LANSING – The Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development approved Wednesday the standards farms have to meet to be in the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program and the process for measuring whether they met those standards.

The commission has only been required to approve the standards since March when the MAEAP became statutory, but they have been under development for about a decade, said Jim Johnson, director of the Environmental Stewardship Division that oversees the program.

“These standards really represent high standards for farms for addressing environmental issues,” Johnson said.

The program sets requirements for what happens in and around farm buildings (the Farmstead System), in the fields (the Cropping System) and with livestock (the Livestock System). Johnson said farms can choose to be verified in any or all of those areas.

The verification protocol calls for an in-depth review of the farm operation, Johnson said. “We evaluate that entire farm operation, we go around the entire property,” he said. “We make sure all the risks were properly identified in the first place and then make sure all the solutions were properly applied.”

The standards themselves are a mix of set limits and targets. For instance, there is a limit on the amount of phosphorus on a farm field. “Nobody with 300 pounds of phosphorus can apply any manure,” Johnson said.

But chemical and fuel storage merely requires an appropriate secondary containment system. The type of system is flexible, Johnson said, as long as it is designed to prevent the material from escaping if there is a tank leak.

Verification lasts for three years and is still voluntary under the law.

And it does provide some legal protections. Johnson said the law allows law enforcement some discretion in applying sanctions to farms that have been verified, are complying with their operation plans, and yet still have a manure or chemical spill.

But he said some are also participating for self-satisfaction. “A lot of farmers have a very clear desire that their farm comply with all environmental laws, that they’re addressing all environmental risks,” Johnson said.

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