Wall Street Banks Eye American Farmland
From the Oakland Institute: The wolves of Wall Street are eyeing millions of acres of U.S. farmland that will soon come up for sale, much of which has been in the hands of family farmers for generations, according to Down on the Farm, a new study from the Oakland Institute. “Institutional investors”–including hedge funds, private equity, […]
News in Farm Justice from Agrarian Trust Advisor Elizabeth Henderson
Farmworker Organizations Give Strong Support to the Agricultural Justice Project By Elizabeth Henderson Unique among domestic fair trade claims, farmworkers and farmers negotiated directly with one another to hammer out the standards of the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP). The goal of these standards, which are the basis of AJP’s Food Justice Certified label, is to […]
Urban Shepherds Graze in the Commons
Another bold group has taken to public spaces, aiming to revitalize urban centers through agriculture. French group Clinamen is working in partnership with the city of Saint-Denis, Stade de France, the Ile-de-France and Cofely to redefine the public concept of urban spaces. (Clinamen is the word that 2nd century philosopher Lucretius used to describe the […]
New Farm Finance Options Guide: Affording Our Land
In April of 2013, Kendra Johnson, Severine Fleming, and Kristen Loria completed the guidebook “Affording our land: a farmers guide to farm finance options.” It has been at the head of our growing Resource List and is available for free to download. This guidebook is meant as a compilatory resource for farmers looking for land, […]
How Globilization Effects Farmers and the Food We Eat
Early in 2013, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), published this paper on what we call “land grabs”, or purchase of farmland by non-farming parties. Land Grabs and Fragile Food Systems: The Role of Globalization, by Sophia Murphy Used under creative commons license from CIMMYT. Farmers around the world are having land they’ve […]
Agrarian Investments in New England
Making a profit off of real estate investment is no new thing, even when it comes to farmland. Land grabs make the land valuable without valuing the land. There are some investment groups, though, that aim to invest in land sustainably. One such group is The Entrepreneur Agrarian Fund (EAF), a private equity fund establishing […]
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 […]
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 […]