Dear Learning Community members,
Our next webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, June 12th from 1 pm - 2:15 pm EST. Below is a description of the speakers and their discussions.
We need to schedule a follow-up conference call to discuss the information presented during the webinar. Please visit this poll by the end of the week to indicate your availability: http://www.doodle.com/rwnz3zvxy5rk7wdh
Speakers for the June 12th webinar:
Mary Staak is a Risk Management Specialist with the United States Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency (RMA). Her responsibilities include providing substantial involvement and oversight for RMA’s Risk Management Education projects throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England regions. In addition, she is the lead crop specialist for onions, cabbage and potatoes for the Raleigh region which includes all states from North Carolina to Maine.
In this webinar, Mary will introduce you to RMA’s website. She will explain how to navigate through the website and acquaint you with links that may be of special interest to small farmers, organic producers, and limited resource farmers. In addition, Mary will demonstrate how to access crop fact sheets, crop insurance policies, and crop specific insurance information via the Actuarial Information Browser.
Jeff Schahczenski is an Agricultural Economist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology. Jeff will discuss what options are available for crop insurance for smaller diversified producers. He will focus on Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite (AGR-lite), a unique whole farm revenue federally subsidized insurance product. He will talk briefly about a tool called the AGR-Lite Wizard that NCAT developed with RMA and is available on the Web or in a CD desk top format from NCAT's ATTRA project. This tool can assist farmers in evaluating whether AGR-Lite insurance will assist them with crop and livestock loss protection.
Cheryl Wixson, P.E. is an Organic Marketing Consultant and Food Safety Specialist for the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA). Her work focuses on increasing market opportunities for certified organic farmers through workshops on farm food safety, value-added food production and kitchen licensing. Wixson's research includes analyzing the capacity that Maine has to feed its 1.3 million residents, developing the Maine Food Pyramid, and detailing the Maine Local Twenty, MOFGA'S strategic marketing plan. An active part of the Farm to School network in Maine, Cheryl develops recipes and teaches food service workers about local, seasonal, organic eating.
In this webinar, Cheryl will present MOFGA's educational approach to farm food safety for small, diversified farms and limited resource producers. The Basics of Farm Food Safety uses the components of the National Organic Program and the organic farm plan to provide producers with a quide to develop farm food safety plans that have farm to fork tracability, a vital and necessary component for markets like hospitals, institutions and food proccessors that require a food safety protocol.
Please look for a follow-up email so that you can register for this webinar,
Best wishes,
Kristen
--
Kristen Markley
Community Food Security Coalition
105 Bucher Hill Rd Suite #1
Boiling Springs, PA 17007
717-240-1361
kri...@foodsecurity.org
www.foodsecurity.org
Our mission is to catalyze food systems that are healthy, sustainable, just, and democratic by building community voice and capacity for change.
