Farmer Opportunities

[cecily....@gmail.com]

Scholarships to EcoFarm Conference Available
Thanks to the EcoFarm GenNext partnership with California FarmLink,
funded by the USDA Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program,
the Ecological Farming Association is pleased to offer seven beginning
farmer scholarships worth $250/each for EcoFarm 2010. Awardees may use
the funds for any combination of conference attendance, lodging, or
bus tours. For the purposes of this program, you are considered a
beginning farmer if you are currently farming and have been farming
for 10 years or less. Applications are due by November 30, 2009.

http://eco-farm.org/efc/worktrade_discounts_scholarships/

Farm Financial Workshop Available Online
The Center for Farm Financial Management has created an online video
workshop series to help ag producers (and anyone who works with them)
understand and use the 4 major financial statements and the 21
financial measures recommended by the Farm Financial Standards
Council. 'Interpreting Financial Statements and Measures' is a series
of online videos that producers can work through at their own pace.
Each session provides benchmarks, based on actual farms, that
producers can use to evaluate their own financial position and their
financial performance.

http://ifsam.cffm.umn.edu/

"Building Sustainable Places" Publication Now Available on ATTRA
Website
We are pleased to announce that a long awaited updated publication,
"Building Sustainable Places," is now available on the ATTRA website!
This guide is an updated version of a previous publication called
"Building Better Rural Places" and is written for anyone seeking help
from federal programs to foster innovative enterprises in agriculture
and forestry in the United States. Specifically, the guide addresses
program resources in community development, sustainable land
management, and value-added and diversified agriculture and forestry.
It is designed to help farmers, entrepreneurs, community developers,
conservationists, and many other individuals, as well as private and
public organizations, to locate information about relevant federal
programs. The "Building Sustainable Places" guide is a collaborative
publication of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, the National
Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), and several USDA agencies,
and includes content based on work by the National Sustainable
Agriculture Coalition.

http://www.attra.ncat.org/guide//

ISU On-Farm Research and Demonstration Grant Program
Iowa State University seeks ideas and proposals for a unique program
pairing farmers with Iowa State University researchers to work on
topics related to conservation and sustainability. The program is a
partnership of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and
Practical Farmers of Iowa. Its goals are to address the opportunities
and challenges facing agriculture through collaborative, on-farm
research. A total of $25,000 will be awarded in 2010. Annual, one time
grants up to $5,000 maximum will be awarded. Awards to three or more
producers proposing to work together may be up to $7,000 each.
Proposals are due December 16, 2009.

http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2009/103009_onfarm.html