New Regulations Could Hurt Local Food Systems
Land Access is only one of the obstacles facing beginning farmers. Once these young agrarians have found access and financing for land, they enter the maze of barriers that face all small farmers. Public comment is open until November 15th on a recent proposed regulation that could serve as a major barrier for small farmers. […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Agriculture Advocates Use Theatre to Protest Development in California
A group of vegetables were bulldozed inside an East Bay location of Sprouts Farmers Market–a grocery store chain with 160 locations throughout the Southwest and Western United States. Sprouts Farmers Market recently entered a development contract with the University of California Berkeley to develop what is currently a piece of agricultural land into a new […]
All the News That’s Fit to Print: New York Times Op-Ed Piece Advocates for Farmers
A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times winds through the hills of upstate New York looking for a solution to keeping agricultural land in the hands of farmers. “In the next 20 years, 70 percent of the nation’s farmland will change hands.Farmers do not live forever, and most farm kids do not choose […]