Farmer Mac Officials Discuss Strategies to Stabilize Firm Top directors and officials from Farmer Mac, the government-chartered organization that provides funding for agricultural loans across the U.S., met late Tuesday in Washington to discuss ways to stabilize the company. Farmer Mac faces heavy losses due to its holdings of tens of millions of dollars worth of investments that have rapidly lost value, including preferred stock of its cousin, Fannie Mae, which was seized by the government earlier this month, and Lehman Brother Holdings Inc., the collapsed investment bank. The company's options include raising capital by issuing new stock or selling assets. If the company can't raise capital, its regulator, the Farm Credit Administration, could downgrade its rating, the first time this has happened in its history. That could hurt banks that hold equity stakes in the company and could also curb its ability to make new loans. Farmer Mac, which is formally called the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp., was created by Congress in 1988. The company buys mortgages and other loans that banks make to farmers and ranchers in rural America. Farmer Mac then repackages the loans into asset-backed securities. That business model has come under pressure this year as credit markets have seized up....