Grants can help your farm upgrade, innovate, and grow. But the application process can have a steep learning curve and a quick turnaround. With no guarantee of funding, it’s important to ask yourself if a grant is right for your farm and worth the work.

Hear from a farmer who successfully—and unsuccessfully—applied for funding, a grants administrator, and consultants from Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers. Find out how to identify funding sources that make sense for your farm’s goals. You’ll also learn about the ebb and flow of funding cycles, the differences between grants and emergency funds, strategies for getting prepared to apply for grants, and resources for getting help.

Speakers

Lindsey Shapiro, Farmer and Co-Owner of Root Mass Farm
Raechel Sattazahn, Knowledge Center Director at AgChoice Farm Credit
Winifred McGee, Business Consultant at The University of Scranton SBDC
Elizabeth Hay, Business Consultant at Penn State SBDC Agriculture Center of Excellence
Tabitha Barbarito, Project Manager at Pasa

Recorded December 7, 2021

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The post How (& How Not) to Apply for Agricultural Grants appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

We visited Who Cooks for You Farm in New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to learn about Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) auditing. In this video Jeff Bertram, an Inspector from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, gives us an overview of GAP/GHP certification, discusses how it differs from a mandatory FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) audit, and walks us through the audit process with farmer Aeros Lillstrom.

Click here to learn more about GAP Certification.

This video was produced thanks to generous support from the RK Mellon Foundation.

Recorded May 5, 2021.

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The post Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Audit appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.

They say “What gets measured, gets managed.” Given that there is a lot to manage on a working farm, effective record-keeping tools are essential to the success of any farm business.

During this webinar, we introduce FarmOS: A free, flexible, and powerful web-based tool for managing farm records for everything from crop planning, to pest management, to livestock inventories.

Among other capabilities, FarmOS lets you map your crop fields, view soil maps, and use modules to track when to plant, cultivate your fields, and apply soil amendments. You can also use FarmOS to contribute to Pasa’s Soil Health Benchmark Study and our other farm-based research projects.

The post Whole Farm Management with FarmOS appeared first on Pasa Sustainable Agriculture.