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Maine Farms PDF Print E-mail
CEI has a long history supporting Maine farms, stretching back to some of our earliest projects (from the late 1970s and early 1980s). We provide both financing in the form of loans and targeted business advice on a variety of topics.

In 1995, CEI created a special program called the Maine Farms Project to specifically target this important sector. Tremendous opportunities exist within Maine agriculture for business development, as well as for improving our environment and supporting our rural communities.

From 1995 to 2004, CEI's Maine Farms Project has supported over 350 Maine farmers with a broad array of services, which include:

  • business planning
  • marketing assistance
  • graphic design (for logos, brochures, and more)
  • farmer training
  • financing (grants and loans)
  • special projects (often targeting farmers in a specific region)

The focus of CEI's work has been on small and medium-sized farms that are trying to innovate or access new markets, or on new farmers who are just starting out. A recent thrust has involved new immigrants who once farmed in their native countries, but need assistance to become farmers in Maine. CEI works with both conventional and organic growers.

Through the Maine Farms Project, CEI has also been involved in activities that go beyond direct services provided to farmers. These include efforts that:

  • preserve farmland
  • increase consumer purchasing of local farm products
  • raise awareness about community food security
  • create positive changes in state and federal agricultural policy

CEI accomplishes this work in partnership with many other organizations. Major partners include:

Eat Local Foods Coalition of Maine

Maine Department of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Resources

Maine Farmland Trust

Maine Small Business Development Centers

Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners' Association

University of Maine Cooperation Extension

 

 

Learn more about the services offered by the Maine Farms Project at CEI

» About the Maine Farms Project

» Farm Financing

» Farm Counseling

» Farms for the Future

» Image Building Concepts

» New American Farmers

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.

Lewiston Farmers Market - More than a place to buy produce

In the spring of 2004, the Lewiston Farmers Market opened for its first season.

Every Monday afternoon in Kennedy Park, a half a dozen vendors sold vegetables, flowers and specialty foods. Amid the lettuce, honey and sunflowers, were farmers from as near as Sabattus and as far as Guatemala. Where else in Maine would you find a farmers market with vendors from eleven countries: Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Peru, Colombia, Sudan, and Somalia as well as the US. They are all part of CEI's New Americans Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP), which helps "new" refugee and immigrant farmers build their technical and business skills, find land for growing, and markets for selling their products.
 
Through its Americorps/VISTA program, CEI organized the market as a way to bring fresh, locally grown food into a predominantly low income urban neighborhood and create a new venue for small farmers. A lot of work goes into setting up a market. CEI organized the farmers, worked with the City, set-up a non-profit organization, designed a logo, helped develop the market processes and procedures, and made sure farmers could accept food stamps.

A big event at this year's market was the creation of the NASAP mural, funded by Heifer International. More than 40 people, including farmers, children and community members, joined with Maine-based artist Natasha Mayers to create a mural depicting flags, vegetables, symbols and people of the countries represented at Maine's newest farmers market.
36 Water Street, PO Box 268, Wiscasset, ME 04578; Telephone: 207/882-7552; FAX: 207/882-7308; E-mail: cei@ceimaine.org