Webinar: FarmStart LLP – Developing financial literacy among new farmers

Hosted by: the New Farmers Initiative of FSC and FarmStart

FarmStart LLP, a program of Farm Credit in New England, assists beginning farmers and new cooperatives through their start-up years by providing working capital investments of up to $50,000 to get their business off the ground.  Gary Matteson of Farm Credit in Washington DC and Lynn Weaver of Farm Credit East in Connecticut will join us to discuss the conception and effectiveness of the American FarmStart program.  Christie Young of FarmStart in Ontario will join us to put the model in context to the Canadian situation. 

This webinar is 2^nd in the New Farmers Initiative “Character Capital” Series and is targeted to anyone interested in financing for new farm businesses and policy development to help new farmers.  Also of interest will be the previous webinar in this series, FarmWorks - Investing in Farm Businesses, which is archived on FSC's YouTube page.

Speakers:

Gary Matteson (left) works for the Farm Credit System’s trade association in Washington, DC as Vice President, Young, Beginning, Small Farmer Programs and Outreach. This includes policy work on local foods, sustainable agriculture, and direct-to-consumer agriculture. Until recently, Gary was a small farmer raising greenhouse wholesale cut flowers marketed in the Northeast and beef cattle for local sales. He has served on numerous boards of directors including Farm Credit, the Boston Flower Exchange, and many non-profits.

Lynn A. Weaver (right) is Vice President and Branch Manager of the Dayville CT office of Farm Credit East.  Lynn was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a BS in Agricultural Business Management and moved to Connecticut to work for Farm Credit as an agricultural loan officer, appraiser and income tax preparer.  He now manages Farm Credit East's Dayville Connecticut office, providing a wide range of financial services to eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts agricultural businesses. One of Lynn’s passions continues to be working with the agricultural community helping farmers of all ages be successful both personally and professionally.  Lynn is the Manager of FarmStart, LLP.  This investment program helps to encourage the vision of a vibrant, entrepreneurial agricultural community by giving ambitious new farmers a healthier financial start.