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Avoiding Farm Foreclosure Through Mediation Of Agricultural Loan Disputes: An Overview Of State And Federal Legislation, Donna L. Malter

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The use of credit played a major role in the growth of agricultural productivity in the United States.' In recent years, however, the financial distress faced by farmers resulted in a record number of farm foreclosures and bank closures in agricultural states. 2 Farm losses are concentrated in the mid-size farms, indicating that the owner-operated farm has been hit the hardest.3 The attendant social and economic turmoil faced by families and communities dependant on agriculture focused attention on the responsibility of federal and state government in preventing further losses within the families and communities that comprise the agricultural sector.