SCHEDULE

Reggie Knox

reggie_knox

Executive Director

CA FarmLink

Reggie has been working on behalf of farmers and sustainable agriculture for 30 years and joined California FarmLink in 2004 to help beginning and low-resource farmers access land and capital. He became executive director in 2011, and facilitated the growth of FarmLink’s loan fund, and the organization’s emergence in 2013 as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) focused on sustainable agriculture development. FarmLink uses its CDFI status and US Department of Agriculture programs to leverage funds from banks under the Community Reinvestment Act and direct capital into low-income farming communities. FarmLink trains and finances beginning and immigrant farmers including a growing demographic of Latino entrepreneurs who are former field and food processing workers. These farmers are central to the future of diverse, regional food systems in California. FarmLink helps farmers find land, develop sound lease agreements, transition farms to the next generation, build equity and identify pathways to farm ownership. In 2015, the organization launched a collaborative farm mortgage program to supplement its farm operating and infrastructure loans.

During his career Reggie developed expertise in organic production and certification, agricultural development and policy, non-profit management, farmland lease and succession strategies. As Program Director at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, he ran the Lighthouse Farm Network, organizing farmer networks in 14 regions to address resource conservation and economic options for small farmers. Earlier, he worked on the development and implementation of national organic standards; on sustainable agricultural development projects in Sri Lanka, India and Africa; and co-managing an eleven-acre organic farm.

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