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FFF Evaluation Highlights PDF Print E-mail

In the fall of 2007, Pan Atlantic SMS Group of Portland, Maine, was hired to conduct an evaluation assessing the impact of the FFF program. The results were overwhelmingly positive. Farms for the Future has been successful in improving farm economic viability while at the same time protecting Maine’s working farmland.

FFF farms have created jobs for total of 71 new farm employees, with an additional 59 expected in the next 3 years. Furthermore, FFF farmers report that gross sales have increased by an average of $39,000, or 37.3%, per farm, between the time of their FFF implementation grant award (2001-2006) and December 2006.

The majority of FFF farmers reported that their net profits, production, and efficiency have increased due to participation in the program. More than half of all farmers surveyed reported that they have entered new markets, developed new products and have incorporated new technologies as a result of being in the program.

The evaluation revealed that the leverage of state funds is a factor of 5 to 1: FFF farmers have invested $7.74 million beyond the $1.57 million awarded in FFF grants. Meanwhile, approximately 18,000 acres of farmland have been protected from development for at least 5 years - a condition of receiving a FFF grant.

Access the full text of the evaluation here.

Read a February 28, 2008 Bangor Daily News article on the impact of Farms for the Future.

 

CEI IN THE NEWS!

The results are in! Learn what the evaluation of the Farms for the Future disclosed ... 

Ron Phillips, President of CEI, speaks on public television’s “Conversations with Maine.” 

ImageMaine Legislature Passes Model Anti-Predatory Lending Bill.

Review LD 1869 here.

Predatory Mortgages in Maine Recent Trends and the Persistence of Abusive Lending Practices. A joint report issued by Coastal Enterprises, Inc. and the Center for Responsible Lending, 2006.

CEI receives SCED award for CED excellence. 

Announcing the publication, Telling Their Stories: Women Business Owners in Western Maine 

Read about NMTC's $120 million allocation to CEI.

CEI worked with a broad coalition to get the Office of Consumer Credit Regulations to study the impacts of payday lending.   

The Maine Working Waterfront Coalition works to help save commercial fishing access properties.

36 Water Street, PO Box 268, Wiscasset, ME 04578; Telephone: 207/882-7552; FAX: 207/882-7308; E-mail: cei@ceimaine.org