Family Farms Still Outnumber Corporate Farms
Cropland Consolidation and the Future of Family Farms by James MacDonald Highlights: During the past three decades, U.S. crop production has been shifting to larger farms for most crops and in most States. Despite the shift, family farms continue to dominate U.S. crop production, accounting for 87 percent of the total value of U.S. crop […]
Talking about Land Succession
Here’s a glimpse into what happened in New Brunswick last month at the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN) Symposium. Some words from speakers Jeff Schnurr, Severine von Tscharner Fleming, Mark Bernard and Shannon Jones on “The Quest of Finding Farmland”. Jeff Schnurr -Community Forests International Speaking about: Incubator Farms Thank you to […]
Agricultural Transition: Recognizing the Growing Importance of Farm Transition Issues
Choices Magazine highlights many of the facets of farmland transition in a string of articles around the theme “Transitions in Agriculture”. Among the illuminating writes are: Drivers of Agricultural Transition Retired Farmer – An Elusive Concept The Policy and Legal Environment for Farm Transitions Agriculture, the Tax Code and Potential Tax Reform Credit Markets and […]
Interview with Joel Salatin
The Greenhorns Radio Program covered the ground of agricultural land use and transition with forward-thinking farmer Joel Salatin on the Heritage Radio Network. Salatin described the hurdles for young start-up farmers and offers solutions to the growing problem of the aging farm population. Salatin offers as a case model, the innovation brought forth by young […]
Land Gifting Tradition and Agrarian Trust
The Schumacher Center for a New Economics, a partner of Agrarian Trust tells of the tradition of land gifting and our hopes for an agrarian future. On a shelf in the Library of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics sits a small wooden box with worn leather handle—13 inches by 8 inches by 2 […]
Back on Home Soil: Veteran Small Farm Training
The 2013 Armed to Farm training begins tomorrow in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The week-long session of farm tours and practical information is offered free to a limited number of U.S. veterans and their spouses. It is organized and hosted by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT). Priority was given to returning service personnel from Operation […]
Land Grabbing in Europe
The message that land grabbing is happening in Europe is urgently being spread by the agricultural activist group Via Campesina. Via Campesina is an international movement of peasants, small- and medium-sized producers, landless, rural women, indigenous people, rural youth and agricultural workers. Land concentration and land grabbing do not occur only in developing countries in […]
How Do We Trust?
As the Agrarian Trust project forges forward, it seems important to check back and define what this trust idea is really about. I remember my first reflections on mishearing our name as a growing trust, and all the connotations that came along with my understanding of what a trust is. In current language, as applied […]
Broken economy breaking ground in Spain
In the small Spanish town of Marinaleda, some innovative villagers have found an agrarian solution to the country’s 27% unemployment rate. Giving every villager the opportunity to farm a 2500 acre community parcel has chiseled this small town’s unemployment rate down to a remarkable zero. The Collectivist model has offered a unique solution to a […]
300 acre organic farm promised to Practical Farmers of Iowa
In a move inspired by one couple’s love of the land, 300 acres was entrusted into the hands of Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI). Tom and Irene Frantzen spent more than a year developing a generational plan to keep their 300 acre organic New Hampton farm in sustainable practice for years to come. Through help […]