Virginia Agriculture in the Classroom has awarded 20 STEM grants to schools and a 4-H chapter for spring 2020.

The grants total $9,000 and will provide 8,000 youth in 19 localities with agriculture experiences incorporating science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Projects include topics like hydroponics, animal agriculture and leadership development.

Grants were made possible through funding from the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.

“Agriculture in the Classroom STEM grants provide an opportunity for educators to integrate science, technology, engineering, agriculture and mathematics,” explained Tammy Maxey, Virginia AITC senior education manager. “The spring STEM grants enable students to have an agricultural experience while integrating higher-level STEM concepts.”

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Thanks to all our members for attending the Senate and House Ag Committee meetings this week in Richmond! Here’s an update for week 5 of the 2020 General Assembly.

This column written by VFBF President Wayne Pryor ran in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Friday, Feb. 7. 

For years, Virginia’s farmers, conservation groups, and soil and water conservation districts have worked diligently to address legitimate barriers to farmers being able to adopt on-farm conservation practices. Those include stream exclusion fencing and nutrient management plans.

And because good stewardship is part of good citizenship, farmers have made great strides in voluntarily introducing those practices and others.

Barriers to the practices have included a lack of adequate cost-share funding in recent years; a lack of funding for soil and water conservation districts to provide adequate technical assistance; and a lack of flexibility to address legitimate site-specific issues that farmers encounter.

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Check out this week’s Merchandiser Minute!

U.S. trade officials and agricultural representatives will meet March 10 at the Richmond Marriott for the 12th annual Virginia Governor’s Conference on Agricultural Trade.

Co-hosted by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, the Virginia Port Authority and Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, the conference will include remarks from Gov. Ralph Northam on Virginia’s trade progress and priorities.

“The conference is a once-a-year opportunity for Virginia farmers, exporters and buyers to be in the same room talking about trade,” said Wilmer Stoneman, VFBF vice president of agriculture, development and innovation. “The conference benefits everyone from the farmers producing crops all the way to buyers and consumers of those products in other countries.”

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Virginia farmers are celebrating a new clean water rule that brings clarity to the regulatory requirements and enforcement of the Clean Water Act.

The new rule was issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to replace the 2015 Waters of the U.S. rule. The Trump administration rescinded that rule last year and implemented the replacement on Jan. 23. The new rule eliminated requirements for landowners to get EPA approval for certain modifications on their own lands. It also removed many seasonal streams, small waterways and wetlands from restrictive federal oversight.

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The impact of a dry spell can last long after it’s over, and Virginia farmers are still feeling the effects of 2019’s drought conditions.

The dry period, which began in the summer and lasted through the fall, caused a domino effect for farmers. Grass dried up, and farmers were forced to start feeding hay to their animals months earlier than normal, depleting their winter inventory.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) this week announced the availability of two programs that protect hemp producers’ crops from natural disasters. A pilot hemp insurance program through Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) provides coverage against loss of yield because of insurable causes of loss for hemp grown for fiber, grain, or Cannabidiol (CBD) oil and the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) coverage protects against losses associated with lower yields, destroyed crops or prevented planting where no permanent federal crop insurance program is available. Producers may apply now, and the deadline to sign up for both programs is March 16, 2020.

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In recent years, Virginia’s farmers have worked alongside conservation groups and soil and water conservation district staff to address barriers to enacting on-farm conservation practices.

On Feb. 4 and 5 they made the case to state legislators for preserving that partnership rather than relying on regulatory mandates.

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Week 4 of the General Assembly was a busy one for Farm Bureau! Check out the update from Andrew and Stefanie.