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. […]
Boots to Fill
I was working the Union Square Greenmarket a couple of weeks ago, when a woman, probably in her late twenties said she wanted to be a farmer. Her husband was enmeshed in big business and they wanted out. She wanted to know how to go about it, and since we were there from Vermont, she […]
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 […]
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 […]
Land Conservation Efforts Need Re-evaluation
The National Young Farmers Coalition released a report yesterday that reveals how current farmland conservation practices are failing working farmers. Farmland Conservation 2.0: How Land Trusts Can Protect America’s Working Farms surveyed 200 land trust leaders from across the United States. The report discovered that one-quarter of land trusts have seen protected farmland move out of […]
Giving Voice to the Soil
The methods we use to gain attention for agricultural land access must be as diverse as the land we aim to preserve. Doug Nopar, a farmer and program organizer for the Land Stewardship Project, authored a creative dramatization about land gifting called “Look Who’s Knockin.’ The play gives life to the ethics and motives behind […]
Value Up for U.S. Cropland
Ag Economy: USDA Stats- Cropland Values, Production Expenses Categories: Agricultural Economy The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) noted in its annual Land Values report on Friday that, “The United States cropland value increased by $460 per acre (13.0 percent) to $4,000 per acre.” Friday’s report pointed out that, “In the Northern Plains and Corn […]
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 […]