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About
The West Virginia Agrarian Commons is a statewide project, founded by New Roots Community Farm and community supporters. This Agrarian Commons is committed to shifting agricultural land out of the commercial real estate market and ensuring its perpetual stewardship by West Virginia farmers, with the belief that decommodifying land can be an antidote to the extractive industries that have ravaged the state over two centuries.
Located in the southern part of the state, New Roots Community Farm is a diversified, women-led farm that has grown with community support and regenerative practices. In order to promote a more just and sustainable form of economic development, New Roots serves as a local food aggregation and distribution site, offers affordable leases to farmers, runs a demonstration farm for intensive vegetable production, and provides a variety of training and educational opportunities.
Interactive Map of the Agrarian Commons Get the full experience on Google Earth
Land Acknowledgement
The West Virginia Agrarian Commons is located on traditional and ancestral lands of a number of Indigenous peoples and nations, who have lived in relationship with these lands since time immemorial. We honor their elders, past and present. Much of this land is unceded, and in many cases, these territories were stolen, seized, or otherwise acquired through genocidal actions of the state, colonizers, and settlers. As an organization primarily of settlers, we are committed to renewing our relationships with Indigenous peoples, and supporting Indigenous sovereignty through word and action. Please visit native-land.ca to learn the names and histories of the Osage, Shawandasse Tula, S’atsoyaha, and Calicua peoples who live here in West Virginia.
Legal Statement
The West Virginia Agrarian Commons is organized and shall be operated exclusively for the purpose of holding title to property, collecting income therefrom, and turning the entire amount, less expenses, to the AGRARIAN LAND TRUST within the meaning of Section 501(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”). Agrarian Land Trust, the parent corporation of West Virginia Agrarian Commons, is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a) and described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Code.
Community
The West Virginia Agrarian Commons is collaborating with New Roots Community Farm to create the local Agrarian Commons in West Virginia. New Roots reflects its name and is just starting to lay down a foundation for a diversified farm, rooted in community.
New Roots Community Farm was born out of the commitment and buy-in of local Fayette County leadership, who understood that supporting the development of a viable agricultural industry in rural communities is critical to fostering a more just and sustainable form of economic development in southern West Virginia. Recognizing that there are many barriers to developing a viable and robust food system in the state, the farm sought partners and allies to help build their capacity to address these issues. New Roots Community Farm now serves as a local food aggregation and distribution site, offers affordable leases to farmers, runs a demonstration farm for intensive vegetable production, and provides a variety of training and educational opportunities.
As a community farm, they have a community garden, engage in food-access work, and host community events where all are welcome. New Roots believes that the Agrarian Commons model can help expand and amplify their impact by creating a mechanism to enable equitable, long-term land tenure for local farmers.
Land, History & Community
Due to coal mining and other industries, absentee and corporate ownership is widespread in West Virginia. Coal provided the foundation for industrialization throughout the United States, fueling economic growth in northeastern and midwestern cities. Appalachia supplied the raw materials to power this monumental growth, becoming a “national sacrifice zone” in the process. Strip mining, mountaintop removal mining, drilling, and various other forms of extraction have impacted some 500 mountains and 2,000 miles of streams in West Virginia. Appalachia now confronts the perils of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and gas pipelines.
Before coal, central Appalachia’s people depended on large, forested mountains as a source of food, fiber, and materials. As Eliza Spellman Taylor notes, “This region was the edge of European colonialism, and a place where property rights were largely unenforced, despite wealthy, absentee elites gaining title to millions of acres through grants and purchase. Barter and gift economies thrived.”
The power of unions and workers’ struggle for dignity also has deep roots in West Virginia, exemplified by the Mine Wars era. (The word “redneck” originated when striking miners tied red bandanas around their necks during the march before the Battle of Blair Mountain—the largest labor uprising in US history and the largest insurrection since the Civil War.) More recently, the West Virginia teacher strikes of 2018 and 2019 showed the country how Appalachians stand up for their rights to fair pay and a decent living.
The profound contrast between homesteading and agrarian residents and big industry can still be seen in the landscape and economy of the state, where beautiful family farms and thriving forests are located just miles from the clear cuts and moonscapes of mountain-top removal, and where extreme poverty and ultrawealth exist side by side. Despite its challenges, Appalachia’s agrarian and communal way of life perseveres in pockets throughout the region. As the longtime Appalachia community organizer Carol Judy has said, “If you look hard enough, you’ll find an essence of Appalachia culture in any resilient community.”
Structure
Model
Local Agrarian Commons Board
FARMERS & STEWARDS
Susanna Wheeler
New Roots Community Farm and Fayette County Resource Coordinator’s Office
COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS
Mike Smith
Fayette County Urban Renewal Authority
Adam Hodges
WV State University Extension Service and Fayette County
Farmland Protection Board Chair
Linda Stein
New River Health Association
AGRARIAN TRUST
Eliza Spellman Taylor
Ian McSweeney
Sam Petsonk
West Virginia attorney
FEEL FREE TO CONTACT US:
Founding Farms, Ranches, & Agricultural Organizations
New Roots Community Farm
New Roots Community Farm is located just outside of Downtown Fayetteville, West Virginia on what locals know as the Whitlock farm. In 2016, the Fayette County Farmland Protection Board purchased the land. Drawing on assistance from the Fayette County Resource Coordinator’s Office and the Fayette County Urban Renewal Authority, New Roots is now collaborating with Agrarian Trust to create a local Agrarian Commons in West Virginia.
“New Roots Community Farm is an invitation to everyone to come together in the name of good food. This project offers access to locally grown food, an opportunity for businesses to begin or expand farming operations, vocational training for new farmers, community garden space, an event center, and a local food distribution site. This farm is rooted in local tradition, heritage, and history. We believe it is important to know where we came from on our journey to [understand] where we are going. We invite you to join us as we develop a community-focused farm. The Fayette County Resource Coordinator’s Office manages the farm. This includes, but is not limited to, program planning, infrastructure development, an apprenticeship program, community engagement, crop planning and planting, land leasing, a local food distribution hub, and fall harvest. New Roots Community Farm is made possible by the Fayette County Urban Renewal Authority, the Fayette County Commission, the Fayette County Farmland Protection Board, and the Fayette County Resource Coordinator’s Office.”
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
https://www.newrootscommunityfarm.com
Local Agrarian Commons Documents
Bylaws
Articles of Incorporation
New Roots Community Farm Lease
PARTNERS & ALLIES
West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition
Along with our founding farm and its supporting partners, the West Virginia Agrarian Commons looks forward to collaborating with community land trusts and other organizations in the region. More to come, stay tuned!
Learn
The West Virginia Agrarian Commons is working with local farms and organizations to create options for small-scale, community-stewarded farmland in the region.
Known largely for its history of coal mining, West Virginia has a rich agricultural past and has been a bastion of family-owned farms for generations. While large corporate farms do exert pressure in West Virginia as in other states, today 95 percent of farms in the state are family-owned, which is the highest number in the US. Approximately 23,000 farms averaging 157 acres in size call the state home.
Statewide Facts
3,662,178
AMOUNT OF FARMLAND
2,439 acres
ACRES FARMED ORGANICALLY
23,622
TOTAL NUMBER OF FARMS
157
AVERAGE ACREAGE PER FARM
38,409
# OF FARM OPERATORS/PRODUCERS
PREVIOUS # OF FARM OPERATORS/PRODUCERS
57.5
AVERAGE AGE OF FARMER
22.2
# AVERAGE YEARS ON FARM
11,835
BEGINNER FARMERS
77% earn >$10,000/yr
FARM INCOME
$3,280/acre
AVERAGE FARM REAL ESTATE VALUE
FARMER DEMOGRAPHICS
Farmers of color: 393
White farmers: 37,730
American Indian or Alaska Native farmers: 81
Black farmers: 35
Asian farmers: 53
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander farmers: 6
Female farmers: 13,498
Male farmers: 24,635
TOP AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS BY SALES
- Poultry and eggs
- Cattle and calves
- Other field crops including hay
- Nursery, greenhouse, floriculture, and sod
- Milk from cows
- Fruit and nut trees
- Corn
- Soybeans
- Vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes
- Equine
Additional Facts and Resources
Acres of forestland: 12 million
Number of mountains impacted by mining, drilling, and other forms of extraction: 500 Miles of streams impacted by mining, drilling, and other forms of extraction: 2,000.
Food Insecurity & Hunger
Approximately one in seven West Virginia residents are food insecure.
One in five children live in a food-insecure household.
Resources on West Virginia Agriculture and Community
- Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University
- Food Justice Lab at West Virginia University
Recommended Reading -Food Justice Lab at West Virginia University
- Mary Lee Settle, the Beulah Quintet
- Catherine Venable Moore, “The Book of the Dead” and “O Beulah Land”
- Steven Stoll, Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia
- Barbara Ellen Smith, “The Dispossessions of Appalachia: A Review of Ramp Hollow”
- David A. Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields
- Denise Giardina, Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth
- Journal of Appalachian Studies
- Campbell Robertson, “A Century Ago, Miners Fought in a Bloody Uprising. Few Know About It Today.”
Radio, Film & Exhibitions
- Silas House, “Our Secret Places in the Waiting World: Becoming a New Appalachia, ” talk at the 37th Annual Appalachian Studies Conference
- Jordan Freeman and Mari-Lynn C. Evans, directors, Blood on the Mountain
- John Sayles, director, Matewan
- “What the History of Salt, Slaves, and Coal Can Teach Us About Appalachia’s Future,” from West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia
- West Virginia Mine Wars Museum’s Online Exhibits
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