Farmer Mac - Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation - FAMC

The boring name for it is the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, or FAMC. The cool name? “Farmer Mac.” Really though.

Farmer Mac, similar to “Freddie Mac,” is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) that gives out mortgages and repackages them into pools of marketable securities. Unlike Freddie Mac though, Farmer Mac is all about the farmers. Farmer Mac was created by the U.S. government to ease the farmer loan market after the farm crisis in the 80s left farmers with high interest rates and low income.

Nowadays, Farmer Mac is used by farmers and rural folk to get mortgage-backed securities with low-cost financing, which isn’t always easy for low-income agricultural workers through the mainstream city-folk channels.

It ain’t easy being in the agri-biz.