Lender Analysis

What enterprise investments align with system change?

Mark Bowman, June 2016 

​Since 1990 Mark has worked as a loan officer and analyst in WA, OR, and CA with a focus on agriculture, food systems, fiber, and fisheries. Mark was asked to write an analysis of the Ecotrust research from the point of view of a lender.  

Research Chapters

Introduction     |     ​Synthesis     |     Lender Analysis

Grains

Poultry

Greens

Beef

Storage

Pork

The Cascade Foodshed Financing Project coordinator requested a review of the six food categories as presented in the narratives.  The scope of the work includes:

• Review the research narratives with an emphasis on production cost accuracy
• Compare narratives to Oregon Food Infrastructure Gap Analysis
• Identify potential linkages and gaps for investors
• List industry issues, business configuration, and entrepreneur expertise that investors should consider
• Outline what an investment portfolio should look like.

This analysis provided a point of view of system change investments at the enterprise level.
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The following downloadable file (right sidebar) provides Mark's summary of opportunities, a brief description of the potential structure for an aligned investment portfolio, and reviews for each of the six food categories.  Each category is broken into two sections:  1) Important notes from the research narratives that are pertinent to potential investment opportunities; 2) Opportunities for investment derived from the strategy paper and Mark's experiential knowledge of financing and food systems in the Pacific NW.

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Downloadable Files

  Lender Analysis  (254KB)