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The Farm Credit Northeast AgEnhancement Program, a joint effort of Farm Credit East and CoBank, recently provided more than $100,000 in grant funding to 22 organizations to assist their efforts to encourage youth leadership development, support young and beginning farmer initiatives, promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and advance northeast agriculture, forestry and commercial fishing. 

At Farm Credit East’s 2022 Annual Meeting, the financial cooperative was pleased to announce two winners of the second annual Lipinski Rural Initiatives award. This award was created by Farm Credit East’s Board of Directors in 2020 to recognize former Farm Credit East CEO Bill Lipinski and aims to recognize innovative and transformational efforts to revitalize Northeast rural communities.

While Northeast businesses and employees have benefited from loans approved through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the second critical step is to achieve maximum forgiveness of the loan. Farm Credit East hosted a webinar on July 23, to provide a top-to-bottom guide on preparing for PPP loan forgiveness.

Due to concerns related to the coronavirus, Farm Credit East's 2020 Annual Meeting was held by webinar and teleconference March 23, 2020. This meeting began with the 2020 Director Candidate Forum which was followed by a report from the Nominating Committee, Chair and CEO. This meeting also invited voting stockholders to participate in approving this year’s slate of director candidates and next year’s nominating committee.

Farm Credit East hosted a webinar that gave an outlook on the Northeast fruit and vegetable season. This webinar covered the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Northeast growers, market disruptions, and how production and marketing has shifted to reflect the current environment. Managing workers and their health was also covered. The webinar was co-sponsored by the New York State Vegetable Growers Association.

A cornerstone provision of the CARES Act is the Paycheck Protection Program, a forgivable loan program administered by the Small Business Administration, to provide loans to businesses impacted by the current state of the economy. Two webinars were held on Monday, April 6, to help explain the basics of the program, what size loan you may qualify for and how this program could assist your ag businesses with near-term payroll expenses. 

If you are interested in adding a methane digester to your dairy operation, view the recording for a webinar on renewable natural gas methane digesters for dairy farms. Paul Sousa from Western United Dairies presented an overview of digester economics, policy considerations, incentives and operational factors. Paul also discussed climate policies and legislation and how dairy methane gas fits in. Whether you are considering partnering with a renewable energy developer, operating a facility yourself, leasing space for a digester, or just want to learn more about this opportunity, give the recording a watch.

2020 was a crazy year with the impact of COVID-19 on schools and foodservice markets. What does 2021 look like? Farm Credit East and Dr. Chris Wolf, Cornell University, presented a webinar on Thursday, January 21 to give an overview of the economy, changes to milk production and sales, dairy markets around the world, and other factors that may influence the coming year for dairy producers in the Northeast.

Dr. Ed Seifried, Professor Emeritus of Economics and Business at Lafayette College in Easton, PA, gave his take on what’s happening with the economy and what might be in store as the Northeast moves toward a gradual reopening.

Farm Credit East's webinar on June 11, 2020, presented an outlook for feed, grain and dairy markets. Ken Zuckerberg, lead analyst and senior economist at CoBank, presented insight into what’s happening with feed and grain markets both locally and around the world. Dr. Chris Wolf, professor of applied economics and management at Cornell University, covered dairy markets and what the rest of 2020 has in store.