Agrarian Trust, a national nonprofit in the United States, is taking a commons-based approach to help ensure that a new generation of farmers can access farm land. The organization is working within communities to facilitate local land access and support strong local food systems.
According to Agrarian Trust, more than 40 percent of U.S. farmland will change hands over the next 15 years.
The average age of the country’s farmers is 58 years old, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. “A lot of folks are retiring,” Jean Theron Willoughby, Executive Director at Agrarian Trust, tells Food Tank. This, she says, presents an opportunity for worker and community ownership, “rather than just selling to the highest bidder on the speculative market.”
Agrarian Trust supports community-led endeavors to steward this farmland in ways that are sustainable and equitable by partnering with local organizations.
Farmland is most at-risk of being transitioned into a non-agricultural use when it is sold, according to American Farmland Trust. “Farmland is really a national treasure, but it’s not protected that way in the U.S.,” Willoughby tells Food Tank.
Agrarian Trust believes that local farmers can be great stewards of land, which is why they work with local Agrarian Commons to fundraise money to purchase land. The land is then held by the trust, and leased to local farmers at affordable rates.
Cameron Terry of Garden Variety Harvests is one farmer who faced difficulty in finding farmland. He started his business in Roanoke, VA by farming on borrowed spaces of land in other people’s yards.
“I wanted an opportunity to operate a business just like anybody who wants to open up a bakery or a coffee shop or a law firm. You lease a place and run the business there. And that opportunity just does not exist for someone who wants to run a farming business,” Terry tells Food Tank.
A survey from the National Young Farmer Coalition finds that land access is the greatest challenge facing the next generation of farmers. But for the health of our food system, it’s critical that newer farmers can access land, Willoughby explains. “It’s an important time to be involved in building soil, building a farm, to have access when you have the ability to do it,” she says.
Owning a farm and making the investments into the land seemed like an unlikely opportunity for Terry. “I had a few thousand dollars in savings, but nothing where I was going to be able to go buy land to farm…anywhere,” he tells Food Tank.
Terry says he also has “real misgivings” about the concept of private land ownership. “I think maybe a different path could have been taken that would have yielded much better for our society than the way we deal with private land and exclusion of people now,” he adds.
An elder farmer approached Terry with the idea of passing along his Roanoke property, Lick Run Farms, to another farmer. “It was really hard to nail down what that relationship [would look like]. We didn’t know the shape of the thing we were looking for,” Terry says.
Agrarian Trust was the intermediary that both parties were looking for. Using the national connections of Agrarian Trust, the Southwest Virginia Agrarian Commons –Terry’s local “commons”–raised the money to buy Lick Run Farms. Agrarian Trust is now the deed holder, and will take rent payments from Terry. “[The lease] is basically infinite, and inheritable to whoever I chose to leave it to,” he tells Food Tank.
Terry plans to continue his current level of production, and use his farm to educate others. “I’m going to spend a lot of time sharing what I know, what I’ve learned about how to grow food, to anybody in Roanoke and the nearby region who will listen. And we’ll keep growing our little one-acre market garden,” Terry says.
While other farmers may find themselves in a similar position to Terry, Willoughby believes every case is unique and that the ultimate goal is to “de-commodify” land. “We want to be working together, learning from each other and exploring what the commons can look like,” she says.
Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.
Photo courtesy of Garden Variety Harvests
