Often when we cover agriculture, we look at what and how farmers are growing. But the infrastructure that undergirds every farm in America is finance. This week’s guest on Sea Change Radio, author Dean Kuipers, explores how farms get the money they need to grow the food we eat. In his recently published Orion magazine article, “Buying the Farm,” Kuipers picks apart the financial landscape of agriculture and compares financing for big agri-business versus smaller sustainable farming. Today we delve into the different models for financing agriculture not only in the U.S. but globally, examine how one small San Francisco bank is backing sustainable farmers, and take a peek at how an Illinois-based organic bean farmer is getting a leg up on the competition.
