Farm Profile: Greenbank Farm
From A Growing Culture An Interview with Jessica Babcock, Farm Manager at Greenbank Farm Greenbank Farm’s collection of red buildings springs up from the slim green stretch that is Whidbey Island. North and a leap over the Puget Sound from Seattle, Washington, the farm brings together wild nature and agriculture, hikers and farmers, herons and […]
Farm Profile: Fortenberry Farm
From Downeast Maine comes a story of land sharing and community cooperation. When an organic blueberry farm nestled in between large commercial operations came up for sale, Peter Collin bought the property to save a small piece of Washington County agriculture for organic use, essentially preserving the existing organic status rather than letting it meet […]
Project Profile: Cooperative Farming Research
This project is being led by Faith Gilbert, who is a big part of the greenhorns, a close partner with Agrarian Trust. It is a year-long project that started in March of this year. Cooperative farming, in which multiple farmers co-manage a single property, could be a powerful tool for keeping farmland in the hands […]
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 […]
Farm Profile: Brookfield Farm
When working with alternative economic models, it is imperative to adopt alternative and innovative ways to do business. At Brookfield Farm in South Amherst, MA, no agreement at all has proved to be the best agreement for managing the 30-odd-year-old biodynamic farm. In 1986, The Biodynamic Farmland Conservation Trust (BFCT) was established by Claire and […]
Farm Profile: Batalden Farms
In the wide-open midwestern states, especially in places like Lamberton, Minnesota, there is no danger of commercial development of farmland. Still, young agrarians like Ryan and Tiffany Batalden face the very real challenges of land access and land tenure. Ryan is a 5th generation farmer who now runs a successful 350-acre organic farm, but making […]
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 […]
Farmer Profile: Brittany Cole Bush
My name is Brittany Cole Bush and Iʼm a 28 year old self-deemed modern day shepherdess– of animals, people and projects. I am the project manager of Star Creek Co. Land Stewards, a contract grazing outfit in the Bay Area of California where we use prescription grazing with sheep and goats as as land management […]
Farm Profile: Tom and Irene Frantzen and their 300 acre Organic Farm in Iowa
AMES, Iowa —Tom and Irene Frantzen’s desire to preserve their New Hampton land for generations to come led them to bequeath the 300-acre certified organic farm to Practical Farmers of Iowa. They announced the transition plan at the recent PFI conference in Ames. Their voices choking with emotion, the couple offered the details of their […]