NY FarmNet Receives $10,000 Farm Credit East AgEnhancement Grant

August 28, 2020 

NY FarmNet, a program of Cornell University’s SC Johnson College of Business and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is the recipient of a $10,000 Farm Credit East AgEnhancement Grant. This award will be used to support a new project: The Human Side of Farming. The Human Side of Farming will incorporate pieces of business planning and the human capital – the unique person and farmer, an aspect that is often overlooked in traditional business planning.

What happens when two friends who started a farm together, without a business plan, start to run into trouble and their relationship crumbles? How does a first-generation farmer access land? What are the social pressures on rural communities, and how can they impact a farm business? How does a BIPOC person address systemic issues in agriculture through farming? How will a new farmer trying to support themselves pay for healthcare? Through its work with young and beginning farmers, NY FarmNet will incorporate these questions and stimulate discussion around their answers through the development of farm business plans.

NY FarmNet will utilize their Family and Financial Consultants, as well as industry partners, to learn about issues, develop strategies, and frame conversations that impact farm businesses. NY FarmNet staff will create webinars and design a workbook for beginning and first-generation farmers to help guide them through the business planning process in a comprehensive and holistic way.

“NY FarmNet is proud and grateful to receive a Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement grant like this to support the foundational work of our program,” said Kate Downes, Outreach Director for NY FarmNet. “If we don’t have these difficult conversations at the start of business planning, there’s always the chance that down the line they will create complications or conflict for farm owners. This preventative, proactive work will help farmers get started on the right track.”

Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement supports programs, project and events that are intended to strengthen agriculture, commercial fishing and the forest products sector in the Northeast. This program is a combined effort of Farm Credit East, Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank.

NY FarmNet helps farmers and farm families navigate times of crisis, growth, and opportunity. The program was founded by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University in response to the national 1980s farm crisis. NY FarmNet still operates at Cornell as part of the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics & Management. The Dyson School is part of both Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the SC Johnson College of Business. Contact Kate Downes, Outreach Director, kdownes@cornell.edu, with any questions or for more information.