FCS Diversity and Inclusion - PROPOSED RULE - MARCH 2011 Dear Mr. Van Meter,
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to comment on the how the Farm Credit System can better serve small and midsized, local and regional food producers.
I support including in FCA marketing plans an inventory of strengths and weaknesses of financing for local and regional food infrastructure (aggregation, processing, distributing, etc.) and an FCA plan for how to use FCS local and regional food producer financing to leverage other public and private capital necessary to address the larger weaknesses in the rest of the local and regional food supply chain.
I also support a plan for developing lending and business support products with terms and benefits appropriate for local and regional food producers.
It is important to me that my local farmers--those who sell to my co-op grocery and who deliver CSA boxes to our neighborhood each week, have the resources they need to continue serving our community and growing the local economy. That is why I support changes to the Farm Credit System that will better serve these farmers and others like them across the country through increased capital and technical assistance.