91制片厂

Sustainability matters to Abby Lamothe. During her sophomore year, the business administration/accounting major took the courses Food and Society and Food and Class as electives. She began looking at food 鈥渢hrough a different lens,鈥� she says, and became especially interested in the acceptance and use of food stamps at farmers markets. By the time she started her junior year, Lamothe had become active in the local food movement and a fixture at the North Berwick farmers market just over the border in Maine, where she volunteered.

One day during Advanced Managerial Accounting class in the fall semester of her senior year, was explaining different accounting theories using an example Lamothe could relate to 鈥� a dairy farmer.

It was an 鈥渁h ha鈥� moment for the Dover native, whose honors thesis deadline loomed. 鈥淚 had been thinking about my thesis, but nothing had jazzed me up to that point,鈥� says Lamothe. 鈥淏ut here was a chance to meld my food interests perfectly into my accounting interests.鈥� After the lecture she approached Hasseldine, and her thesis project was born: Farm Business Management: A Localized Analysis of Financial Tools Utilized in Agribusiness.

She set out to learn more about the accounting systems used in agribusiness. To start, she conducted 21 meetings with seven area farms, gathering information about farm sizes, product lines, pricing and accounting structures, and witnessing the operations during on-site visits. She expected to find that regardless of what types of products farms were producing, the underlying accounting systems would be the same, but instead she found that every business had a different cost structure and calculated differently. 鈥淚 realized that pursuing this further would result in a 5,000-page thesis, which wasn鈥檛 feasible,鈥澨齃amothe says.

She talked with Hasseldine, then zeroed in on three farms that had an overlapping product 鈥� broiler chickens 鈥� to look for similarities and differences in their accounting systems. Lamothe examined a dozen aspects of their operations to 鈥渇igure out the nooks and crannies.鈥� She looked at the amount of square footage the broilers had, slaughter cycles and feeds, for example. 鈥淪ince my focus was on the cost accounting side of things, these are really important factors that farmers need to know and understand. If the broilers are raised for six weeks, how much does that cost in terms of labor and feed? Would a 12-week cycle produce better meat and therefore greater value, and would it be cost-effective?鈥� These are the kinds of variables farmers take into consideration, says Lamothe, because all affect their bottom line.

Once she got the analytics going, Lamothe began to see similarities and patterns. 鈥淚 was able to make comparisons 鈥� among the three farms, themselves, and to industry standards.

鈥淭hey trusted me with their secret financial data,鈥� Lamothe says. 鈥淚t was really rewarding.鈥�

During weekly meetings, Lamothe and Hasseldine caught up on her progress.

鈥淎bby was simply the most prepared student at 91制片厂 I have had the pleasure to supervise,鈥� says Hasseldine. 鈥淪he would make our meeting schedule, produce an agenda, bring a print out of documentation and reference material and be ready to discuss the next steps. Every week, I鈥檇 get a narrative and her enthusiastic update.鈥�

In the end, Lamothe shared her results with the three farms. 鈥淚 wanted to bring it full circle,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 got great information; I wanted them to get great information, too.鈥� She has kept in touch with the businesses.

Hasseldine says that while many accounting projects deal with big-picture aspects of the accounting environment, such as technical rules for auditing companies and intricate details of tax laws, 鈥淎bby鈥檚 project was simply different in a very refreshing way. She identified the research problem herself and adapted the textbook approach of Managerial Accounting to study real-life issues and decisions that farmers need to consider. Essentially, she was studying sustainability from an accounting viewpoint on a local perspective.鈥澨�

Lamothe says it was 鈥渘ice to bring a fresh new topic to the accounting department,鈥� and it helped fuel her passion about the topic. Today, having graduated in May from the one-year master's of science in accounting program at the , she is studying for the CPA exam. In the fall, she鈥檒l begin working as a staff auditor for Baker Newman Noyes at the firm鈥檚 Manchester, New Hampshire, office.

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Photography by Scott Lamothe

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