Conservation certification for marketing to ag producers

[Teri Murrison]

Have any states offered conservation certification (for marketing) to Ag producers/manufacturers? Thanks!

[Brent Dykes]

Georgia has not offered conservation certification for marketing but GA does have a Georgia Grown program that recognizes GA products from a branding stand point. More information can be found at:
http://georgiagrown.com/news/about-the-program

[Jay Olsen]

Utah has a certification program called Agriculture Certificate of Environmental Stewardship program (ACES) which focus on best management practices and meeting environmental regulations. The ACES program falls under the Utah Conservation Commission (UCC) statute and was finalized last fall 2014. Producers can use the certification for marketing if they choose. At this time no one has been approved. But there are some producers working on becoming certified.

[Louise Lawrence]

Maryland has 2 programs that producers can use for marketing.

Farm Stewardship Certification and Assessment
Program (FSCAP) –It is run by the MD Assoc of SCDs. They review farms looking at soil conservation and water quality plans, compliance w/nutrient mgt plans & assuring no resource concerns go untreated. This has been running about 5 yrs and certified about 30,000 ac

This year we begin implementing an Agricultural Certainty PRogram run by MD Dept Ag . Verifiers evaluate soil conservation and water quality plans, nutrient mgt plan and run a Nutrient Tracking Tool that looks at crops grown, weather history, bmps etc to estimate nutrient movement from farm and confirms that it is under the TMDL threshold/requirement for the watershed where the field is located. Although this program is designed to allow the producer to avoid any new regulations for a 10 year period- it could also be used for marketing

[Jim Gillespie, Iowa]

In Iowa we have not offered any form of “Coonservation Certification”.

[Jim Gillespie, Iowa]

In Iowa we have not offered any form of “Consevation Certification”.

[Stephen Shine]

Michigan has a certification program that we call MAEAP Michigan Agricultures Environmental Assurance Program. The Agricultural Industry requested the program over a decade ago. We conduct on-farm assessments, identify high risk practices and the conservation measures needed to reduce risk. Our CD staff work with producers to implement those practices and when everything is in place a third party auditor from the State Department of Agriculture review the farming operation and certifies the farm, we call it a verification. The program provides a high level of technical assistance and has been very effective. Check out maeap.org

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