I recently overheard part of a conversation and was wondering if anyone knew how to go about doing this or who to contact... the part I overheard was about a smaller farm that had applied for some type of state or federal(wasn't clear) assistance to buy and upkeep in order to actually keep a small farm going, instead of going under. Sounded interesting, wondered what the criteria would be and who you would have to search out, either federally or state wise, to talk about it. Thanks so much, Mary

-- Mary (mlogan298@yahoo.com), January 30, 2001

Answers

Mary, you might want to prowl around this site and see if it's what you're looking for: American Farmland Trust

If the link doesn't work, here's the address for copy and paste:
http://www.farmland.org/

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 30, 2001.

Beware of taking Federal funds for anything! They will have the right to come on your land, tell you what you can and can't do with it, and generally be in the middle of your business. We looked into funds for building a chicken composter a few years ago. (This was a structure for commercial poultry operations, used to compost the dead hens, versus burying them or throwing them in the woods, as some farmers do) When we read the fine print, the Feds had the right to come onto our property for 10 years, determining whether we had wetlands, whether we were violating any federal laws, etc. We said no thanks, and built the composter out of our own funds. Beware of the camel's nose getting inside the tent!

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), January 31, 2001.