhere is that more true than with plant disease.

Join Dr. Beth Gugino, Penn State University professor and extension specialist in vegetable pathology, to learn about observation and diagnostic tools you can use to recognize the signs of different diseases quickly, and how respond to before they get out of control.

This session is part of our IPM Perspectives series, featuring experts offering unique insights, tools, and techniques to help you manage pests on your farm in a more proactive and sustainable way.

Recorded August 23, 2022

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The post IPM Perspectives: Vegetable Disease ID & Prevention with Dr. Beth Gugino appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Learn how a circular economy advocacy group, a zero-waste design firm, and a local restaurant teamed up to convince the City of Philadelphia that takeout customers deserve an alternative to single-use to-go containers. At the height of the pandemic, many people were ordering takeout to support their favorite local restaurants, but to-go containers were stacking up.

Find out how these groups worked together to change minds—and policy—in just a few short months!

Recorded October 14, 2022

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The post Circular Success Story: How Philly Restaurants Won the Right to Reuse appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Alley cropping is a type of agroforestry practice where farmers grow annual or perennial crops in “alleys” between rows of trees selected for their environmental and income-producing benefits. This agroforestry case study highlights a nonprofit farm that worked with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture to design an alley cropping site plan that would address natural resource concerns on their land.

The post Alley Cropping at Many Streams Farm appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Alley cropping is a type of agroforestry practice where farmers grow annual or perennial crops in “alleys” between rows of trees selected for their environmental and income-producing benefits. This agroforestry case study highlights an urban farm that worked with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture and Interlace Commons to design an alley cropping site plan that would accomplish its unique goals.

The post Alley Cropping at Weavers Way appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Alley cropping is a type of agroforestry practice where farmers grow annual or perennial crops in “alleys” between rows of trees selected for their environmental and income-producing benefits. This case study highlights a draft-horse powered diversified vegetable farm that worked with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture and Interlace Commons to design an alley cropping site plan that would accommodate its unique goals.

The post Alley Cropping at Good Work Farm appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

The post Get to know: Alley Cropping appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

Whether you grow food, sell it, cook it, or just eat it—we all have a stake in gaining a deeper understanding of the links between soil health, plant health, and human health.

The concept of nutrient-dense food has been growing in popularity for decades, but how do we actually define and quantify it? During this webinar, we explore the science behind on crop nutrient density, including how it can be measured, what new research is uncovering, and what we still need to learn. We examine how factors like growing climate, management practices, and variety have the potential to broadly impact nutrient density.

The Bionutrient Food Association founder and life-long farmer Dan Kittredge and co-founder of OurSci Dan TerAvest have been studying samples from farms across the country to help us better understand connections between the way food is grown and its nutrient content. Pasa partners with The Bionutrient Institute and OurSci to measure the nutrient content of crops grown by several farmers participating in our Soil Health Benchmark Study. Farmer Steve Groff of Cedar Meadow Farm shares insights he’s gained from participating in this study.

Recorded July 27, 2022

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The post Digging into the Science of Nutrient Density appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.