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Can Confirming Rod Brown Save Farm Credit from Crisis?
As a sprawling, $349 billion government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), the Farm Credit System (FCS) needs a government regulator to make sure it’s acting lawfully and in line with its mission. The System’s regulator, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), is largely ineffective, letting the System get away with underserving Indian tribes and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers, and failing young, beginning and small farmers in 2018.
It’s hard to imagine things getting worse.
2020 Presidential Candidate Pushes Reforming Farm Credit
It’s campaign season! Even though the 2020 elections are more than a year away, presidential candidates have hit the campaign trail to discuss policy and share their vision with voters.
Reform Farm Credit is pleased to announce that reforming Farm Credit is now a 2020 campaign issue!
Earlier this month, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released her proposal for “A New Farm Economy.” Detailed and thorough, it outlines her many ideas on how to reinvigorate rural America, including how to expand farmers’ access to credit by reforming the Farm Credit System (FCS).
New GAO Report Finds that Farm Credit is Underserving Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
When Congress reconsidered federal agricultural policy in the 2018 Farm Bill, it made a few changes to the Farm Credit System (FCS).
Among the Farm Bill’s many important provisions, Congress tasked the Government Accountability Office (GAO), commonly known as “Congress’ watchdog,” with investigating how Farm Credit is addressing the agricultural credit needs of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers (SDFRs).
Farm Credit’s got a lot of work to do.
Farm Credit Florida Provides $8.5 Million Loan for Equestrian Site
The Farm Credit System’s (FCS) constituent associations are no strangers to funding luxury purchases extraneous to its mission to support American agriculture. Loans for mansions in the Denver suburbs, purchasing the naming rights for a golf tournament and loans for luxury properties in Hawaii find their place on Farm Credit associations’ ledgers.
Those entries won’t be lonely any time soon.
Is Farm Credit Prepared for a Systematic Failure?
It’s no secret that agriculture is hard, especially for young, beginning and small farmers who have fewer resources at their command. If a downturn is imminent, will the Farm Credit System (FCS) be able to weather the storm?
According to a recent report by the Financial Times, shaky land values are propping up borrowing by farmers now, but that could soon change. The report states in no uncertain terms that loan “delinquencies are also creeping up inside the government-sponsored Farm Credit System, which accounts for 40 percent of US farm debt.”
FCS Underserving Indian Tribes
Congress reconsiders federal agricultural policy every five years in a massive piece of legislation called the Farm Bill. The latest Farm Bill, passed in 2018, made some big changes to the Farm Credit System (FCS).
One of the more important provisions enacted by the Farm Bill is a directive to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), commonly known as “Congress’ watchdog,” to investigate the agricultural credit needs of Indian tribes, what barriers stand in the way, and how Farm Credit’s lending activities play into the status quo. Continue Reading
Farm Credit Council Fighting to Maintain FCS’s Triple Counting of YBS Loans
The Farm Credit System (FCS) has a legal obligation to furnish sound and constructive credit to young, beginning and small (YBS) farmers and producers. And after a number of questions were raised about many loans the system has made to these farmers, the FCS’s regulator, the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), has decided that after twenty long years, it needs to reform its regulations on YBS farmers.
But not if Farm Credit Council (the FCS’s lobbying arm) has its way.
Ag Census Shows Farm Credit Leaving YBS Farmers Behind
Every five years the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducts a Census of Agriculture to gather information on the state of agriculture in the US. And this year brings bad news for the Farm Credit System (FCS) and the young, beginning and small farmers and producers that it has a legal duty to serve.
As Farm Credit Associations Grow, Loans to Farmers Stay Stagnant
It’s no secret that rural America has seen tough times in recent years. Low commodity prices, tariffs and poor weather haven’t helped. In the words of Compeer Financial’s CEO Rod Hebrink, “There’s a bleeding going on.”