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- EPA and the Louisiana Master Farmer Program
In July 2011, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water sent a memo to all of its Regional Offices urging them to work with states to investigate a Certainty Framework for Agricultural Producers. While still in the investigation stages, this strategy by EPA, if adopted, would offer incentives to encourage producers to voluntarily comply with measures deemed to be effective at reducing nonpoint pollution runoff from agricultural enterprises.
EPA’s Office of Water has recently expressed great interest in the Louisiana Master Farmer Program, especially the “presumed compliance” incentive passed unanimously by the Louisiana Legislature in 2005 by Act 145. The office requested details from the LSU AgCenter about the Master Farmer Program and presumed compliance and will investigate how this may be exported to other states to be used as guidance or a template to develop similar programs around the nation.
Ernest Girouard, Coordinator, Louisiana Master Farmer Program
(This article was published in the summer 2011 issue of Louisiana Agriculture magazine.)
The LSU AgCenter and the LSU College of Agriculture