finance

Case studies and tips on small farm financing

July 20, 2012
Case studies and tips on small farm financing

Financing smaller farms: New resources for lenders who want to learn and activists who want to promote.

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Lenders learn how to bank on small farms, local food

February 3, 2012
Lenders learn how to bank on small farms, local food

 Financing team offers training as part of healthy food initiative  By Patty Cantrell  Nic Welty employs himself full time year-round raising lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in three low-cost passive solar greenhouses, which together cover less than one acre of land. His Nine Bean Rows farm near Traverse City, MI, is one of many [...]

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New Tool to Help Banks and Small Farms Communicate

October 31, 2010
The small and highly diverse Mighty Food Farm in Pownal, VT, is an example of the paradigm-shifting generation of new farmers that are challenging for banks used to more conventional farming businesses.

Over the last 20 years, credit-scoring systems have made it easier for banks to analyze risk and make loans to the diverse world of small businesses, from car dealerships to coffee shops. Now a group of sustainable agriculture leaders are working on a similar tool to help banks work with the new, paradigm-shifting generation of small and diverse food and farm entrepreneurs.

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