Code of Maine Rules › 01 - DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY › 001 - AGRICULTURE - GENERAL › Chapter 10 - RULES FOR THE AGRICULTURAL COMPLIANCE PROGRAM › Section 001-10-2 - Definitions

Current through 2024-29, July 17, 2024
1.
Agricultural Compliance
				Officer
- An employee of the Department including either an agricultural
				compliance supervisor or an agricultural compliance officer, responsible for
				responding to complaints concerning a farm or a farm operation.
2.
Agriculture Related Problem -
Any condition resulting from the failure to use appropriate best
				management practices on a farm or in a farm operation which causes an adverse
				impact to human or animal health; or to the quality of the environment,
				including water, air, soil, and the visual landscape; or to noise levels; or
				causes an unreasonable nuisance.
3.
Aggrieved Party
- Any complainant or responsible party who has
				received a decision from the Commissioner on a complaint involving a farm or a
				farm operation that is adverse, in whole or in part, to that party's interest
				in that matter.
4.
Best
				Management Practices (BMPs)
- Best management practices (BMPs) are those
				practices that are determined by the Commissioner to be a preferred method or
				practice based upon best reasonably available and economically feasible methods
				and technologies that are technically and environmentally sound. BMPs are those
				practices best suited to preventing, reducing, or correcting
				agriculture-related problems.
5.
Best Professional Judgment
-Any determination of an agricultural
				compliance officer that is based on the officer's investigation, his or her
				professional training and experience, and on the best information reasonably
				available to the officer at the time of the investigation.
6.
Commercial Production -
Production by a farm or farm operation of one or more farm products or
				services that are sold, bartered or otherwise exchanged for compensation and
				generates a cash or in-kind equivalent annual income of at least
				$2,000.
7.
Commissioner
- The Commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture,
				Food and Rural Resources.
8.
Complainant
- A person who, either verbally or in writing, communicates
				a complaint to the Department concerning a farm, or a farm operation.
9.
Complaint concerning a farm or farm
				operation
- A verbal or written communication to the Department where
				the complainant is identified and there is an allegation of the existence of an
				agriculture related problem.
10.
Department
- The Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural
				Resources.
11.
Emergency
				Agriculture Related Problem
- An agriculture related problem that, in
				the determination of the agricultural compliance officer, poses an immediate
				threat to human or animal health or safety, or to the environment. An
				agriculture related problem shall be considered an immediate threat if it is
				not likely to be resolved quickly enough under the complaint investigation
				process or the problem solving process of these rules, as set forth in sections
				3 and
				5, so as to avoid detrimental impact to
				health, safety or the environment.
12.
Farm
- The land, buildings
				and machinery used in the commercial production of farm products.
13.
Farm Operation
- A set of
				conditions or activities that occur on a farm in connection with the commercial
				production of farm products including, but not limited to, operations giving
				rise to noise, odors, dust, insects, fumes, operation of machinery and
				irrigation pumps, ground and aerial seeding, ground spraying, aerial spraying,
				composting of material produced by the farm or to be used at least in part on
				the farm, disposal of manure, the application of chemical fertilizers, soil
				amendments, conditioners or pesticides and the employment and use of
				labor.
14.
Farm
				products
- Animals, as well as food, feed, fiber, forage and oilseed
				crops that are useful to humans, including but not limited to, forages and sod
				crops, grains and food crops, dairy products, poultry and poultry products,
				bees, livestock and livestock products, manure or compost, and fruits, berries,
				vegetables, flowers, seeds, grasses, fuel crops and other similar
				products.
15.
Person
-
				Any individual, partnership, association, firm, company, corporation,
				department, agency, group, including a city, town, county, state, federal or
				other government unit, or any entity responsible for an activity subject to
				these rules.
16.
Qualified
				Designee -
Any person or entity who has appropriate training and
				experience to investigate agriculture related problems and who has been
				designated by the Commissioner or by the agricultural compliance officer
				responsible for the investigation to participate in the
				investigation.
17.
Responsible Party
- Any person who, alone or in conjunction with others,
				is responsible for the farm or farm operation that is the subject of a
				complaint.