NFFC Credit Task Force

NFFC seeks to ensure that family farmers maintain access to the affordable credit they need to remain in business, especially in the face of disaster.

Background

The deepening recession, coupled with farm prices that are far below a farmer's cost of production, creates a dire situation for family farmers. Natural disasters, such as storms and flooding, exacerbate the problem. Family farmers often depend upon loans for equipment, seed, and other vital parts of their operations and the tightening financial and credit markets place their access to affordable credit in jeopardy. The consolidation of the banking industry has reduced access to local banks which understand agriculture.

In the past, credit and disaster relief have been administered in ways that compound problems. Family farms suffer from ongoing corruption in USDA's delivery of credit, which has often worked to unfairly force family farmers to give up their farms to financial institutions, due to the excessive discretion granted to judges.

The federal disaster program established in the 2008 farm bill needs to be implemented quickly and distributed fairly, but there are still major problems that need to be addressed, such as gaps concerning who will receive disaster payments, and types of crop insurance that select against family farms and healthy foods.

Learn about new Risk Management and Disaster Guides Available from FLAG.

Credit and Disaster News

Read the "Don't Bank on It" report on farmer access to credit here.

David Sirota and special guest Timothy A. Wise, who has looked behind the glowing headlines on the farm sector as a whole to examine how family farmers have fared in this high-price environment. (04.19.11) - Listen here.

Stop USDA loans to factory farms (12.03.09) - Read Hugh Espey's op-ed on the national campaign to end USDA direct and guaranteed loans for new and expanding hog and poultry factory farms. Espey is executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, an NFFC Member Group.

NFFC Credit Task Force

NFFC and its member organizations have worked to fairly implement pro-family farmer provisions of current laws during the past twenty years. These laws include the 1987 Agricultural Credit Act debt restructuring provisions, which provided important rights for farmer borrowers who faced foreclosure and bankruptcy during the 1980s farm crisis.

The NFFC Credit and Rural Economic Development Task Force keeps NFFC member groups and other farm credit advocacy organizations informed through mailings, conference calls, email communications, and strategy meetings.

NFFC works with the Farmers Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG), Farm Aid, Inc., Federation of Southern Cooperatives (multi-state), Land Loss Prevention Project (NC), and RAFI-USA (Rural Advancement Foundation Int'l-USA) to conduct farmer trainings. These trainings provide a forum for farm leaders and credit advocates to develop tools that assist farmers with credit problems.

Goals

1. Secure sufficient funding and proper servicing of USDA lending programs.

2. Ensure a fair USDA appeals system for family farmers.

3. Eradicate ongoing discriminatory practices at all USDA levels.

Priorities

1. Monitor USDA's actions on: implementation and enforcement of farm credit programs, including overall access to credit for family farmers; specific programs designed to assist minority and beginning farmers; nondiscrimination in credit programs; and the shift in guaranteed loans that benefit large, corporate-controlled farm and livestock operations.

2. Develop a comprehensive campaign to restore justice to the USDA Appeals System. This is necessary to ensure that all farmers receive fair treatment from USDA with a particular emphasis on those minority farmers who won settlements as part of the USDA discrimination suit, and who now face bias in USDA program delivery.

3. Ensure that Chapter 12 Bankruptcy is an option for family farmers.

New Risk Management and Disaster Guides Available from FLAG

Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) has posted on its website a trove of new risk management and disaster publications for family farmers and farm advocates. These mini-guides to federal programs were prepared for a series of risk management trainings conducted this summer and fall, funded by the USDA's Risk Management Agency. The new publications, which are accessible without charge in the Publications section of FLAG's website include these topics:

* Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP)
* Adjusted Gross Revenue and Adjusted Gross Revenue-Lite Insurance
* Documenting Disaster Losses
* Emergency Conservation Program
* New Disaster Programs Created by the 2008 Farm Bill
* Group Risk Crop Insurance
* Individual Crop Insurance
* Livestock Indemnity Program
* Livestock Risk Protection Insurance
* Pasture, Rangeland, Forage Insurance Program
* What Help Is Available For What Types of Disaster Losses?

Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) is a nonprofit law center dedicated to providing legal services to family farmers and their rural communities in order to help keep family farmers on the land.

National Family Farm Coalition
110 Maryland Ave. N.E., Suite 307
Washington, DC 20002

nffc@nffc.net

ph (202) 543-5675
fax (202) 543-0978