Administration invests $62.8M in tribal agriculture and food sovereignty

Jun 06, 2024

USDA announces major funding and programs to support tribal nations and indigenous foods

By Farms.com

The Administration is making significant investments to strengthen Tribal food sovereignty and agriculture through a $62.8 million initiative announced by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. This initiative encompasses several programs and funding opportunities to support Tribal Nations.

The Indigenous Animals Harvesting and Meat Processing Grant Program is awarding over $42 million to eight Tribal Nations.

This funding will help expand processing opportunities for animals native to North America, such as bison and salmon. Key recipients include the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and the Ponca Tribe.

Additionally, $18 million is being invested in 23 projects under the Tribal Forest Protection Act. These projects focus on reducing hazardous fuels, restoring watersheds, and incorporating Indigenous knowledge into sustainable land management.

Notable projects include the Keex'Kwaan Community Forest Partnership and the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program.

USDA is also awarding $2.3 million to support the inclusion of Indigenous foods in school meal programs.

Organizations like the Wind River Food Sovereignty project and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement will receive grants to increase access to traditional Indigenous foods in schools and provide relevant nutrition education.

USDA is launching a new Tribal agriculture internship program. Through the Future Leaders in Public Service Internship Program, 14 students will gain hands-on experience in USDA programs benefiting Indian Country.

This program aims to cultivate a new generation of agricultural professionals well-versed in Tribal food and agriculture issues.

USDA will conduct its first-ever international trade mission focused on Tribal Nation and Native Hawaiian Community businesses. This mission, set to take place in Canada, will showcase Tribal agribusinesses to prospective buyers, enhancing market opportunities.

Video: Western Canadian Agriculture: Hard Times Made the World's Best Farmers

Western Canadian agriculture produced the most advanced farmers in the world not through abundance but through adversity. The crow rate fell. The wheat price went nowhere. The brown envelopes stopped.

When the subsidies disappeared, the bad farmers left and the good ones stayed. And the ones who stayed could not just grow wheat anymore. They started growing lentils and canola and peas and flax and faba beans. They built crop rotation. They got serious about agronomy because there was no government backstop. That process produced the Western Canadian agriculture Dennis Bulani describes in this clip: the most advanced, most educated farming culture in the world.

His contrast with Iowa corn and soybean farmers is sharp. At a DeKalb farmer meeting in Okoboji, Iowa, he asked what crop rotation they ran. Beans on corn stubble, corn on bean stubble. How do you fertilize? The co-op agronomist handles it. Have you considered other crops? No need. We make so much money on corn and soybeans. Western Canadian agriculture was never allowed that comfort. And now those Iowa farmers are watching soybean markets lock up with China and corn prices slide, and they do not have the agronomy knowledge or the research base to pivot. Western Canadian farmers adapted on a dime because they had done it before.

Dennis also makes the case that Western Canadian agriculture keeps adapting in real time. Low commodity prices over the past year have pushed growers to look seriously at precision spot-spray technology. He knows a neighbor who bought a sprayer with the seeing-eye system and sprayed only 80 out of 320 acres. As a chemical retailer Dennis acknowledges that will affect his sales. He supports it anyway, because if it advances Canadian agriculture and makes farmers money, that is a good outcome.

The lesson Dennis draws from the tale of two farms: continuous improvement is the only durable strategy. When canola was $22 a bushel some growers went to Arizona instead of the Crop Production Show. When the price came down those same growers came back to the research and the discipline. Products do not go on Rack Petroleum's shelves unless they pass a replicated trial first. That is what Western Canadian agriculture built through hard times: farmers who do the work whether the times demand it or not.

Dennis Bulani is CEO of Rack Petroleum and Ultimate Yield in Biggar, Saskatchewan. Dan Aberhart hosts GTF Productions, Western Canadian Agriculture's foremost live briefing platform and its foremost AI training platform for ag operators