Entries by Tracy Mumma

USDA 1890 National Scholars Program

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The application deadline is March 1, 2025. USDA is accepting applications for the USDA 1890 National Scholars Program, which aims to encourage students at 1890 land-grant universities to pursue career paths in food, agriculture, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines. The program is available to eligible high school seniors entering their freshman year of […]

Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program in American Samoa

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Applications are due by February 15, 2025. USDA and the American Samoa Department of Agriculture are working together to offer more than $2 million in competitive grant funding under the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI), for projects designed to build resilience across the middle of the supply chain. Using RFSI funding, the American Samoa […]

Utah Business Builder Award Program

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The application deadline is February 14, 2025. The Utah Food and Farm Business Program at Utah State University Extension, in collaboration with the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, aims to empower local businesses and enhance Utah’s agricultural landscape through Utah’s Business Builder Award Program. The program anticipates awarding three to ten competitive awards, ranging […]

Web-based Tool Helps Optimize Soil Sampling

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USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), and the ARS’s Partnership for Data Innovations (PDI) have launched the Soil Sample Planning Organizer Tool (SSPOT), a new web-based application to facilitate digital soil mapping and optimize soil sampling. SSPOT is a user-friendly tool with integrated algorithms to help users determine the optimal placement […]

Scientists Call for Better Understanding of Pollination Science

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Scientists at the German University of Göttingen published an article in Trends in Plant Science that highlights the roles that pollinator behavior and plant species distribution play in fruit quality. The authors suggest that focusing merely on the promoting the number of pollinators for crops overlooks how the specifics of pollination can factor into the […]

Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund

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Applications are due by February 14, 2025. The Farmer Veteran Fellowship Fund is a small grant program that provides direct assistance to veterans who are in their beginning years of farming or ranching. The Fellowship Fund does not give money directly to the veteran, but rather to third-party vendors for items the veteran has identified […]

Minnesota Food-Supply-Chain Projects Receive Funding

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USDA Agricultural Marketing Service partnered with Minnesota to award $9.5 million in Infrastructure Grants to 11 projects, through the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI). This program aims to build resilience across the middle of the supply chain and strengthen local and regional food systems. It is offering technical assistance in the middle of the […]

Minnesota Beginning Farmer Tax Credit

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Tax credits are funded in a first-come, first-served manner. The Minnesota Beginning Farmer Tax Credit provides state tax credits to landlords and sellers (asset owners) who rent or sell farmland, equipment, livestock, and other agricultural assets to beginning farmers in the current tax year. Funding is limited to $4 million, and tax credits are funded […]

Trained Dogs Aid in Spotted Lanternfly Detection

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The spotted lanternfly is an invasive, destructive insect found in 18 states that feeds on and can kill grapes, apples, hops, and maple and walnut trees. A study in New York, led by Cornell University, tested how trained dogs would do at detecting overwintering egg masses in vineyards and adjacent forested areas. The researchers found […]

‘Living Mulch’ Cover Crops Benefit Soil Health

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The journal Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment published research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlighting the soil health benefits of a “living mulch” cover crop actively growing between rows of corn. The researchers found in field testing that legume cover crops increased dissolved organic carbon and available nitrogen in the soil, altering the microbial community […]