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Home>Business Resource Center >Industry Solutions >Agriculture

Whether an agricultural enterprise grows corn, cotton, grain or cattle, the information contained in the six sections listed here covers subjects most important to any modern farm owner. Consider this site a one-stop shop for in-depth industry reports, technical guides, news impacting the field and a variety of resources that can make profitability a probability!

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• Small Farming Becomes Big Attraction
  

  By Connie Morrison, Staff Writer, Delmarva Now

  MACHIPONGO — Braced against the cool, drizzly weather, a handful of hardy individuals joined the Eastern Shore Land Trust to explore small-scale farming and community-supported agriculture through tours of two local farms: Copper Cricket Farm of Machipongo and Mattawoman Creek Farms of Eastville.

  Community-supported agriculture is based on direct sales relationships between farmers and consumers, frequently on a subscription basis. The CSA model adopted by Copper Cricket Farm is one of diversity — in crops and customers.

  “I like the risk diversity that gives my farm,” said Arthur “Cricket” Upshur, who with his wife, Carol Upshur, are majority owners and operators of Copper Cricket Farm. “No one crop or customer is critical to the farm’s success,” he said.

  The farm offers 115 to 120 different crops to its 60 CSA subscribers, but not everything makes the grade.

  “We are fanatical about quality,” Cricket said.

  Because plantings are sequenced, reusing the same patch of earth for multiple crops, Copper Creek owners Carol and Arthur “Cricket” Upshur are able to limit the growing area to about an acre and a half.

  “Size doesn’t have a lot to do with income,” Cricket said. “Large-scale farming has large-scale expenses.”

  The small scale of Copper Cricket Farm allows owners to keep capital costs low, and to adapt as conditions change. The Upshurs rely mainly on their own labor, plus that of minority owners Melody and Bob Copper — the other half of the Copper Cricket name. Two summer interns and a few volunteers round out the workforce.

  “The lifestyle is something lots of people enjoy — in small doses,” Cricket said, laughing.

  The Upshurs also use chicken power. Three chickenhouses on wheels, known as “chicken tractors,” rotate through the cultivation area during winter, clearing bugs and weeds, and depositing nutrients.

  Copper Cricket Farm’s motto — “biologically managed and sustainably grown” — captures the nature of commitment small-scale farmers make. Composting, cover crops, manual labor, thriftiness: all are hallmarks of CSA farms.

  Because these small farms rely heavily on natural processes for everything from fertilization to weed reduction, they tend to interest individuals with a strong stewardship bent.

  Peter Henderson, executive director of the Virginia Eastern Shore Land Trust, which sponsored the tour, said land trusts across the nation are becoming advocates and partners for developing and sustaining local food systems.

  “Food comes from the land,” Henderson said. “It’s good to link permanent preservation of land and the growth of food” in the minds of the public, he said.

  Henderson said survey of land trust donors reveals an interest in leasing to individuals who want to enter CSA production.

  “Where do I get land?” Henderson said, is the first question young, capital-poor, would-be farmers ask. “It’s daunting to young people.”

  Land trusts might be able to make that connection to get people started.

  Rick and Janice Felker had 30 acres of land near Eastville that had been fallow for 25 years when Janice decided to explore small-scale organic farming. Through conferences, conversations with other farmers, and scanning books and Internet articles, the Felkers gleaned the essentials.

  In 2004, the Felkers began putting their 30 acres into production, and Mattawoman Farms was born. Rick Felker said Mattawoman is an American Indian term that means “Where one goes pleasantly.”

  An early step was gaining U.S. Department of Agriculture organic certification, a rigorous evaluation that ensures the land is free of chemicals, and certain land conservation practices are employed such as erosion control and the use of crop rotation and cover crops.

  “A lot of people think it’s expensive to be a certified organic farm,” Felker said, “but once you meet the standards, you just have to be inspected annually.”

  After an experimental first season on 1/2 acre, Mattawoman Farms has expanded cultivation to 30 acres and a four-season CSA program. In addition to customers on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, Mattawoman supplies subscribers and supermarkets in the southern Hampton Roads area.

  The Felkers use a tractor and other labor-saving equipment on their farm, but Felker said getting workers has never been a problem for the farm, which does not employ migrant labor. “We offer year-round employment,” he said.

  Employment and other economic benefits are what motivate some proponents of CSA. They posit that the direct transaction between farmer and consumer returns a larger portion of the revenue to the local area, and wages paid to farm employees boost local spending.

  A 2012 study of CSA farmers by the University of California found the per-acre revenue for CSA farmers was considerably higher than for almost all other agricultural enterprises.

  “We have great soils and climate for a wide variety of crops,” Felker said. That is a distinct advantage for Eastern Shore growers.

  Variables such as weather, pests and other natural threats keep farmers on edge. “No two seasons are alike,” Felker said.

  One thing on which the Felkers can count is deer. Observation and adaptation have proved to be the best weapons. Felker has learned the discriminating tastes of deer, which like to nab a tender mouthful of lettuce just as plants are ready to harvest. His solution was to erect a temporary fence right before harvest time.

  Adaptability is also important for consumers, and a large part of what makes CSA work.

  “In moving to local food systems, we need to recognize that we can’t eat the same four vegetables year-round,” Felker told tour participants. “We need to eat whatever is in season.”

  The Felkers often provide recipes with their CSA deliveries to help consumers learn to use some of the more unusual produce such as tatsoi, an Asian green.

  Extras like recipes have also helped the Upshurs establish and cultivate relationships with subscribers, which is as important to community-based agriculture as raising quality produce.

  “We like the personal contact,” said Carol Upshur.

  Personal contact ensures plenty of feedback from customers, and the Upshurs frequently hear how the quality and variety of produce is reshaping family diets.

  “We are a positive part of a lot of people’s lives, and they tell you about it,” Cricket said. “That’s very gratifying.”

  Source: Delmarva Now, May 8, 2013 (http://www.delmarvanow.com)

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• Small Farms Fight Back: Food and Community Self-Governance
  

  By Beverly Bell

  Heather Retberg stood on the steps of the Blue Hill, Maine, town hall surrounded by 200 people. “We are farmers,” she told the crowd, “who are supported by our friends and our neighbors who know us and trust us, and want to ensure that they maintain access to their chosen food supply.”

  Blue Hill is one of a handful of small Maine towns that have been taking bold steps to protect their local food system. In 2011, they passed an ordinance exempting their local farmers and food producers from federal and state licensure requirements when these farmers sell directly to customers.

  The federal government has stiffened national food-safety regulations in order to address the health risks associated with industrial-scale farming. Recent widespread recalls of contaminated ground turkey, cantaloupe, eggs, and a host of other foods illustrate the serious problems at hand. These outbreaks have been linked to industrial farms with overcrowded animals and unbalanced ecosystems. The significant distance between industrial farms and consumers creates a lack of accountability and difficulty tracing problems when they arise.

  Small-scale farming, however, doesn’t spark the same safety risks. Small farmers who sell their food locally will tell you that the nature of their business, based on face-to-face relationships with the people who eat their food, creates a built-in safety protection. They don’t need inspectors to make sure they are following good practices. Keeping their neighbors, families, and long-time customers in good health is an even better incentive. Customers are also more able to witness the farming practices firsthand.

  Still, small farmers are being pushed out of business because they are saddled with the financial and bureaucratic burdens of the same regulations as large industrial farms. Heather and her family’s Quill’s End Farm raise grass-fed cows, lambs, pastured pigs, chickens for eggs and meat, turkeys, dairy cows, and goats. The diverse mix is better both for the land and the economic viability of the farm.

  Given the scale of their business, building their own chicken processing unit was financially out of the question, so instead they were butchering at a neighboring farm’s USDA-approved unit. When state inspectors told them that USDA regulations didn’t allow them to share this neighbor’s facility, Quill’s End Farm was forced to stop raising and selling chickens altogether.

  “I just remember the feeling that if that was happening to us, the same message was being given to all sorts of farmers of our scale and people were just going to give up and stop farming,” said Heather. “My sense, more than anything, was a really daunting realization that, ‘Oh, this is how farms get disappeared.’ And people are so supportive, but then when we disappear, everybody might just kind of shake their heads like, ‘Oh, it must just be really tough to make it farming.’“

  So Heather, together with a small group of other farmers and farm patrons in Maine, began crafting the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, the rst of its kind in the country. The ordinance exempts direct sales between farmers and customers -- at farms, farmstands, and markets, for example -- from state and federal licensing and inspections. It allows Heather to sell chicken at her farmstore, and Bob St. Peter, a fellow farmer and organizer, to sell his homemade cookies at the farmers market.

  In March 2011, the ordinance passed unanimously in the town of Sedgwick, Maine. Three days later it was presented at Heather’s town meeting in Penobscot. “We spent a good while talking about whether to give $3,000 to our local library,” says Heather, “and I was sitting there thinking ‘Whoa, this is a tough crowd.’ But then when the ordinance came up, it was another unanimous vote. It was tremendous.” Other towns in Maine immediately followed suit.

  Since then, says Heather, “We’ve heard from people in Tennessee, Texas, California, Virginia… someone in New Zealand. Last year, Vermont passed a food sovereignty resolution with similar language. Over in California they’re working in the direction of an ordinance in Mendocino County. In Arizona they’re beginning to circulate petitions. And this fall we heard that a town in Utah had passed the ordinance.” Over the two years following Sedgwick’s success, more than eight towns in Maine itself have adopted such ordinances.

  As of this writing, Maine’s State Department of Agriculture is challenging one of the local ordinances by suing a dairy farmer. Community members are reaching out to friends in surrounding counties and national food justice coalitions, asking them to call in and urge the state to drop the suit. The case has drawn national attention. Meanwhile, organizers from far and wide are watching closely, hoping to launch similar initiatives in their own communities.

  In addition to efforts at the local level, farmers and activists are attempting to tackle the government’s one-size-fits-all approach to food safety at the federal level. When U.S. legislators voted to increase Food and Drug Administration inspections and reporting requirements for farms in 2010, more than 150 food groups succeeded in winning an amendment that provides some exemptions for small farmers.

  “Foodborne illnesses don’t come from family agriculture,” says Sen. Jon Tester from Montana, who co-sponsored the amendment.

  Source: Huffington Post, April 15, 2013 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)

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• Small-Farm Beginners Trade Work for Land
  

  By Andrew Kenney

  Emily Anderson and Kellie Ann Grubbs had an unusual housewarming on Easter Sunday.

  Instead of bringing gifts, the women’s dozen guests hauled scavenged pallets and boards to the edge of a muddy field, where they built a barn for goats alongside the lumbering hogs and pecking chickens of Okfuskee Farm in Silk Hope, N.C.

  Small, organic-minded farms in Chatham County are making use of bartering, sharing labor and passing up a paycheck as part of the search for sustainability. And partners Anderson and Grubbs are joining the movement with a goat-dairy venture on borrowed land.

  In exchange for weekly labor, Grubbs and Anderson will earn a place to graze their dairy goats and set up a moveable cabin as their principal residence, skipping the high land costs that often nip farms in the bud.

  “Land access seemed like something that was five years out. We thought we’d be farm interns until then,” said Grubbs, 26.

  For Okfuskee Farm owner Bobby Tucker, the couple represents another set of hands on the always busy 20-acre farm, which he runs when he’s not working a full-time water resources engineering job. Grubbs and Anderson’s herd of six goats also will play into Tucker’s approach to farming - the animals’ foraging and defecation will build Okfuskee’s soil, improving it for future crops.

  “You’re making the land more productive,” said Tucker, who also has paid employees. “And whether you’re directly making money on it, it’s more eyes … on the farm, and you’ve got a bigger pool of community to tackle those jobs.”

  Fifteen miles up N.C. 87, Saxapahaw Village Farm is exploring other alternative labor practices. Suzanne Nelson, 35, has brought on a crew of “free-will nonemployees,” to support the exponential expansion of her flocks and herds.

  Instead of wages, she offers meals, guidance and experience for a crew of three, who also hold jobs at the Saxapahaw General Store. The store, in turn, takes a below-average cut when it sells Village Farm’s meat and poultry.

  These kinds of deals can be helpful during a farm’s formative years, when money’s best spent on infrastructure and animals, said Nelson, a former reporter on Washington politics. And while she hopes to cut paychecks eventually, she also sees bartering and informal volunteerism as an extension of the sustainable food ethos.

  “It’s not just trading this for that,” she said. “It’s really recognizing the shared destiny. … We are building this together.”

  Farms have always employed unique economic systems, from feudalism to sharecropping, agritourism and communism, so it’s perhaps not surprising to find a new wave of experimentation beyond the suburban fringe.

  “That’s the biggest expense for farmers … labor, so of course they’re going to seek alternative ways,” said Debbie Roos, an agricultural agent for the N.C. Cooperative Extension. Even older growers in Chatham and Alamance counties have entered unusual financial relationships to bring new farmers to their land, she said.

  Bartering and nonmonetary deals also bring their share of questions about what’s fair to workers and landowners, and just how sustainable the economics are.

  Ultimately, Grubbs and Anderson aren’t sure their venture will turn enough profit to allow them to make a living. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduates know they’ll need to keep their restaurant jobs as they search for a life off the grid. Their path isn’t sure, but they’ve got a place now to call their own now. Bobby Tucker, meanwhile, will have a few extra hands as he builds Okfuskee Farm.

  He hopes his land becomes a model for more productive and organic growing methods, and he’s willing to explore new financial techniques, too.

  “We’ve got to be something that’s very different than the norm,” farm owner Tucker said. “The idea of working a job to get money to go and buy land, it’s just not that feasible for most people.”

  Source: The Miami Herald, April 5, 2013 (http://www.miamiherald.com)

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• South Dakota Bond Program Helps Young Farmers Get Start
  

  By Tri-State Neighbor staff

  PIERRE, S.D. – Resources are available at the South Dakota Department of Agriculture (SDDA) to help young and beginning farmers and ranchers get their start in agriculture.

  Today’s rising land prices and higher input costs make it challenging for beginning farmers to get started. The Beginning Farmer Bond program through SDDA is available for eligible beginning farmers to purchase agricultural land at lower interest rates.

  “The Beginning Farmer Bond program has different eligibility criteria than other governmental programs, so I would encourage producers to contact us if they are purchasing agricultural real estate,” said Terri LaBrie, finance administrator for SDDA.

  The program works through a local bank to finance a land purchase. Farmers State Bank of Marion, S.D., recently used the tax-exempt bond program to help beginning farmer Jamie Cremer buy land.

  “We were able to assist a young farmer in getting started in the local community with his initial land purchase,” said Barclay Smith of Farmers State Bank. “Without the bond program, the interest rate and repayment structure would have been almost impossible for him to cash-flow the project. We have used this program numerous times in the past to help other beginning farmers and look forward to using it again in the future. The ease of completing the application and amount of paperwork, or lack thereof, also assisted greatly in completing the transaction.”

  SDDA administers the Beginning Farmer Bond program through the Value-Added Finance Authority (VAFA) board. The board meets monthly to review applications for the program and issue bonds for approved projects.

  The program doesn’t have an upper age limit, nor does it have a limit on off-farm income. To be eligible, an applicant must be at least 18 years old and a resident of South Dakota. They must have a net worth of less than $400,000 and cannot own, or previously have owned, more than 30 percent of the county median acres. The maximum amount of a beginning farmer bond is $501,100 for calendar year 2013. This limit is set annually by the federal government.

  Program information can be found at www.sdda.sd.gov or by calling the SDDA’s Division of Agricultural Development at 605-773-5436.

  Source: Tri-State Neighbor, South Dakota, March 22, 2013 (http://www.tristateneighbor.com)

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• A Question Of Coexistence: Lewistown Neighbors Lay Bare National GMO Debate
  

  By Allison Mills, Science Source

  The gravel road runs close to the old train trestle, then winds through cattle pastures and river bottoms. The South Moccasin Mountains loom to the east. About 15 miles outside of Lewistown, the roads dips into a gully, and above sits Ole Norgaard’s farmhouse.

  Norgaard’s driveway circles a silver trailer. Inside, Norgaard opens a giant plastic tub filled with regionally adapted dark purple corn kernels, Montana Morado Maize, the pride of his organic farming operation.

  Across the road, on the same recent February afternoon, Norgaard’s neighbor and friend, Paul Morse, backs up his skidder and hops out, his pack of five rambunctious dogs greeting him. Morse wears well-worn Carhartt bibs, splashed with the blue dye he adds to his Roundup herbicide. Patchy snow covers a nearby field planted with Roundup Ready alfalfa, which contains a trait genetically engineered in a lab to survive applications of the herbicide.

  “This will be my first crop off of it, this spring,” Morse says.

  While only a road separates these neighbors, their differing views on genetic engineering in agriculture reflect a larger divide. In Montana, with a climate largely unfavorable to some major commodity crops such as corn and soybeans, the planting of crops containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, was effectively delayed until the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa in 2011, and then its Roundup Ready sugar beets in 2012. Now about 200,000 acres of the state are planted with GMO crops, including alfalfa and sugar beets, according to the Montana Department of Agriculture.

  At the same time, Montana’s organic production also is increasing. The state ranks among the country’s top producers of organic wheat, dry peas, lentils and flax. The number of certified organic farms and ranches has steadily climbed since the USDA counted 144 in 2008. That year, the most recent for which data are available, there were about 215,000 acres of certified organic pasture and cropland.

  But because GMOs aren’t allowed in organic agricultural production, the question, in Montana and across the country, is whether these two practices can coexist.

  Norgaard, a tall and blond native of Denmark, speaks with a quiet intensity. He’s adamantly against Roundup Ready crops and the herbicides they require, calling the technology agricultural “warfare” and “an easy fix” that “doesn’t solve the root of the problem.”

  He grows several other organic crops in addition to purple corn, including alfalfa. He worries that Morse’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, the first perennial field crop to be commercialized with a genetically engineered trait, could contaminate his organic alfalfa. The patented genes in Roundup Ready alfalfa could find their way into Norgaard’s organic fields by way of wind or pollinating bees, two of the natural processes that further “gene flow.”

  “It’ll be in my fields, too, to a certain degree,” Norgaard says. “And who is responsible for that? Because I don’t want it. And how are you going to clean that up?”

  If that happens, and Norgaard’s unknowingly growing Roundup Ready alfalfa, he’d be infringing on Monsanto’s patent rights, and possibly subject to testing and litigation. Monsanto aggressively protects its patents, as evidenced by the ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case involving an Indiana farmer. The court is deliberating whether patents on seeds extend beyond their first generation.

  In 2011, the Montana Legislature passed a law to protect farmers and ranchers suspected of patent infringement. It set mandatory crop sampling procedures involving an independent third party, and before the issue can be taken to court, the parties must go through an in-state mediation process.

  While Norgaard doesn’t agree with Morse’s ranching practices, he’s sympathetic. “There is nothing wrong with what Paul is doing,” he says. “He’s doing what he thinks is right. He’s a good neighbor, he is.”

  Across the road, Morse drives his diesel truck, bouncing through the field, rolling over cow pies. “That’s the smell of money!” he jests, steering the truck toward a line of hay bales.

  The bales sit in neat rows. Morse climbs down from the truck and walks to the nearest bale. He grabs a fistful of yellow and shreds it. “Wheat, wheat — and cheat,” he says, yanking out chunks of the weed, matted and mangled amid the narrow straws of wheat stalks.

  Cheat grass is Morse’s arch nemesis. He says the invasive plant makes up about 60 percent of this bale, up to 90 percent of others. The problem is so widespread that Morse sees Roundup as his only solution.

  “Either buy bigger equipment to make it cheaper, or get smaller equipment and use the chemical to make it cheaper,” he says.

  The “chemical” — glyphosate, the key ingredient in Roundup — doesn’t worry Morse much. He takes precautions, including wearing gloves while he sprays and using a bright blue dye to track it. “I don’t wear a Tyvex suit, I don’t wear a mask, and when it gets windy, you go home,” he says.

  According to a 2012 study by Charles Benbrook, a research professor at Washington State University’s Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, herbicide-tolerant crops have increased herbicide use by 527 million pounds nationwide between 1996 — when the first such crop, Roundup Ready soybeans, was commercialized — and 2011. Benbrook’s study also notes that there are now about 25 Roundup-resistant weeds infesting millions of acres around the country, and the presence of those so-called “superweeds” drives up herbicide use by as much as 50 percent.

  Last summer, a researcher at the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station’s Southern Agricultural Research Center discovered Roundup-resistant kochia in several areas near Havre. The resistance developed from farmers relying on the herbicide to control the unruly weed in fallow wheat fields, not from applying it to a Roundup Ready crop.

  But there eventually could be GMO wheat. Monsanto says its current work breeding new wheat varieties “will serve as the germplasm foundation in which new biotechnology traits could be introduced in the next decade.” In 2009, Monsanto acquired Montana wheat seed developer WestBred for $45 million.

  The commercialization of GMO wheat would have huge implications in Montana. Wheat is the state’s leading cash crop. Last year, the 5.5 million acres of the state that grew wheat yielded a crop valued at $1.7 billion.

  In talking about the tensions between GMOs and organics, Montana Department of Agriculture Director Ron de Yong often uses the words “coexistence” and “diversification.” He believes genetically engineered and organic production are two approaches in “an integrated system, and you can’t look at it as black and white.”

  Two years ago, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack reconvened the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture, charged with figuring out how best to encourage coexistence. One of the questions — which Norgaard echoes — is who pays farmers economically harmed by the unwanted presence of GMOs in their fields?

  Last fall, the committee members, divided on the extent of the problem, delivered to Vilsack a report recommending that the USDA gather more data on gene flow and “fund a broad-based, comprehensive education and outreach initiative to strengthen the understanding of coexistence.” The National Organic Coalition responded to the recommendations with skepticism.

  Back on Morse’s ranch, he drives his truck to another field, shoos his dog Bandit off the seat, gets out and kneels down to point out where the cheat grass is already coming in. He runs his hand through the stubbly mat, grinding stems between his fingers.

  And across the road, Norgaard opens a package of organic pancake mix containing his purple Montana Morado Maize. A cloud of flour floats from his fingers as he rubs them together.

  Science Source is a project of the University of Montana School of Journalism.

  Source: GreatFallsTribune.com, Montana, March 9, 2013 (http://www.greatfallstribune.com)

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• New USDA Microloans Seek To Grow Small Farms
  

  By Andre Gallant

  Young Americans taking up the planter and rancher life have withered away like drought-stricken corn in the past 30 years.

  In the 1980s, nearly 16 percent of farmers were younger than 35. Less than 5 percent of farm operators fit that description today.

  Children of farmers often opt out of the rural life, researchers said, leaving once fertile land to run fallow as parents retire.

  Upstart farmers face separate challenges in attempting to acquire land and infrastructure through bank loans when years of productive harvests aren’t on the books.

  Long recognizing the need for bolstering the nation’s supply of farmers and ranchers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and commercial lenders reached out to beginning farmers with specialized loan packages. But the needs of lenders often don’t match the financial realities of new farmers.

  A new USDA microloan program announced last month aims to help young, small and socially disadvantaged farmers secure low-interest loans at amounts less than $35,000.

  “This is the USDA putting their money where their mouth is,” said West Broad Market Garden coordinator Fenwick Broyard. “They are finally reaching out to people who’ve been excluded from farming” due to barriers to entry like purchasing land and equipment.

  The West Broad Market Garden is an example of minority-focused urban agriculture that is one target of the USDA’s new program. On a half-acre of land, the market garden feeds low-income residents from neighborhoods near West Broad Street.

  “It’s long overdue,” Broyard said. “But it’s right on time.”

  Nearly 200 under farms smaller than 9 acres in the Athens area could take advantage of the new program, according to the most recent count by the National Agricultural Statistic Service.

  The new program simplifies the requirements, lessens the paperwork and shortens the turn-around time for farm loans.

  USDA loans for startup farmers and ranchers have increased the last few years, but there are still many who need help.

  Among all the young farmers and small-scale growers in Georgia, organic farmers can best benefit from the new program, said Cesar Escalante, an agricultural economist and associate professor at the University of Georgia.

  “The need for microloan programs becomes more pressing when you talk about organic farmers,” Escalante said. “They have different attitudes toward borrowing than other farmers. They are more self-financed.”

  As organic farmers seek to grow food using environmentally-friendly methods, he said, they also seek to grow their business’ financial sustainability and therefore might be hesitant to accrue too much debt.

  Growers in the Athens area who sell locally at farmers markets have taken advantage of other conservation-minded government initiatives, according to Athens Farmers Market Manager Jan Kozak, including financial assistance in purchasing energy- and water-efficient high-tunnel hoop houses that extend vegetable production into colder months.

  Farmer Brent Lopp started growing organic vegetables in Oconee County in 2009 alongside wife Amy. The couple invested their personal savings, and have since tossed every available cent back into the land.

  Lopp said they hadn’t found a specific investment that would warrant taking out a loan. But as news of the microloan program has spread through the Northeast Georgia farming community, the Lopps are thinking of using the program to help diversify farm crops to include animals and fruit.

  “In any business, diversification is important,” he said. “But in agriculture, you have to.”

  Startup and growth capital is the No. 1 need of beginning farmers, said National Young Farmers Coalition Executive Director Lindsey Shute.

  “We expect the FSA microloan program to be a huge help to young people working to get a farm business off the ground,” Shute wrote in an emailed comment. “The program demonstrates the USDA and Obama administration’s commitment to the future of agriculture in America and addressing the needs of sustainable and diversified growers.”

  Research shows that beginning farmers face institutional and cultural hurdles when starting up an agricultural business. Banks often are wary of small-scale loans due to less return on their transaction labor, according to a 2011 report by the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. Small and organic farmers also are condescendingly considered hobby or lifestyle projects by lenders, according to the report.

  Lenders look at a farm’s ability to repay and their collateral when assessing whether to offer a loan, a government loan coordinator said. Given those criteria, small farms look less reliable on paper.

  Microloans are designed for small operations, said David Laster, acting state director of the USDA’s Farm Services Agency. His office historically finances large-scale agriculture, crops like peanuts and cotton or herds of cattle. The new program is streamlined, compared to the FSA’s usual operating loans, Laster said, and will mean less paperwork and red tape for small farmers.

  Microloan applications will be processed through the FSA’s office in Commerce.

  Organic farmers, too, plant a diverse array of crops, Escalante’s research has shown, which presents problems when outlining traditional business projections, but is a “desirable business trait, especially in terms of risk mitigating benefit,” he wrote in a 2011 report.

  In the minds of bankers, who are looking to maximize profit, microloans are too small to spend time on, Escalante said. But for small farmers, he said microloans, with low-interest rates, minimal transactional costs and less time spent applying, are a very effective way to expand.

  AgGeorgia Farm Credit branch manager Patricia Fields confirmed that institutions like hers, which deal mostly with 20-acre minimum poultry operations, considers farms under 5 acres to be hobby projects.

  “We do try to target young and beginning farmers,” Fields said.

  But often the upstart farmers who inquire to join the credit cooperative don’t meet the income and asset requirements or have a fully developed farm business plan.

  New microloan programs requires a less-strict narrative instead of a farm plan that includes multi-year planting details.

  “I think it will grow,” Fields said. “Where the economy is, you’re going to see more small farming.”

  Source: OnlineAthens, Athens Banner Herald, Georgia, February 5, 2013 (http://onlineathens.com/local-news)

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