NMPF Statement on Additional Covid Relief Package

“NMPF is grateful to Congress for working to enact additional COVID-19 stimulus legislation. The pending bill includes critical additional agriculture and nutrition support intended to help farmers, rural communities, and food-insecure households throughout the nation.

 

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government’s strong response has proven invaluable to dairy producers as they keep working, day-in and day-out, to sustainably provide families here at home and abroad with an abundant supply of nutritious dairy products. However, while the availability of a vaccine is cause for hope, difficult months remain ahead.

 

“NMPF appreciates the additional $3.6 billion Congress would provide to bolster food supply chains and facilitate additional purchases and donations of dairy and other food products to those who need them most. NMPF also supports the legislation’s increased funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which will provide dairy and other nutritious foods to those households and senior citizens who have faced added hardship and unique struggles during this challenging period.

Video: Episode 115: Home on the Range

We look at how high crop prices, driven in part by rising global food demand, biofuel incentives, and risk perspective and management, are encouraging the conversion of marginal grasslands into cultivated cropland. As more hay and pastureland is turned over to crop production, wildlife habitat becomes increasingly fragmented, leaving isolated “islands” of grass that may be too small to sustain functioning grassland ecosystems. We explore research using Alberta as a case study to understand the impact that conversion of hay and pasturelands into cropland could have on ecosystem intactness and biodiversity.