A Brief History of How We Lost the Commons
In an article published earlier this year by Guernica Magazine, Peter Barnes investigates how humankind lost “The Commons”, the land that once belonged to everyone. He follows a quick lineage from hunter-gatherers to the culture of Ancient Rome, and onward into the present. His closing argument reiterates the mission of Agrarian Trust: “The world today […]
LandFund: What they’re doing with $7 million
An acquisition of $7 million worth of farmland by the Nashville-based closed-end private equity firm LandFund is a stark recent example of why those concerned with responsible stewardship of the land need to act soon to preserve our agricultural lands. An article in The Tennessean breaks down the reasons why investing in farmland is so […]
Land is the New Gold
The three year-old Land Access Project (LAP), an initiative of New England-based Land for Good, has made countless contributions to defining and solving issues around farmland access. Their report on farmland investment directly addresses the financial side of farmland for the next generation. The report, Farmland Investors: An Exploration for New England and Beyond, presents […]
Saving American Farmland for Farmers
“Imagine a country where ideologues bent on land reform turn agriculture into the plaything of the world’s richest investors, and poor local farmers are locked out of millions of acres prime agricultural land. Then stop imagining some African country run by a despot and his friends and start picturing the United States. Rural America is […]
Farm Profile: Greyrock Farm
Matt Volz had been working the small farm circuit on either side of Lake Champlain, both in upstate New York and Vermont, when he decided to head back to the town he calls home, Cazenovia, NY. “I was really looking for a management position,” Matt recalls, “I wanted to save enough money to eventually buy […]
Clean Ohio Fund: Farmland Preservation in the Buckeye State
In the many middle states that keep the heart of agriculture beating in our country, agricultural protection programs are generally more scarce than in the northeast and western states, where development has long threatened a vibrant farm economy. The Clean Ohio Agricultural Easement Purchase Program (AEPP) purchases agricultural easements from landowners who volunteer to keep […]
The New American Farmer
A research paper from the Transnational Institute draws on ethnographic research conducted in the Central Coast of California and the Northern Neck of Virginia, where a significant number of Mexican farmworkers are in the process of transitioning to small-scale family-run farm owner/operators, despite race and ethnicity based discrimination. Although they attempt to succeed as small-scale, […]
Farm Profile: Blue Ox Organics
From the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, head east into Wisconsin for just over an hour to find the land Caleb and Lauren Langworthy lovingly farm and call their own. The couple runs Blue Ox Organics. They began farming on rented land, with a year-to-year lease agreement. “We pretty quickly into that […]
Report Addresses Helping the Farmers that Feed New York City
GrowNYC has put out a report detailing the challenges of the farmers that supply New York City’s Greenmarket. The report is Farmers on the Edge: An Assessment of Greenmarket Farmers Needs, and the Growing Challenges of Keeping Their Farms Viable. The report details various regions throughout the Northeast and the challenges faced by beginning farmers […]
Conserving Local Farms in New York
The Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC) is protecting agricultural land in New York’s Columbia County. The Conserve a Local Farm (CALF) program protects farmland by establishing conservation agreements, or easements, on property that limits non-agricultural use. The organization identifies at-risk land, then partners with conservation-minded buyers. They also promote relationships between farmers and investors through their […]