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Hi, I'm Jeff Moyer, farm manager at The Rodale Institute®. The New Farm's online training programs, which I supervise, will guide you step by step through a process of evaluating and changing your farm practices, whether you're just getting ready to make the transition to organic, or are an experienced organic farmer who wants to understand and integrate the latest management practices. At the end of each course you'll have a detailed, practical plan of action, with all the information and resources you need.
We figure our basic course will take about 5-10 hours to complete, but you can do them at your own pace and return to them as often as you want. Why the range? Because each course will be supported with a large database of frequently asked questions, articles, profiles of successful farm operations, and lively online discussions. And best of all, these programs are based on The Rodale Institute's more than 54 years of experience working with farmers, learning from their successful practices, researching new ideas and publishing practical how-to information.
The FarmSelect Transition to Organic
Recommend it to friends, neighbors, organic inspectors … and your local extension agent.
The FarmSelect Transition to Organic course, the first of these programs, is perfect for farmers who are thinking about transitioning or have just begun the transition process. Here’s how it works: The Institute's farm manger Jeff Moyer will walk farmers through the basic principles of organic production, from cropping plans to weed, pest and disease control, then introduce them to the creative marketing strategies they’ll want to think about to snag those premium organic price. He’ll also detail the record-keeping requirements for organic certification and help you create your own preliminary organic farm plan at the end of the course—one that can be used in discussing transition issues with the organic inspector.
Even if you’re an experienced organic farmer, you may want to recommend FarmSelect Transition to Organic to inspectors, neighbors, friends and extension agents you know as something worth checking out.
FarmSelect Transition to Organic will be available late 2007. Click here if you'd like updates on its status.
Enterprise modules are in the works…
These additional course modules will follow on and cover different production enterprises, from vegetables, to dairy to pastured poultry.
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Have your own ideas for online courses? We're still in the middle of developing our programs, and would welcome your thoughts and ideas. If you have a topic for a course, or ideas on the kinds of features you'd like to see in a course,
Let us know.
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