Sustainable farming, what is in your mind when you read that term? If you are not really familiar with the sustainable farming, this is a practice on agriculture that uses combination between increasing the farming products and the conservation of the environment. As we already know, farming is very closely related to the nation’s food supplies. A big country need to satisfy the need of their food supply by themselves, if they are failed to satisfy their need for food, it means they have to import the food from other countries. In order to manage satisfying their need in the food supply, they would do anything so they can have enough food supply for the citizen and it includes the sustainable farming. Basically, the sustainable farming uses principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment.
In the United States, sustainable farming gains the government’s attention in form of programs to support the activity. The programs themselves could be in form of funding the farm or job opportunity. In case you want to know how prospering sustainable agriculture is, there are samples of the government support the sustainable farming activity.
Since the sustainable farming offers various benefits for both the farming products and the environment, the United State government through USDA now has supported several activities related to the sustainable agriculture. Below are the examples of sustainable farming supported by the government.
Jobs Related to Sustainable Farming that is Supported by the Government
Sustainable Crops
There are many people who have made the right decision to support the farmers by buying the products from those who use sustainable and organic methods. Regarding to this fact, the farmers who planted the sustainable crops have a good chance of marketing their products. There are several different categories of sustainable field crops according to the USDA, they are including feed (birdseed, switchgrass, millet); edibles (canola, flax, safflower, sesame); and food grains (barley, lentils, spelt, quinoa).
Production of Goods
Aside from crops and animals, there are many products like soap making, beeswax products, organic toiletries, and apple products such as cider can be created using sustainable farming. It can also produce other wooden products, furniture and toys for instances, and other types of sustainable clothing like wool and hemp.
Raising Livestock
The sustainable environment is not only useful for the farmer or those who work using sustainable agriculture to produce different types of products. It is also helpful to them for raising different breeds of animals. There are two categories or animal that usually raised in a sustainable environment. The first category is the common animals and another one is which has been categorized as exotic animals. According to the USDA list’s, the alternative livestock is including game (elk, buffalo, pheasant for restocking programs); poultry (cage-free chicken, turkey, geese); and exotic livestock (worms for composting, goats and sheep for their hair and milk, and different breeds of fox).
Non-Farming Careers
Sustainable agriculture has made an opportunity for some people to get a career that contributes to sustainable agriculture though they are not actual farming jobs. There are many people can use their ability, knowledge, and experience on their job regarding sustainable agriculture. As for the example for non-farming careers related to sustainable farming are positioned in advocacy, like a community organizer or political lobbyist; careers in operations or strategic planning; and finance jobs that help gain funding for farming.
The government is not only supporting the activity of sustainable farming, but they also give financial assistance to the farmer to develop their farming. There are some examples of programs provided by the government to support sustainable farming.
Supporting Programs for Sustainable Farming
Grants for Sustainable Farming
The financial aids provided by the government in their effort for supporting sustainable farming activity are very useful to support various actions related to the sustainable farming. There are some examples of them below. Simply read carefully, just in case you are going to apply one of that sometime in the future. The program has its individual organization in each state with the support from United States Department of Agriculture supports state administration of the program. It can be used for covering the cost due between October 1, 2009, and September 29, 2010; the application deadline is October 15, 2010.
Florida Certified Organic Growers
PO Box 12311
Gainesville, FL 32604
352-377-6345
foginfo.org
Kerr Center Southern Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Training Grants
This is a program that supports for organizations that give training related to the improvements of sustainable farming and for the other agriculture professionals, the natural resources conservation service staff and others who work directly with farmers and ranchers for instances. The grant program that administered by Kerr Center is available for professionals like from the USDA, non-governmental organizations, farmer trainers and others. This program supports for some activities that are including on-farm demonstrations, workshops, seminars, or farm tours, or can be used for covering the costs of marketing and training materials in single or multiple states. Those who are qualified for this grant can receive from about $20,000 to $120,000, as of 2010. It is only available for those who apply in effort of the development of sustainable agriculture. In case you are in need to get this funding, you can find the application instructions by visiting sare.org.
Kerr Center
PO Box 588
Poteau, OK 74953
918-647-9123
kerrcenter.com
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Producer Grants
The producer grants are funding programs that especially provided for producers to support research, marketing and demonstration projects and activities included to the producers’ effort in providing information to the other farmers and ranchers. Since 2010, these programs are ready to be used for covering the costs of activities worth ranging from $1,000 to $15,000. These programs are available for any producer or producer organization. In order to manage applying the grant, the applicant should provide information on collaboration plans for cooperating with project planning, data collection or communication of the results from projects. Apart from that, the applicant can get benefit of providing clear goals and clearly defined outreach plans for sharing information when applying for these grants.
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Producer Grants Program
1122 Patapsco Building
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-6715
301-405-9912
sare.org
Those are the jobs and programs related to sustainable agriculture. Hopefully, that information help the people who want to get involved in increasing both the quality and quantity of food supplies and producing other goods through sustainable farming.
Reference:
- List of Alternative Crops and Enterprises for Small Farm Diversification (https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/list-alternative-crops-and-enterprises-small-farm-diversification)
- Non Farming Jobs in Sustainable Agriculture (http://justmeans.com/blogs/responsible-non-farming-careers-in-sustainable-agriculture)
- Sustainable agriculture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_agriculture)
- image: youtube.com
