This piece is part of the weekly series “Growing Forward: Insights for Building Better Food and Agriculture Systems,” presented by the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the nonprofit organization Food Tank. Each installment highlights forward-thinking strategies to address today’s food and agriculture related challenges with innovative solutions. To view more pieces in the series, click here.
Mari Hunt Wassink is a young, BIPOC farmer who operates Black Earth Gardens on a half-acre property in Cedar Rapids. Using organic and regenerative practices, she grows vegetables, herbs, and fruits that are culturally relevant to the Black and African diaspora communities of eastern Iowa.
Mari is passionate about growing food for her community. But as a first-generation, beginning farmer, challenges like a lack of capital to secure quality, long-term farmland and purchase needed infrastructure suitable for specialty crop farming have held her back from growing her business and customer base. In her area, there aren’t many properties available that are conducive to farming and that have the necessarily existing infrastructure, like water access, electricity, storage facilities or roadways. Or if they have these assets, they are prohibitively expensive for a new farmer.
Unfortunately, Mari’s story is not an uncommon one. According to the National Young Farmers Coalition’s most recent survey of over 10,000 young and beginning farmers, access to affordable, quality farmland is the top challenge the new generation faces in building careers in agriculture. The average U.S. farmer is 58 years old, and farmers under 35 years old comprise only 8.8 percent of all farmers in this country. In addition, the price of farmland across the country is soaring–the average value of an acre of farm real estate has risen from $750 in 1950 (adjusted for inflation) to US$4,170 in 2024. If we are going to keep farmland in farming, and transition this precious commodity to the new generation of growers, we need meaningful federal policy to address this hurdle.
Supporting equitable farmland access for beginning farmers and ranchers and underserved producers has always been the North Star for the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers). Young Farmers is a national grassroots network fighting to advance policy and shift power to equitably resource the new generation of working farmers. We have been telling the same story, about the same problem, for as long as we have existed: lack of secure access to farmland is the number one barrier preventing a generation of growers from entering the field.
Based on Young Farmer Surveys we have completed over the past decade, young farmers in our network have been clear about the need for equitable land access for the new generation of working farmers, farmworkers, and ranchers. Young farmers of color have been vocal and explicit about how land access (among other barriers to entry) disproportionately impact farm communities led by young people of color. Young Farmers published a Land Report in 2020 that outlines the historical context of land loss in agriculture in the United States and the pathways for policymakers to create easier access to land for young farmers. Our land report was written five years ago, and our community has offered actionable legislative proposals that together would have historic impacts. Yet policymakers have not yet followed through on their commitment to crafting a comprehensive Farm Bill, and their actions have failed to address the land access needs of young farmers.
When we launched the One Million Acres for the Future Campaign in 2021, we set a bold target of US$2.5 billion in historic investment in equitable land access for this new generation. We believed that the 2023 Farm Bill was the last, best opportunity to change conditions meaningfully for this new generation. However, we still do not have a new Farm Bill and are likely witnessing the destruction of the Farm Bill process as we know it.
Despite the fractured process in Congress, USDA took major strides to adjust the land access challenges with the establishment of the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program (LCM) in 2022—a US$300 million dollar USDA grant program designed to support community-led land access solutions. In 2023, trying to secure the future of the program by writing it into the Farm Bill, we won bipartisan introduction of the Increasing Land Access, Security, and Opportunities (LASO) Act. Our House and Senate champions of this shared cause recently reintroduced a refined version, the New Producer Economic Security Act. The biggest obstacle to legislative success has been the lack of will to match investment to need. The total assistance requested in all LCM program applications received in the program’s first and perhaps only round, totaled US$2.5 billion.
The LCM program follows a decade of advocacy and policy momentum, but the current Administration is doing serious harm by putting the fifty geographically diverse and community-led projects at risk. Program funding was frozen for months and remains uncertain, particularly in light of a recent press release from USDA announcing the termination of nearly US$150 million worth of federal contracts, including LCM contracts.
Young Farmers remains steadfast in our implementation of the following strategies for equitable land access for young farmers and farmers of color:
1. First, protecting the past: we must defend the progress our movement has made on land access, climate, and racial justice from legal, administrative, and legislative attacks.
2. We are also looking towards the future. Pursue policy changes with the potential to be won in our current political climate that tangibly improve access to land, capital, and credit for the next generation of farmers and ranchers and secure racial equity outcomes.
3. Continue building momentum. Work in partnership with the many organizations in our ecosystem dedicated to land access for young farmers and ranchers.
What can you do to help? Support should always be based on the needs of the communities you strive to serve, and your power and privilege. Do you have access to resources (decision-makers, financial capital, consultants, etc.), or skills that could be helpful to a grassroots movement? If so, you can use them in the following ways to make a big impact when we need support more than ever.
Donate to a land trust, an organization advancing land policy, or a farm operation directly. Funding farmers directly is a great opportunity to support a better, more sustainable food system. Take a look at local farms website, social media pages, farmers market booths, or CSAs and find options to donate directly to farms.
Join newsletters and action networks for organizations that support land policy work. Young Farmers, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Rural Coalition, the National Family Farm Coalition, and the HEAL Food Alliance and use them as a resource to take action.
While the current political climate is challenging, it’s also temporary. We can’t win bold policies when the tides change if we throw in the towel now. The future of agriculture deserves better stewardship than what this Administration and this Congress are delivering. It is time for farmer-led policy development and careful planning. It is time to build momentum. We will be ready at the next opportunity for meaningful national level progress when opportunities are revealed.
Photo courtesy of Sarah Cheung, Unsplash
