LD 2086
pg. 5
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LR 1338
Item 1

 
 
SUMMARY

 
This bill creates the Maine Farms for the Future Program.
This program provides funds to assist farms in developing
business plans to identify changes in farm management practices
and investments in equipment and property that will increase the
vitality of the farm. The Department of Agriculture, Food and
Rural Resources, referred to in this summary as the "department,"
administers the program or contracts with a suitable organization
to administer the program.

 
The program operates in 2 phases; the first phase allows a
farm that has 5 or more acres of land in agricultural use to
apply for assistance in developing a business plan and the 2nd
phase allows a farm that has developed a business plan with the
program to apply for investment support to implement the plan.
Both selection processes are conducted by a review panel
organized by the department.

 
The first phase, in which participants are initially selected
for the program, requires the panel to make its selections
pursuant to selection criteria that include the opportunity for
increasing the vitality of the farm due to factors such as the
capability of the applicant to effect positive changes in farm
operation, the suitability of the land in agricultural use to
sustain those changes, the degree of threat to continued
agricultural use of the land due to the financial capacity and
current farm management practices of the applicant and
development pressures in the area where the farm is located. If
the farm is selected for the program, the program will assist the
farm in assembling a package of outside services including
financial, marketing, business and farm support persons or
organizations and provide instruction or classroom training in
economics and business to the farm's owner or operator to help
develop a business plan over the period of a year. The business
plan must look to increase the vitality of the farm through
changes in farm management practices and investments in equipment
or property. If a farm is selected in this phase, the farm must
enter into a 5-year first farmland protection agreement in which
the farm agrees to protect the farmland from nonagricultural
development. The farm may withdraw from the agreement if the
farm repays the department for any outside service reimbursement
and any direct services provided the farm by the department.

 
The 2nd phase, in which farms that have developed business
plans pursuant to the first phase are selected for investment
support to implement the plan, requires the review panel to make
its selections pursuant to selection criteria that include


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