Saturday, February 7 marks one year anniversary of 2014 Farm Bill

Feb 05, 2015

Farm Bill brought more funding to a variety of agriculture initiatives

There’s a very special anniversary taking place on Saturday, February 7.

It was on February 7, 2014 that US President Barack Obama signed the 2014 Farm Bill into law.

At the time, the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry called it “the most significant reform of American agriculture policy in decades.” The bill reduces the country’s deficit by $23 billion.

On the eve of the anniversary, Secretary Tom Vilsack said the legislation affects more than just farmers and food producers.

"Thanks to the Farm Bill, farmers have a common-sense risk management system in place to protect their families and livelihoods from future disasters,” he said in a release. “It's helped families become first time home buyers. It's supported rural businesses as they grow and create jobs. Communities have clean drinking water, some for the first time. Farm Bill disaster assistance programs have helped to rebuild lives.”

Almost every aspect of agriculture in the United States is set to benefit from the 2014 Farm Bill including providing $100 million in funding for the Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program, $200 million for an agricultural research foundation, $150 million for water and wastewater support and restored disaster assistance back to 2011 and is going to establish a permanent program for livestock disaster.

Video: LALEXPERT: Sclerotinia cycle and prophylactic methods

White rot, also known as sclerotinia, is a common agricultural fungal disease caused by various virulent species of Sclerotinia. It initially affects the root system (mycelium) before spreading to the aerial parts through the dissemination of spores.

Sclerotinia is undoubtedly a disease of major economic importance, and very damaging in the event of a heavy attack.

All these attacks come from the primary inoculum stored in the soil: sclerotia. These forms of resistance can survive in the soil for over 10 years, maintaining constant contamination of susceptible host crops, causing symptoms on the crop and replenishing the soil inoculum with new sclerotia.