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Farm Credit System Continues to Reject YBS Farmers Who Need Its Help Most
The Farm Credit System (FCS) is supposed to stand by young, beginning and small (YBS) farmers, ranchers and producers, making sure that they have reliable access to credit. And Farm Credit talks a big talk about the work it does to help YBS farmers.
Does it actually help? Last week, the Berkshire Eagle of western Massachusetts published a letter to the editor – a neighbor wrote in to call attention to the troubles of one of the last dairy farms in that part of the state. After working on the farm every day for forty years, the owners of Hav’s Farm are down but not out. They’re struggling with low milk prices, high feed costs and the fallout of a fire that could have engulfed the whole farm. Hav’s Farm has turned to a Go Fund Me campaign to stay afloat Continue Reading
Thank You Congress for Passing Farm Bill 2018
Every five years Congress revisits agricultural policy and passes a Farm Bill to make sure that the federal government does right by America’s farmers, ranchers and producers.
It’s been a long year, and the road to passage was bumpy, but today Congress completed passage of the Farm Bill for 2018! A big thanks to Congress for coming together to pass this gargantuan, monumental piece of legislation.
Farm Credit Profits While Farmers Flounder
Farmers, ranchers and producers have tough jobs. Agriculture as a profession is naturally unpredictable – weather events affect crop yields, and crop yields directly affect what farmers earn on the market for what they produce.
New Congress could mean more Farm Credit Oversight
The 2018 midterm elections yielded big gains for Democrats in the House of Representatives. Fortunately, reforming the Farm Credit System (FCS) isn’t a partisan issue, it’s a common sense one. And incoming chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), is set to take a close look at Farm Credit’s regulator, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), in the 116th Congress. In a recent interview with The Fence Post, ranking member Peterson“said he would lead the committee to turn to oversight of the agencies over which the committee has jurisdiction. Those are USDA, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the Farm Credit Administration.”
With Lack of Help from FCS, Farmers Creating Their Own Solutions
Farming’s a tough job, and few people would deny that. And because it’s tough, fewer younger people are becoming farmers and producers. That’s why the Farm Credit System (FCS) has a mandate to lend to young, beginning and small farmers. Short of automating most farms, American agriculture needs young people to become farmers to continue its proud tradition of feeding the country and the world.
American Banker: Farm Credit System makes a consumer push, and bankers push back
A new consumer-focused program with ties to the Farm Credit System is drawing bankers’ ire.
Rural 1st, a program from Farm Credit Mid-America, will make make loans tied to lots, recreational land and construction, along with mortgages and home equity lines, to borrowers in rural markets across Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.
Farm Credit Fails YBS Farmers in 2017
Farming’s tough. Any farmer, rancher or producer will tell you that it’s hard to make a living off of agriculture, and that’s especially true for young, beginning and small farmers. Because of this, Congress requires the Farm Credit System (FCS) to make loans to young, beginning and small farmers and to report their lending data annually. This is all to ensure that those farmers have access to the credit they need, and that American agriculture will continue to thrive in the future.
No CoBank Oversight Leaves Co-Op Devastated
The Farm Credit System (FCS), a $333 billion giant in agricultural lending, plays by different rules. Unlike rural community banks and other financial institutions, which answer to an alphabet soup of agencies, Farm Credit institutions answer primarily to the Farm Credit Administration (FCA). The FCA doesn’t do much by way of enforcement, leaving Farm Credit associations across the country to mostly regulate themselves. But shady activity is happening under the noses of Farm Credit institutions all across the country. Continue Reading
REGULATORY CALENDAR – PART I: Does FCS Really Face “Regulatory Burden?”
The Farm Credit System (FCS) is a massive, nearly $330 billion institution that would be the seventh largest bank in the country, if it had the same stringent regulation that other financial institutions have. It doesn’t – instead, it is regulated by the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), which routinely fails to crack down on some of the FCS’s worst offenses.