News

Voluntary stewardship critical to farmers

Becoming verified in the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program’s cropping system was easy for one Monroe County farmer.  But Doug Darling, a sixth generation crop farmer, says the farmstead verification was a challenge.  This past fall, the farm made the investment to meet the fuel storage standards and become verified in its second system.

“There are probably hundreds and hundreds of farms that are basically almost a hundred percent verified for that, but it’s the fuel pad that’s holding us up.”

Farmstead verification addresses a checklist of items such as fuel, pesticide and chemical storage, emergency plans, and waste management to protect ground and surfaces waters.

Darling says going through the verification process can help farmers achieve efficiencies that can have a return on investment.  He tells Brownfield he wishes the state’s goal of 5,000 verifications was double.

“I live down in the Western Lake Erie Watershed and when we see the negative press coming out of the media out of Ohio, some of the reactions that their legislature took for regulations on their farmers were essentially that they gave the weatherman the management of your nutrients.”

He tells Brownfield, he and other farmers don’t want to see management decisions given away by regulations.  Darling says voluntary verifications are critical to help show how farmers are protecting the environment.

AUDIO: Interview with Doug Darling (5:28 mp3):