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USDA’s Regenerative Pilot Program Expansion Contradicts Farm Bill’s Funding Cuts

(10/2/26) Brownfield Radio Network reports on the USDA’s plans to expand its Regenerative Pilot Program and concerns that conservation program cuts will undermine its implementation. Highlights:

• The USDA announced increased financial assistance for the Regenerative Pilot Program from $700 million to $1 billion in fiscal year 2027, providing more producers with the opportunity to adopt conservation systems that improve soil health, water quality, and long-term farm resilience. Additionally, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making improvements to the program, including using NRCS’s locally led conservation model to allow State Technical Advisory Committees to add conservation practices that reflect local resource concerns, production systems, and producer needs.
• However, Rebecca Bartels, executive director of Invest in Our Land, a nonpartisan organization aimed at ensuring farmers have adequate access to conservation support, says the $1 billion is set to be delivered through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), which would be cut by $2 billion in the Senate Farm Bill currently under consideration. Bartels said USDA staffing reductions and reorganizations also stand in the way of funding finding farmers that need it.
• Bartels said demand for conservation assistance already outpaces available funding, and the proposed cuts to EQIP and CSP would potentially leave more than 56,500 valid farmer applications unfunded.

 Earlier this year, LSP members and staff traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for a more sustainable approach to federal farm conservation policy. Check out LSP Myth Buster #65: ” ‘Climate-Smart’ NRCS Practices are all ‘Climate Smart.’ “

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Farmer Sentiment Drops as Concerns About Input Costs Increase

(10/6/26) The latest Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index reports that farmers’ confidence in their financial situation is declining, mostly as a result of higher input costs. The “Index of Current Conditions” dropped by 18 points and the “Index of Future Expectations” dropped by nine points, according to the latest barometer, which is based on a monthly survey of U.S. agricultural producers.  Highlights:

• Higher input costs remained the biggest concern of 52% of respondents. Moreover, 54% of respondents indicated that high input costs were the main factor limiting improvement in their farm’s financial situation. The September barometer survey was conducted among 400 farmers across the country from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18.
• September’s survey included three sets of questions specifically for corn and soybean producers. About 22% of respondents expected cash rents to increase in 2027.
• Since July 2025, producers have been asked whether they think the U.S. is headed in the “right direction” or on the “wrong track.” After averaging 71% during the last six months of 2025 and 62% in the first six months of 2026, the percentage of producers who said the U.S. was headed in the “right direction” ranged between 51% and 54% in July and August, before dropping below 50% in September.

Want to connect with other farmers who are building the kind of healthy soil that is less reliant on expensive inputs? Join LSP’s Soil Builders’ Network today. For help dealing with financial, weather-related, or emotional stress on the farm, see LSP’s Farm Crisis web page.

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Quantifying Ecological Indicators Along Field Boundaries in US Midwest Cropland

(8/10/26) A study published in the journal Landscape Ecology describes how intense row-cropping in states like Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota leaves little room for connecting natural habitat areas to each other, resulting in much less biodiversity and a loss of ecosystem services such as water purification, erosion control, and natural pest control. Highlights:

• The study, which encompassed 10 states, found that natural areas embedded within corn-soybean landscapes in Iowa, Illinois, and Minnesota exhibited the lowest connectivity, which limits ecological functionality. In contrast, in Ohio, Missouri, and Indiana some natural patches persisted within the dominant agricultural matrix, reflecting moderate spatial variability. Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Tennessee displayed greater natural connectivity, resulting in a more fragmented agricultural landscape and enhanced potential for the creation of ecosystem services.
• These spatial patterns carry direct management implications. In Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, even small increases in landscape heterogeneity, through, for example, prairie strips, could yield disproportionate ecological benefits given the near-absence of natural elements.
• These patterns can also be relevant to water quality management, as large contiguous cropping blocks are a known driver of nutrient pollution in the Mississippi basin, and the fine-scale maps produced by the study could help target buffer strips and wetland restoration accordingly.

A recent LSP blog, “Avian Ag,” describes how farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin are utilizing regenerative production methods to support natural habitat restoration and preservation. An LSP blog from 2014 describes how Iowa researchers are utilizing prairie strips to clean up water, reduce erosion, and provide natural habitat. An Ear to the Ground podcast episode on prairie strips is here.

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Diverse Trajectories of Global Fertilizer Use in the Post-Green Revolution Period

(9/1/26) A paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters describes how global consumption of fertilizers increased significantly during a recent 22-year study period. Highlights:

•  Between 1980 and 2020, global consumption of nitrogen fertilizers used on crops (excluding pastures and forests) increased by about 68%, while phosphorus and potassium fertilizer use rose by about 52% and 69%, respectively.
• Recent increases in nitrogen and phosphorus consumption was driven more by expansion of crop harvested areas than increasing application rates.
• Lately, nitrogen and phosphorus application rates have declined in China and Western Europe.
•  In North America, nitrogen use efficiency increased from about 50% in the early 1980s to 70% at present, even though average rates continued to increase at a moderate pace. “Yet, even in that case the adoption of many specific best management practices is still limited and nutrient losses to the environment may still be high, illustrating further potential for improvement,” write the study’s authors. “Sustainability pathways clearly will require carefully managed changes in fertilizer use integrated with right crops, varieties, and management practices.”

LSP recently launched its “Rethinking Nitrogen” campaign to build a farmer-led, public movement that shows the power of nitrogen-reducing practices and to create the political momentum needed to pass strong nutrient reduction policies during Minnesota’s 2027 legislative session. For more information on this campaign and to provide input, click here.

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Turkey Farms in Dakotas, Minnesota Hit with H5N1 Avian Flu

(9/25/26) Since Sept. 1, several new outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu have been detected in Midwestern commercial poultry operations, according to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. Highlights:

• In Wright County, Minn., 29,800 birds at a turkey facility were affected, as were 61,300 birds at a commercial turkey operation in McPherson County, S.D., and 43,800 turkeys at a facility in Turner County, S.D. In Lamoure County, N.D., 41,600 commercial birds were hit. In addition, H5N1 was confirmed in a commercial poultry breeding operation in Edmunds County, S.D., housing 30,200 birds.
• Medical Daily reports that as of July 22, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service had confirmed over 1,166 dairy herds across 19 states that were infected with avian flu, with Idaho now leading the national count at 173 affected herds. Idaho’s “dairy corridor,” concentrated in its southern counties, has been the most active zone for new herd infections in 2026. The Idaho State Veterinarian has noted that the bird flu strain circulating in Idaho dairy herds is spreading primarily among cattle rather than from wild birds, driven by shared equipment and shared personnel working across multiple farms.

An LSP white paper argues that key questions need to be answered about the role industrialized livestock operations play in propagating highly pathogenic avian influenza. “Big Bird. Big Problem: How the Poultry Industry is Turning the Avian Flu Pandemic into a Source of Profit at Taxpayer’s Expense While Decimating Our Farm & Food System” is available here.

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USDA Opens Funding for States to Bolster Local Meat Processing

(9/18/26) The USDA will provide $50 million for states to start or expand meat-inspection programs with the aim of supporting small, local beef processing, reports Civil Eats. Highlights:

•  In order to sell processed meat for distribution at stores, restaurants, and more, the processing must be completed at a federally inspected facility. But the limited number of these facilities available to beef producers creates backlogs and contributes to limited competition in the marketplace.
• States can participate in the State Meat and Poultry Inspection (MPI) programs, which run in cooperation with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. These must prove the food safety inspection system is equivalent to federal inspection and are limited to intrastate sales only. States can also apply for the Cooperative Interstate Shipping (CIS) program to allow state-inspected facilities qualify for interstate commerce.
•  Currently 31 states are enrolled in the MPI program, and 11 states are in the CIS program. High start-up costs are a barrier to more states applying, according to the USDA. The $50 million in new funding aims to remove these barriers so more small and very small processors can be inspected, giving livestock producers more options.

LSP’s blog, “Breaking the Meat Processing Bottleneck,” describes an initiative supported by the Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the University of Minnesota that’s working to bolster local meat processing. A recent LSP Ear to the Ground podcast features beginning farmers Ellen and Jim Gardner, who are utilizing local processing to advance their direct-to-consumer pasture-based livestock enterprise.

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