01-001 C.M.R. ch. 10, § 2 - Definitions

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.

Notes

01-001 C.M.R. ch. 10, § 2