Farm Profile: Loud Pond Farm
On Saturday, April 26th, in Berkeley, California, Wes Jackson spoke to a crowd gathered for Our Land Symposium where an audience of folks engaged in the work it will take to recover America’s farmland eagerly listened. To paraphrase some of what he offered as necessary in this reimagining, we must be motivated by intrinsic rewards, […]
Farm Profile: Camas Swale Farm
photographs by Jason Rydquist Amber Lippert and Jonah Bloch grow vegetables for a buyers club and some restaurants as Camas Swale Farm. Last year they grew for their 80 CSA shares. This year, through an unexpected change in land tenure, they’ve chosen to keep the operation small to have the time and attention needed for […]
$20.5 Million in Farmland Protection Funding Announced in NY
Governor Cuomo Announces $20.5 Million Available for Farmland Protection Grants Offered for First Time in Five Years May 14, 2014 Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the availability of $20.5 million to aid farmland protection efforts and help prevent viable agricultural land from being converted to non-agricultural use. Eligible entities, including municipalities, counties, soil and water […]
Plans to Develop Shelved in RI: Land Returns to Agriculture
By Richard Salit from the Providence Journal Plans to convert historic Di Meo farm in Johnston into housing duplexes upset conservationists and forced the farmer leasing the land to relocate out of state earlier this year. But now Michael Di Meo, owner of the property, has shelved his plans to develop the land and is […]
Educational Farm May Gain More Land: Voters Make Decision
By Scott Mitchell Johnson of the Presque Isle Star-Herald PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — The approval of a special article at the May 14 district budget meeting would add 34 acres to the SAD 1 Educational Farm. According to Superintendent Gehrig Johnson, the district has been approached by a local investment group that is offering to […]
Farming Without Profit: NPR Looks at Part-time Farmers
Listen to the Story by Dan Charles from NPR Every five years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture carries out a census of farmers: who they are, and what they are doing on their farms. The agency just released the , and it’s a feast for all ag geeks. And here’s the very first, most basic […]
Wood Colony Feels Urban Pressure
From The New York Times by Patricia Lee Brown MODESTO, Calif. — Farmers and other residents of the rural district known as Wood Colony refer to the 110-year-old arboreal landmark in their midst — a gigantic walnut tree of Grimm’s fairy-tale proportions — as, simply, the Tree. To many people in this unincorporated community, settled […]
Town of Amherst, MA Proposes Incubator Program
By Diane Lederman from MassLive AMHERST – Town Meeting has supported spending Community Preservation Act money to help buy a nearly 20-acre parcel of land of Belchertown Road that the town plans to use for myriad agricultural and resource protection projects. Last November, the meeting rejected the request to spend $41,785 in Community Preservation Act […]
New Food First Backgrounder Addresses Land Reform and Resistance in the United States
OAKLAND, Calif., May 1, 2014 – The disastrous effects of widespread land grabbing and land concentration sweeping the globe do not affect all farmers equally. The degree of vulnerability to these threats is highest for smallholders, women and people of color—the ones who grow, harvest, process and prepare most of the world’s food. A new […]
Oregon Farmland Lost After Years of Battle
by Katherine Driessen from oregonlive.com The VanderZanden name carries both the wounds and potential bounty of years of land-use battles. Some members of the deeply rooted Washington County farm family will turn a substantial profit when they, inevitably, sell their tulip farm and hundreds of rural acres running along Northwest Jackson School Road near […]