Cover Story

GIVING BACK

Committed to our staff, our customers — and the communities we serve

“The job of supervising or taking care of something” is how stewardship is defined in the dictionary. Farm Credit East’s role as steward is one it takes seriously — in fact, it’s part of our organizational DNA. Whether it’s serving our customers and the industries in which they operate or contributing to the communities where our customers and staff live, the entire Farm Credit East team is committed to giving back.

Farm Credit East’s stewardship efforts can be equated with the acronym “ESG,” which stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, and has become a term of art in corporate governance — shorthand for the non-financial considerations of investors as they decide whether to invest in a company. ESG factors include an organization’s environmental footprint, how it treats its employees, and policies regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. But it’s not just investors who consider ESG factors. Other stakeholders, including policymakers, are increasingly focused on organizations’ ESG programs.

According to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance’s biennial review, global sustainable investment has grown to $35.3 trillion in the major financial markets (U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe), which is 15% more than in the 2018 report and accounts for more than a third of all professionally managed assets in those regions. And while some may dispute the magnitude of that number or what it includes, there is no disputing that ESG is becoming a major focus of boards of directors, including Farm Credit East’s.

To dive further into the meaning behind this acronym, let’s start with environmental. This ESG pillar considers how a company performs as a steward of the environment. Our summer Financial Partner cover story titled, “Stewards of the Land,” highlighted the environmental stewardship efforts of farmers and forestry producers across the region. Supporting producers’ conservation practices and efforts to combat climate change is a core focus of the cooperative. Farm Credit East has been proud to assist customers as they invest in new technologies and environmentally friendly practices to lessen their carbon footprint and is currently considering changes to an existing environmental loan program to further those efforts. We are also a strong supporter of programs such as the Leopold Conservation Award in New York and New England, which recognizes agricultural producers’ conservation efforts. Most recently, we committed financial support to a partnership with American Farmland Trust and CoBank on a regenerative agriculture project in the Pioneer Valley.

The social aspect of ESG, which includes the association’s relationship with employees, customers and the communities where it operates, has been a longtime focus of Farm Credit East. In fact, 2021 marks milestones for multiple Farm Credit East programs focused on stewardship and community support.

The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Grant program, a partnership between Farm Credit East, Yankee Farm Credit and CoBank, was established 25 years ago to support projects that promote and enhance the region’s agricultural community. Since its 1996 inception, the program has provided more than $2.8 million in grant funding to over 1,000 projects.

Farm Credit East Cares is also an important effort started by Farm Credit East employees in 2011 to provide financial assistance to farmers and agricultural organizations in need. Over the past 10 years, this program has contributed more than $854,000 to various Northeast charities and disaster relief efforts as well as direct support to members who have been impacted by a natural disaster or other hardship.

Another core aspect of Farm Credit East’s social focus is on young, beginning, small and veteran farmers, fishermen and forestry producers. In addition to offering discounts on various financial services to producers who fall within these categories, Farm Credit East also offers next generation management training through its GenerationNext program, along with scholarship programs for FFA participants, higher education students and agricultural educators.

Farm Credit East’s commitment to the next generation of agriculture doesn’t stop there. In 2006, the FarmStart program was initiated to provide the working capital for beginning entrepreneurs to get started in agriculture, commercial fishing or forest products. Since the first investment was approved 15 years ago, FarmStart has invested more than $15 million with over 300 entrepreneurs across the Northeast. Learn more about FarmStart and the other Farm Credit East programs celebrating milestones in 2021 on page 10.

Finally, governance addresses a company’s leadership, internal controls and shareholder responsibilities. As a customer-owned cooperative, our governance structure is critical to ensure we have representation of members from across the territory and industries we serve. Each year, we hold director elections in which all stockholders receive the opportunity to nominate candidates and vote for all open seats on the board of directors. The board serves as the voice of membership, so it is imperative stockholders participate in these elections each year. Once elected, the board serves an important role in representing the interests of members, ensuring the association’s strategic direction will benefit the association and its members, and reviewing key financial metrics to safeguard the longevity of the cooperative.

ESG is a key focus of our board of directors. In 2020, our board of directors reorganized their committee structure to combine stewardship and governance into one committee to make sure its goals and objectives align. The board plans to build on Farm Credit East’s many existing ESG initiatives in the coming years.

To sum up, whether it’s called ESG or stewardship, Farm Credit East is committed to being a positive influence in the rural communities we serve. In the pages that follow, we’ll focus on the social aspect of our ESG story, highlighting a few programs and initiatives we’ve supported in recent years to ensure the vitality of our team, our customers and the communities where we live and work.

CURRICULUM FOR AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE EDUCATION (CASE)

Case4Learning.org

Established in 2009, CASE is a project of the National Council for Agricultural Educators, managed by the National Association of Agricultural Educators, which integrates science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts with hands-on, inquiry-based learning at the high school level. The CASE curriculum offers students four pathways: animal science, plant science, agricultural engineering and natural resources, along with an ag business foundations module, developed with support from Farm Credit East, that can be incorporated within any of the pathways. CASE institutes provide professional development for educators to offer this coursework in high school classrooms.

“CASE is critical to our agriculture teachers nationwide because of its academically STEM-infused instructional content. It provides them with rigorous instruction to prepare students for technical and scientific areas of agriculture,” said Nancy Trivette, director of the National CASE Initiative.

Of the more than 3,000 teachers CASE has certified nationwide, just over 200 are from the states Farm Credit East serves. And over the past five years, Farm Credit East has provided more than $90,000 in scholarships to more than 100 Northeast teachers.

“The scholarships are critical to the success of CASE nationwide,” said Nancy. “Often it provides the seed money that is crucial for a teacher to obtain supplemental funding to take advantage of a CASE opportunity.”

Nancy also noted Farm Credit East’s investment in the ag business foundations course. “That course is truly the result of Farm Credit East’s investment, and in my opinion, a great delivery model of foundational business concepts available to agriculture teachers,” she stated.

Farm Credit East is committed to the next generation of agriculture, and it’s through support of efforts such as CASE that the industry’s future leaders obtain the necessary skills to be successful.

THE FOOD PROJECT

TheFoodProject.org

In 2021, The Food Project, a Boston area organization working to create a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults who work together to build a more just and sustainable food system, celebrates 30 years. Since its founding, the organization has aimed to empower youth leaders to seek change in the food system by equipping them with skills in agriculture, critical thinking and public speaking.

“We bring together high school students and provide them with a level playing field to partake in meaningful work,” said Anne Hayes, executive director of The Food Project. “The best part is the students get to see the products they grow go to people experiencing food insecurity.”

Students from the city and surrounding metro areas first participate in a six-week program called Seed Crew, which includes time spent farming, learning about the food system, and interacting with farmers and each other to get to know people who are different races, gender identities, socioeconomic classes, etc. Once a week, the students also work with hunger relief partners, including soup kitchens, food pantries and transitional housing, to chop veggies or clean raised beds.

Students can later graduate to participate in Dirt Crew, leading farm tours or constructing raised beds (the organization builds about 100 community beds per year), and then Root Crew, which includes more specialized agricultural work. Students are paid in all tracks of the program, and Anne noted a recent alumni study found how transferrable the skills learned are into other fields, including the many who pursued agricultural fields. To date, The Food Project has graduated over 1,800 youth among the three tracks.

Alongside youth leadership development, The Food Project grows about 200,000 pounds of food each year, of which half is donated to hunger relief partners or sold at affordable farmers’ markets that participate in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Massachusetts Healthy Incentives Program (HIP).

In addition to engaging the next generation, a core component of Farm Credit East’s ESG focus is expanding access to fresh, healthy food. Anne noted that only 7% of people who are eligible for SNAP are aware of HIP, so The Food Project provides extensive HIP education, marketing and outreach to expand awareness, of which Farm Credit East contributed funds in 2021.

Anne concluded, “When organizations like Farm Credit East give us a few thousand dollars, we’re able to increase awareness, which opens doors for people to have better access to food, and it’s really amazing.”

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

After attending a New Jersey Agricultural Society event, Mark joined class 10 of the New Jersey Agricultural Leadership Development Program. Following graduation, he wanted to be more involved with the New Jersey Ag Society, so he became treasurer of the organization in 2017 — a position he has held ever since. Through programs such as Farmers Against Hunger, which gleans surplus products from farms, grocery stores and wholesalers to distribute to those in need, and the Learning Through Gardening program, which provides New Jersey elementary and preschools with grants to build vegetable gardens and trains teachers to use those gardens as outdoor classrooms, the New Jersey Agricultural Society aims to preserve and enhance farming and agriculture throughout the Garden State.

BUFFALO GO GREEN

BuffaloGoGreen.org

Buffalo Go Green was founded with the mission to enhance wellness in underserved communities by way of improving access to healthy food. At its core, Buffalo Go Green is an urban farm, but its efforts expand well beyond just growing healthy food.

While Western New York is home to lush farms, Allison DeHonney, CEO and executive director of Buffalo Go Green, noticed a disconnect between that healthy food and access to it among residents in urban centers. The organization was founded to close that gap by bringing food production right into Buffalo’s east side, where food apartheid exists, Allison explained.

Buffalo Go Green constructs greenhouses and raised beds on vacant city lots to grow food which is then sold through mobile and farmers’ markets. In addition to food production, they partner with clinics and physicians who believe food is medicine to offer a fruits and vegetables prescription program.

Allison described another core part of their mission is to educate people of color who’ve been separated from the land due to racism and trauma. They work diligently to get them integrated back into agriculture and the food system by teaching them the history of agriculture, including information about growing and how food is prepared.

Buffalo Go Green partners with a number of organizations to further their mission, including Northeast SARE, Cornell University, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and many others. “These partnerships are instrumental in helping us grow our technical knowledge in agriculture,” commented Allison.

Last winter, Farm Credit East provided Buffalo Go Green with a grant to grow their operations. “Funds were used to repair raised beds, purchase fertilizer and purchase additional outfittings needed for our high tunnel greenhouses, such as another wash sink to accommodate necessary COVID-19 sanitation precautions,” said Allison. Farm Credit East has also supported Buffalo Go Green partner organizations, including the Providence Farm Collective and the Greater Buffalo Urban Growers.

Farm Credit East realizes the importance of organizations such as Buffalo Go Green to not only connect urban residents and those in underserved communities with access to fresh, healthy food, but also to grow diversity within the agriculture industry — an area where Farm Credit East strives to do better. Farm Credit East looks forward to furthering partnerships with organizations like Buffalo Go Green and expanding its resources and offerings to help grow a more diverse agricultural community in the Northeast.

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Since 2019, Myra has served on the board of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). The organization’s mission is to strengthen local farms and engage the community to build the local food economy. Myra currently serves as clerk of CISA’s executive committee and member of both the finance committee and the racial equity task force. Myra says that as the organization has matured, it recognizes the need for more thoughtfulness about equity and inclusion in their work. Earlier this year, Farm Credit East contributed $5,000 to help advance CISA’s work in achieving a more racially just and resilient farm and food system.

THREE RIVER FARMERS ALLIANCE

ThreeRiverFa.com

Founded and owned by farmers, Three River Farmers Alliance aims to develop relationships between local farms, customers and businesses with the vision to create healthy communities and expand economic opportunities for regional farmers and producers.

Early on, the four founders realized the benefit of working together to meet the same goals. With a combined infrastructure, they could expand their economic opportunities and extend their network to local farms that might not have the capital, staff and other resources necessary to reach expanded markets. Three River Farmers Alliance fills the gap, providing the logistics of transportation, storage, sales, customer service, marketing, etc., to allow small farmers to attain those business opportunities.

Traditionally, Three River Farmers Alliance served wholesale markets. But when COVID-19 struck, they pivoted their business model overnight to direct-tocustomer home delivery sales. The alliance has been growing rapidly ever since.

In the spring of 2021, Three River Farmers Alliance was a recipient of Farm Credit East’s inaugural Lipinski Rural Initiatives Award in recognition of their efforts to revitalize rural Northeast communities.

“Our infrastructure wasn’t able to sustain the level we were growing,” said Evan Eppler, operations director of Three River Farmers Alliance. “Since being granted the Lipinski award — which was absolutely incredible — we have been able to move into a better facility and are working on building interior refrigeration and setting up a loading-dock accessible area.”

“Our mission is to support local agriculture, and we’re able to do that through the network and infrastructure we’ve created that small farms and businesses may not have the ability to do,” Evan continued. “As we grow, we keep returning our revenue to infrastructure improvements, which creates jobs and we’re able to offer more services to our farmers. The more we’re able to grow, the more successful we’ll be in supporting our mission and local agriculture.”

When the Farm Credit East Board of Directors established the Lipinski Rural Initiatives Award, it aimed to further the recipients’ mission to make a positive impact in rural communities into the future. Three River Farmers Alliance embodies the award’s intent, connecting farmers to expanded market opportunities and extending access to fresh, local food among residents in the communities the organization serves.

Shirley Spencer Senior Credit Analyst, Batavia, N.Y.

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT

Shirley recently wrapped up a 10year tenure with the New York State 4-H Foundation where she’s served as a trustee and treasurer, helping to coordinate financial contributions to help support the NYS 4-H program mission and programing. Her favorite program has been Career Explorations, a three-day event for high school students to explore career possibilities across several different fields, including engineering, animal science, food science, environmental science and astronomy. In addition to Shirley’s involvement, Farm Credit is a longstanding sponsor of the Foundation’s annual golf tournament, the organization’s largest fundraiser to provide ongoing support for NYS 4-H programing.