Farm Credit of Maine: Supporting the Work of Trade Associations

This issue of F.P. magazine highlights the importance of promoting agriculture and some public relations tools that help farmer business owners. Local and national ag trade associations play an important role in this effort. Farm Credit does as well.

Through our directors, staff and Northeast regional funding programs (such as Northeast AgEnhancement grants), Farm Credit is very active in supporting many of the trade associations that represent our members’ industries. In addition, your directors have taken two actions over the past year to assist this important effort.

A generous, new grant program

At its July meeting, the board established a one-time grant program to provide financial assistance to industry trade associations that represent Maine agriculture, forestry and commercial fishing. Specifically, the board action earmarked $60,000 to be used for one-time gifts to help natural resource based industries invest in their trade association infrastructures.

"... your directors have taken two actions over the past year to assist this important effort.”

Our objective is to help them modernize their facilities and enhance their youth education programs. Farm Credit of Maine will award funds to specific industries based on the portion of Farm Credit’s loan portfolio that the industry represents.

To date, we have already pledged assistance to the Forest Products Council (FPC) and its new office building project in August. The assistance will help FPC establish its permanent home for the first time.

In concert with the Northeast AgEnhancement program, we are also helping the Associated Fisheries of Maine purchase communications tools, such as computer and telephone equipment, so they can more easily monitor regulatory and other industry issues. This assistance will also help the group communicate more efficiently with their members. They hope to grow their membership to include more groundfishing, shrimp and lobster fishermen.

We look forward to identifying similar infrastructure needs in the potato, dairy, fruit and nursery industries as well.

Recognition for AGCOM’s contributions

At its annual meeting, the association awarded the Distinguished Service Award to the Agricultural Council of Maine (AGCOM), which is a well-organized group of Maine agricultural trade associations and an example of diversity in agriculture working together.

AGCOM consists of 15 individual commodity trade associations (see AGCOM membership list) who work on issues that impact all types of agriculture in Maine. Some of their efforts are educational, some are defensive (when agriculture is threatened), and some are positively proactive, such as the completion of a strategic plan for Maine agriculture.

One of the challenges that all of agriculture faces is that it conducts business in relatively small family units (farms) dispersed over a wide geography. While the overall economic activity of any one industry may well exceed some of the largest businesses in Maine, the large number of comparatively small business units challenges the chance of being heard by public policy makers.

AGCOM helps to unify the voices of many of Maine’s family farms. That’s just one of the reasons why the collaboration by AGCOM’s trade associations is so positive for Maine agriculture.

We salute this group for its cooperative efforts.

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