The Michigan Community Mediation Association will offer free mediation services to farmers for at least the next two years.

The Michigan Agriculture Mediation Program is awarded through a grant process with USDA which Executive Director Gabriella Reihanian Havlicek tells Brownfield allows farmers to handle disputes outside of court.

“Any kind of issue that a farmer is having we can mediate,” she says.  “It can be an adverse determination from the USDA, them going through bankruptcy, it can be resolving a neighbor dispute.”

The program brings farmers and other parties to a mediator to solve disputes through a confidential settlement process.

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