Congratulations to National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition member California FarmLink! 

On Thursday, June 30, USDA announced the recipients of the latest round of awards for its Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP) and Rural Community Development Initiative Program (RCDI).  California FarmLink is one of six organizations selected to receive RMAP funding to support rural microenterprise.  RMAP supports organizations that help rural borrowers with microloans, technical assistance, or business planning.

Caifornia FarmLink, located in Sebastopol, California, works to build family farming and conserve farmland.  They will receive a $500,000 loan and a $105,000 grant to provide technical assistance and services and disseminate information that facilitates inter-generational farm transitions.

RCDI awards grants to public or nonprofit organizations promote economic growth in low-income, rural communities.  In this round, RCDI included grants to promote local and regional food systems and sustainable agriculture in the mix of awards.  Local food system grantees included Sage Community Resources in southwest Idaho, Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development in southwest Iowa, and Regional Development, Inc., also in Iowa.  We hope to provide more information in the near future about the those projects.