{"id":5988,"date":"2013-06-30T18:00:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-01T00:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=5988"},"modified":"2013-12-06T12:12:41","modified_gmt":"2013-12-06T19:12:41","slug":"usda-program-helps-new-mexico-farmer-turn-milk-and-honey-into-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/obtaining-equity-investment\/usda-program-helps-new-mexico-farmer-turn-milk-and-honey-into-money\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA Program Helps New Mexico Farmer Turn Milk and Honey Into Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Terry

By Terry Brunner, State Director, USDA Rural Development Agency<\/p><\/div>\n

Daven Lee got much more than money when she received a $12,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Rural Development program in 2010.<\/p>\n

After eight years of selling her handmade soaps and lotion bars at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and other local outlets, the owner of Milk & Honey Soap wanted to go from retail to wholesale. But first she needed a business plan \u2013 complete with financial projections \u2013 that could attract big investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe funding allowed me to bring in a business adviser,\u201d she said of the funding that matched her own $12,500 investment. \u201cI wanted a road map.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organic Roots<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lee began her business on a small scale at her farm in Glorieta, where she kept the bees and Nubian goats that provided some of the raw materials \u2014 goat\u2019s milk, honey and beeswax \u2014 that go into her artisan soaps. She contracted with two farmers market colleagues \u2014 local beekeeper Steve Wall and Pe\u00f1asco farmer Heather Harrell \u2014 to supply her with essential ingredients: large quantities of beeswax and medicinal calendula flowers.<\/p>\n

Lee did everything in the beginning \u2014 tending to her bees and goats, gathering honey, milking the goats and manufacturing the soaps. She has since retired from beekeeping, given her goats to another family and moved to Santa Fe with her children.<\/p>\n

These business decisions are part of her larger plan to increase production and outreach well beyond Northern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Work That\u2019s Worth It<\/strong><\/p>\n

The USDA Rural Development agency awards Value Added Producer Grants to businesses like Milk & Honey Soap that use agricultural products to create something that\u2019s more than the sum of its parts, such as jelly made from chiles or salsa made from tomatoes or ethanol made from corn.<\/p>\n

The money \u2014 up to $100,000 for planning grants and $300,000 for capital grants \u2014 can be used to manufacture the product, expand marketing or conduct a feasibility study. But the business owner must be able to match the requested grant amount, either in cash or in-kind contributions of space, equipment and time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work,\u201d Lee acknowledged. \u201cIt\u2019s not \u2018free\u2019 money; you\u2019re going to earn it.\u201d But if you work with someone who\u2019s done it before and take advantage of educational resources offered by groups like the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, the process is a lot less daunting, she said.<\/p>\n

The program gives priority to beginning farmers and ranchers or those at a social disadvantage because of race or gender. Small or medium-size operations structured as a family farm or cooperative go to the head of the line.<\/p>\n

Each fiscal year, applications are solicited through a Notice of Funding Availability published in the Federal Register. This year\u2019s recipients are picked, but applications for the annual grant will be accepted again in October of this year.\u00a0 For more information about New Mexico\u2019s Value Added Producer Grants, please call 505-761-4953 or email Eric Vigil at eric.vigil@nm.usda.gov<\/a>. For a list of the state\u2019s Rural Development offices by region, visit http:\/\/www.rurdev.usda.gov\/NMContact.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download 300_USDA Program Helps New Mexico Farmer Turn Milk and Honey Into Money<\/a>\u00a0PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daven Lee got much more than money when she received a $12,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Rural Development program in 2010. After eight years of selling her handmade soaps and lotion bars at the Santa Fe Farmers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5988"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6788,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988\/revisions\/6788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}