Building a Food and Agriculture System We Can All Live With

This fact sheet details the Main Street Project's work to create a more sustainable food and agriculture system. By creating a support system for new farmers rooted in sustainable agriculture, the Main Street Project is creating a foundation for a resilient food system that helps mitigate climate change rather than contribute to it. From the Main Street Project's website:

• Training new agripreneurs
  Spanish-language classroom and field training prepares new farmers for the business of running a small-scale free-range poultry operation – part of a larger system of symbiotically connected agricultural enterprises.
• Supporting training graduates through a business incubator process
  New farmers receive ongoing support or “accompaniment” – beginning with agripreneur incubator resources such as business planning and production coaching, transitional access to land and poultry production facilities on incubator sites, and access to financing/marketing support.
  
• Identifying financing options for new agripreneurs
  Farmers who make $20,000 or less a year don’t qualify for conventional financing, so we created the no-collateral Grow a Farmer micro-loan fund to finance start-up costs for chicks and feed.
• Building out a replicable sustainable food and agriculture system
  We’re working with local, regional and national partners to put structures, documentation and collaborations in place to effectively replicate the sustainable system.