Fingerlakespermaculture mailing list

["Michael Burns" <michael AT fingerlakespermaculture.org>]

From:    "Violet Stone" <vws7 AT cornell.edu>

NEWS FROM THE SMALL FARMS PROGRAM AT CORNELL

TOPIC: New USDA Grant Awards Mean $3million Investment in Northeast Beginning
Farmers
DATE: For immediate release, October 25, 2010
CONTACT: Erica Frenay at 607-255-9911 or ejf5 AT cornell.edu
ONLINE NEWSROOM: http://www.smallfarms.cornell.edu/pages/news/

New USDA Grant Awards Mean $3 million Investment in Northeast Beginning 
Farmers

On October 18, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan awarded grants
to 40 organizations throughout the country to provide training and assistance
to beginning farmers and ranchers that will help them run successful and
sustainable farms. Of the 40 recipients, six of them are in the Northeast and
will provide a range of services—from hands-on production training to business
planning, mentoring to land access assistance--to new farmers over the next
1-3 years:


· Tufts University, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Boston, Mass.,
$749,014

· Nuestras Raices, Inc., Holyoke, Mass., $740,131

· Land for Good, Keene, N.H., $547,307

· Groundswell Center for Food and Farming, Ithaca, N.Y., $349,873

· Just Foods, Inc., New York, N.Y., $426,921

· Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Inc., Rochester, N.Y.,
$143,973

Last year’s Northeast grant recipients included the Cornell Small Farms
Program, which is using the funds to develop new online courses and videos,
build a Northeast network of organizations serving beginning farmers, and work
with high schools to put farming back on the radar as a viable career choice.
The Penn State Cooperative Extension of Lehigh County was also a recipient
last year, and is developing SEED Farm, an incubator farm providing low-cost
land and equipment to help new farmers get started without an enormous capital
investment.

“Beginning farmers and ranchers face unique challenges, and these efforts will
help provide the training needed to ensure these producers become profitable
and sustainable,” said Merrigan. “As the average age of farmers today is 57
and continues to rise, we must do everything we can to recruit a new
generation of people to produce our food. They will continue to play an
important part of American agriculture as they feed people in their local
communities and, in some cases, throughout the world.”

USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded the grants
through its Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP). BFRDP is
an education, training, technical assistance and outreach program designed to
help U.S. farmers and ranchers, specifically those who have been farming or
ranching for 10 years or fewer. Under the program, which was established
through the 2008 Farm Bill, NIFA will make grants to organizations that will
implement programs to help beginning farmers and ranchers.

BFRDP provided $18 million in funding this year. This is the second year of
the program, and $18 million will be made available in fiscal years 2011 and
2012.  In FY 2009, BFRDP made 29 awards for approximately $17 million. For
more information on the BFRDP program, visit:
http://www.nifa.usda.gov/funding/bfrdp/bfrdp.html.  To view the USDA news
release,  visit
http://www.nifa.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2010news/10181_beginning_farmers.html.



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