Agrarian Trust Videos: National Concepts and Discussions
Agrarian Trust Playlist
Our founding board member Severine von Tscharner Fleming inspires us to consider the question, “What does the land want?” in her latest talk as a Fellow with the Edmund Hillary Fellowship based in New Zealand.
Presentation hosted by the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Severine von Tscharner Fleming, the Executive Director of Greenhorns and a leading organizer and cultural worker within the young farmer movement for 12+ years, co-founded the National Young Farmers Coalition, FarmHack and Agrarian Trust. A part-time farmer and board member of the Schumacher Center for New Economics, her work has spanned many media to celebrate, bundle and broadcast the voices and life-ways of young agrarians.
In the next two decades alone, it’s estimated that across the US, over 400 million acres of farmland will change ownership. The Agrarian Trust is a nonprofit organization that works tirelessly to ensure that tomorrow’s farmers have access to this land, and that the opportunities to farm remain economically viable.
Ian McSweeney, Director of the Agrarian Trust, talked about their exciting new project to create a local Agrarian Commons. The Agrarian Commons will purchase farmland and enter into fair long-term leases with new farmers, while protecting the land with easements and restrictions supporting ecologically restorative agricultural practices. All presentation slides can be viewed here.
Severine von Tscharner Fleming is a young farmer passionate about land repair and stewardship. Her vision is an overhaul of the industrial food complex to create regenerative, permaculture-based local food networks that leverage technology and ancient practice to nourish people and the planet. Severine also publishes grassroots media for the young farmers movement.
“How do we involve more people in caring for the land, and how do we involve more people in behaving in a way that helps the land?” — Severine is the director of Greenhorns, she been an organizer and cultural worker within the young farmer movement for almost 10 years, proud co-founder of National Young Farmers Coalition, Farm Hack and Agrarian Trust, and board member of the Schumacher Center for New Economics. Her work has spanned many media to celebrate, bundle and broadcast the voices and life-ways of young agrarians, from films, radio, blog gossip, guidebooks, an anthology, 2 new farmers almanacks, and newly, a mixtape and vinyl record! This trans-media work is designed to connect individuals within the broader community of action, helping to orient the work on the land, career, stamina, and interpretation of place-based possibilities. The mission of the Greenhorns is to promote, recruit and support the rising generation in organic agriculture. Greenhorns are based on Lake Champlain in Essex, New York, a 360-mile sail-boat ride from NYC.
Severine von Tscharner-Fleming was one of 45 leading scholars, authors and activists who convened at The Great Hall of Cooper Union, New York City, on October 25-26, 2014, for the public presentation: “Techno-Utopianism and the Fate of the Earth.” Speakers discussed the profound impacts—environmental, economic and social—of runaway technological expansionism and cyber immersion; the tendency to see technology as the savior for all problems.
Individual Agrarian Commons Videos
Agrarian Commons Playlist
This six minute film tells the story of eighty acres of land gifted from a White couple to Black farmers, supported by Agrarian Trust in Virginia. This unique Agrarian Commons includes the gifted land as well as a five-acre urban plot to support healthy food and improve quality of life near Richmond.
Cameron Terry of Southwest Virginia Agrarian Commons founding farm Garden Variety Harvests shows us around his new space at Lick Run Farms and tells us a little bit about himself, his business, and his hopes for this new project.
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 82-acre 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.
Video by Lady Mountain Films https://www.ladymountainfilms.com/
In June of 2020, the Somali Bantu Community Association, a founding member of the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons, toured a prospective 106-acre organic farm in Wales, Maine as part their journey to find a permanent home for their organization and land security for over 210 families who participate in the SBCA’s Liberation Farms program. On August 24, 2020 – just a few months later – $367,000 was raised and the land was acquired. This is permanent land transformation. The Agrarian Commons holds land in perpetuity, protected against future development, and conveys equitable, renewable leases to farmers and communities for 99-year renewable terms. Film by Alexander Sutula
Announcing Agrarian Commons: A new model for community-owned farmland launching in 10 states. The Agrarian Commons model is designed to bring about lasting and transformative change within an exploitative system of land ownership. The model addresses land access issues by addressing fee ownership of land, the debt required to access land, and an exploitative system that values land as a market commodity. We hope to provide a path for communities throughout the nation to collectively expand upon and bring community-owned agriculture to a national and powerful level.
“The future of New Roots Community Farm is at risk since we do not own the land, said New Roots Community Farm Director and West Virginia AC President Susanna Wheeler.” This is something that is very common among many new and beginning farms across the nation.” The transfer of ownership to a community structure means funds are freed up to invest more in farm infrastructure, soil health, and sustainable practices at New Roots Community Farm. This enables the farm to continue to provide food for our community while better protecting and stewarding the land the community depends on. Having a relationship with the Agrarian Trust also means the support of a national organization, providing access to legal assistance, fundraising support, guidance, and more. “Having the guarantee of a long-term lease that is held by the Agrarian Commons will ensure the future viability of the farm and enable us to continue providing market development, technical assistance, trainings, and community programming,” Wheeler said.
Announcing Agrarian Commons: A new model for community-owned farmland launching in 10 states. The Agrarian Commons model is designed to bring about lasting and transformative change within an exploitative system of land ownership. The model addresses land access issues by addressing fee ownership of land, the debt required to access land, and an exploitative system that values land as a market commodity. We hope to provide a path for communities throughout the nation to collectively expand upon and bring community-owned agriculture to a national and powerful level.
Other Land Access Videos
Agrarian Trust: Rethinking Farmland Access & Tenure with Kristina Villa at the 2022 WFAN conference
December 2022
Kristina Villa presents on the Agrarian Trust and Agrarian Commons model and how we are thinking and rethinking farmland access across the country.
Richmond Racial Equity Essays Video Interviews: Duron Chavis
November 2021
Activist, urban farmer and Happily Natural Day Executive Director Duron Chavis discusses his passion for food justice and the need for Black land ownership if we are to achieve true justice and liberation.
Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition: Land Access Discussion at Sequatchie Cove Farm
July 2022
The Southeast Tennessee Young Farmers Coalition hosts Kristina Rossi Villa from Agrarian Trust at Sequatchie Cove Farm for a presentation and potluck. Kristina shares about how now more than ever ensuring that next generation farmers have access to land is important, provides an overview of Agrarian Trust’s projects and initiatives, and invites attendees to get involved!
CAFF 2022 Small Farm Conference: Land Conservation & Land Equity
March 2022
Community Alliance with Family Farmers hosts Kendra Johnson of Agrarian Trust and others in a discussion about the intersection between land tenure, conservation, and equity. The conversation specifically focuses on how land trusts and public agencies are re-thinking their approach to conservation in order to center equity and empower a new generation of farmers and land stewards.
uwp: Beyond Land Acknowledgment 04 w/ Agrarian Trust
March 2022
Rhys-Thorvald Hansen & Ian McSweeney from Agrarian Trust discuss equity, structure, and the guiding principles of Agrarian Trust.
NFU Farmland Presents Agrarian Trust on Alternative Forms of Land Tenure
February 2022
NFU’s Farmland Committee hosts Ian McSweeney Organizational Director of Agrarian Trust to discuss the principles of the organization, its history and structure, the work it does creating individual agrarian commons and the commons alliance, and some context on US agriculture and land trusts.
New Model Helps Farmers Access Land — Ep. 080
February 2022
American Fashion Model Summer Rayne Oakes interviews Kristina Villa and Ian McSweeney of Agrarian Trust as part of her research on collective living models. The interview is shared on Summer’s Youtube channel, Flock Finger Lakes, a communal living and working environment in upstate New York.
Regional Conservation Partnership Network Gathering – 2021 Highlights
December 2021
More than 300 attendees from across the Northeast and beyond joined conservation and land justice leaders, including Ian McSweeney from Agrarian Trust, on November 18 at the 2021 Regional Conservation Partnership Network Gathering. Here are the highlights!
Land Access & Social Justice Panel Discussion | Dr. Gabriela Pereyra | Amy Manzelli | Ian McSweeney
September 2021
Three voices offering collective wisdom on the topic of equitable farmland access with Dr. Gabriela Pereyra of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, Ian McSweeney of Agrarian Trust and the Agrarian Commons, and Amy Manzelli of BCM Environmental & Land Law.
The Agrarian Commons Model
May 2021
Presenters Kim Kirkbride of New River Land Trust and Eliza Spellman Taylor of Agrarian Trust discuss Agrarian Trust’s work to ensure tomorrow’s farmers have affordable access to farmland.
Land is the Basis of Freedom Malcolm X
December 2009
We will often refer to this video. It is a powerful message containing much of our signature cornerstone concepts, that land is, indeed, the basis of freedom.
How to Rematriate the Land
November 2021
The Sustainable Economies Law Center hosts this presentation How to Return Land in Lisjan Territory to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. This 1.5 hour video presents in-depth practical consideration for practitioners, property owners, and supporters with topics ranging from deeds, titles, and dual agencies to Indigenous concepts, ethics, and views on stewarding land.
“When we objectify the land, we objectify ourselves.”
Audio Recording of Marie Cirillo, “Stories from An Appalachian Community”
October 2000
When asked by Vice President Gore what she would do if elected President, Marie Cirillo said she would introduce a program of land reform. For thirty-three years Marie Cirillo has lived and worked in Clairfield, Tennessee, located in a valley hemmed in by two big mountains, and made up of a network of twelve unincorporated communities most of which are former coal camps.
“It is as immoral to own land
as it is to own slaves.”
LAND SUPPORT: Understanding the Complexity of Land produced by Ulie Henrik Streckenbach
2015
Landsupport is a project developed by a group of specialists from the University in Naples (Italy). It aims to create a tool that helps different stakeholders of land, making better, more sustainable decisions on their most important resource – the soil.
“Soil is the heart of our land.”
To Market: Growing an Economy Around Food, The Vermont Farmers Food Center
April 2013
Facing steep odds and a chorus of naysayers, community members in Rutland have transformed a blighted industrial site into a dynamic new agricultural center – a driver of better health, new businesses and expanding markets built around locally grown food. This film highlights the first major milestone in the VFFC’s rise – the opening of the new Winter Farmers Market, the largest in the state. It also spotlights a new generation of young farmers who are now growing and innovating year round with the support of the community, the Rutland Area Farm & Food Link and the VFFC. Together, they are working to write a new story for the future of Rutland and its economy.
Tuinderij de Stroom Farm, Future Farmers in the Spotlight
2013
Tuinderij De Stroom is an organic vegetable farm in a small village in the Netherlands. It is owned and managed by three young women who have proven that it is still possible to start land-based farming activities with low financial investments.
Eric Freyfogle – “Challenges of Collective Action”
November 2008
Eric Freyfogle is a Max L. Rowe Professor of Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He talks about conservation, aquifers, and the call to “do something” and what that involves. “It is our inablity to act together, to come together, and to make collective good decisions, and we’re hardly even working on that…”
Discussion on Farmland Access with Sjoerd Wartena and Veronique Rioufol from Terre de Liens
May 2014
This interview with Sjoerd Wartena and Veronique Rioufol from the Terre de Liens initiative in France was prepared for April 27th, 2014 as part of OUR LAND: A Symposium on Farmland Access in the 21st Century.
Wes Jackson, Founder of the Land Institute, Speaking at Our Land Symposium
May 2014
Wes Jackson spoke at OUR LAND: A Symposium on Farmland Access in the 21st Century. “We came as a poor people to a seemingly empty land that was rich in resources. And we built our institutions from that perception of reality…and now we’ve become rich people in an increasingly poor land that is filling up, and the institutions don’t hold…”
Agriculturalist Blanc: Wine Makers Speak Out for Young Farmers
May 2014
Introducing Frey Organic Agriculturist Blanc, in honor of all young farmers of America and the world!
“Agricultural subsidies encourage the overproduction of commodity crops which makes it hard for small, independent farms to survive…”
Food, Farms and History: A Conversation with Michael Pollan, 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Historial Association
2013
Michael Pollan: “When Thorough talks about weeds, he talks about them having a prior right to this land because they were here first, overlooking the fact that weeds are not wild, but are very much a product of agriculture…on both Emerson and Thorough’s part, there is almost a willful desire to see this blunt opposition between nature and culture, of which most of my work has been trying to break that down.”
At the American Historical Association’s 127th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Panel: Michael Pollan, Brian Donahue (Brandeis University), Deborah Fitzgerald (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Donna R. Gabaccia (University of Minnesota Twin Cities).
Songs of the Agrarian Resistance
“Keep Politics Off of Your Farm” is just one of a 9 track compilation entitled Grange Future mini-album by Jeremy Fleishman, Severine Fleming and Brian Dewan. The Greenhorns, 2014.
