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hanks to everyone who has shared links and leads to webinars and other programs! To clarify. I will post the final list of FREE webinars and other distance learning programs late next week. I will also post separate lists of FOR-FEE online degree programs, certification programs, and fee-based distance learning programs. Examples of these include Ryerson University's Certificate in Food Security and Green Mountain College's new Masters in Sustainable Food Systems. So, please do continue to send me examples of all of the above! Cheers, Duncan -----Original Message----- From: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group [mailto:SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU] On Behalf Of Duncan Hilchey Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 12:59 PM To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU Subject: [SANET-MG] Food System Webinar Compilation Dear SANET List, Below is what I've collected so far toward a compilation of free webinars and distance learning programs of potential interest to food system and agricultural development professionals.  I do not believe this is exhaustive by any means. However, this is based on what folks (on COMFOOD, SANET, and FOOD PLANNING lists) led me to and what I was able to glean on my own from the Internet. I excluded some recommendations which I felt were too limited in scope. On the whole, the sustainable/organic agriculture and "good food" communities seems to have done an excellent job getting comprehensive programs online. I was less successful in identifying webinars and distance learning programs on food security. I do not know if there's a niche to produce these or whether I was simply not looking in the right place. In any case, please continue to send me links and leads-as well as corrections (I did this rather hastily). I will post the final compilation in the next few weeks-once your suggestions are exhausted. I would eventually like to see a one stop shopping clearing house created where e

Over the past two decades Americans have become increasingly skeptical about the benefits of community growth and hostile to new taxes--while continuing to demand improvements in local services. One response to this tension has been a burgeoning movement to raise public revenue by regulating growth.In this timely book, the authors explain that most growing localities now require private developers to finance public improvements as a condition for receiving permits to build. These permit conditions, known as "exactions," are most commonly used to ensure that infrastructure capacity will be adequate to serve the occupants of new real estate developments and to lessen the harmful effects of these developments on other local citizens. Exactions are often used to finance new roads, water and waste disposal facilities, and public open space, but some communities have begun to require developer financing for such services as day care, job training, low-cost housing, and ride sharing.The authors see the dramatic growth of exaction financing as an epochal shift in the character of American land use regulation. A function once isolated from the local government mainstream is now close to heart of fiscal and public works decisionmaking. Politicians find exactions an extremely valuable tactic for resolving land use conflict. Lawyers and developers worry about how to establish appropriate limits on the use of exaction, economists debate their equity and efficiency, and planners consider their effect on urban reform.Regulation for Revenue offers an integrated appraisal of exaction financing, showing that exactions come in many forms and that they can be meaningfully evaluated only by comparison with realistic alternatives. These include growth restrictions, tolerance of infrastructure overload, and increased tax and user charges.