The Carrot Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating financing solutions for small- and midsized farms, limited-resource farms, and those using ecologically sound practices. Our singular program model is designed to incubate and establish alternative financing programs in combination with business technical assistance.

We work collaboratively with investors, lenders, and farm support organizations. In short, we are helping to rebuild a farming system that offers stability to local farmers, provides healthful food for citizens, replenishes the environment, and is good for regional and local economies.

As U.S. farmers (whose average age is 55) approach retirement, estimates are that over the next two decades, 400 million acres of agricultural land will be passed on to heirs or sold. Existing farms with large tracts of land, exemplified by dairies in the Northeast, are struggling with milk prices below the cost of production and are confronted with the decision to change their businesses or sell their agricultural lands, frequently to developers. The detrimental effects of farmland loss and intrusive development on environment, animal habitat, and human communities are well documented. The growing demand for locally and sustainably grown foods is providing opportunities for farm enterprises to gear up and meet it, but many farmers can’t. The Michael Fields Agriculture Institute reports that “a growing number of young people and new immigrants want to farm, but are challenged by the rising cost of farmland, a critical shortage of training, and lack of financing.”

Farmers are being denied financing because of inadequate credit history, collateral, or cash flow. Lenders are unable to work with some farmers because of the costs of administering smaller loans, lack of flexibility in applying selection criteria (such as allowing for alternative collateral or limited credit history), and inflexible terms. The Carrot Project’s 2008 survey of 706 farmers in New York and New England shows that 25% of farmers requesting financing are denied access to credit. More compelling is the fact that start-up and expanding businesses make up a majority of farms denied credit; 40% of start-ups are denied financing, and these are the farms on whose success we will increasingly depend. The situation of beginning farmers can be attributed, in part, to “asset requirements (including land and financial collateral)[that] position the farmer as high-risk based on criteria designed for larger scale agri-business” (Cocciarelli, 2009, MSU). Examples of this problem have been recognized in the Northeast. Jon Jaffe of Farm Credit East, ACA, states, “Farmers who lack equity need first- or second-position liens to provide adequate collateral to receive financing.” Business technical assistance combined with alternative financing, such as flexible payment options, can address this situation.

The Carrot Project is addressing financing gaps for small- and mid-sized farms to increase both the amount of financing available to farmers and the number of lenders working with these farms.

The Carrot Project is grateful for the donations and investments from, Barowsky's Organic Bakery, Claniel Foundation, Clean Yield Asset Management, Oona Coy, Farm Aid, Fresh Pond Capital, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, MA Grinnell Charitable Trust, The Kimball Foundation, Carola B. Lea, Maine Community Foundation, NESARE Sustainable Community Grants Program, Pete and Gerry's Organic Eggs, Reyenders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC, RSF Social Finance’s Seed Fund, The Sandy River Charitable Foundation, Lydia B. Stokes Foundation, Stonyfield Farm Organic Yogurt, Strolling of the Heifers, Trillium Asset Management, Lawson Valentine Foundation, The Vervane Foundation, Whole Foods Markets (Cambridge, MA), and many others (Up-dated 03/10).

The Carrot Project's E-newsletter is sent out 3-4 times per year. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter, please send a message with your name, town/city, state, and if you are a farmer to subscribe@thecarrotproject.org.

Thank you.