Trudy Kareus, state executive director of the Farm Service Agency in Colorado, reminds producers that FSA makes and guarantees loans to provide financial assistance and business planning that help ensure the future well-being of American agriculture. Each fiscal year, FSA targets a portion of its direct and guaranteed farm ownership and operating loan funds to beginning farmers and socially disadvantaged applicants.
A beginning farmer is an individual or entity who has not operated a farm for more than 10 years, substantially participates in the operation, and does not own a farm greater than 30 percent of the median size farm in the county. If the applicant is an entity, all members must be related by blood or marriage, and all members in a corporation must be eligible beginning farmers.
FSA defines a socially disadvantaged person as one of a group whose members have been subjected to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of their identity as members of the group without regard to their individual qualities.
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