Journey Person program, which provides services to help fill the educational gaps between being a farming apprentice and an independent producer. Other such programs include the New Entry Sustainable Farming project, which offers an Explore Farming Workshop, as well as the Armed to Farm program, which offers a Getting Started in Farming course for veterans interested in entering agriculture. Farm Credit East, a regional partner of the nationwide Farm Credit System, provides a Young, Beginning, Small and Veteran Farmer Incentive program (YBSV). This program is designed to help this growing customer segment get started in agriculture through special incentives available to program participants. • Advanced training programs. Some NOFAs, such as in Rhode Island, offer an Advanced Grower Series, which offers technical education courses to long-term farmers. NOFAs in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, also provide cost of production fact sheets, which contain “ crop profitability comparisons, whole farm financial metrics, and tips for success when undertaking cost of production ana lysis.” Maine’s Farms for the Future Program is a competitive grant program that provides selected farms with business planning assistance and investment support. While the availability of grants might make this program appear like a direct incentive program, the goal of these grants is not to directly subsidize farming practices or production, but rather to fund research and strategic business planning by farm business owners. This research is then distilled into various “Ideas for Change” aimed at increasing farm vitality, which is defined as “an increase in long -term, maintainable, farm profitability and net worth.” • Mentorship programs and partnership groups. Across the career span, there are examples of farmer-to-farmer mentorship or assistance programs. For example, the Carrot Project provides one- on-one coaching to farmers at various points in their careers.
4.2.1.3 Certified practices regulate detrimental organisms
All of the above programs, including those with direct and indirect incentives, deal primarily with food production, which is the predominant ecosystem service addressed by programs in the farming, food, and agricultural category. As mentioned, a distant second in this category is the regulation of detrimental organisms, which includes pest and disease management as well as the management of invasive and non- native species. • Certificates of compliance. The USDA AMS Equipment Review (Dairy & Meat & Poultry), for example, is a voluntary, fee-based program that provides an AMS certification to businesses in the food processing industry as a means of regulating contamination and disease issues. In another example, FAMACHA certification, offered by the University of Rhode Island, is a program based on the Faffa Malan Chart, a method for estimating the level of anemia in sheep and goats affected by barber pole worm ( Haemonchus contortus ) infection. This method is a crucial tool for selective deworming of sheep and goats for producers and is an important incentive for producers to take an active role in regulating these detrimental organisms among livestock populations in the U.S. Northeast. • Technical assistance and education. Beyond efforts to regulate specific organisms or disease vectors, other programs address the regulation of detrimental organisms through more comprehensive methods, such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The Northeastern IPM Center, for example, offers the Pest Management Strategy Plan (PMSP) and Production/Management Profiles Grant Program. This program requires participants to develop proposals for a PMSP or a Production/Management Profile (PMP) that addresses a specific pest management need/application that is significant to the U.S. Northeast. Other programs in this group are the various Pesticide Safety Education Programs, which are available through most of the Cooperative Extension programs in the U.S. Northeast. Apart from food production and the regulation of detrimental organisms, other ecosystem services were addressed by programs in this category and can be explored in the database. For example, the regulation of hazardous events, which includes programs for hazard mitigation and disaster assistance funding programs, represents another prominent ecosystem service addressed, which stands out among these results. Most of
27
Powered by FlippingBook