If you weren’t able to get to the “Our Land” symposium in Santa Fe and Albuquerque this November (a lot of us couldn’t), you can still catch a bit of the goodness. Agrarian Trust just uploaded some more of the video lectures from the event. Continue reading
On this winter’s solstice, along with traditions of stoking the hearth and nestling fireside, we thought to drop a line on the past season.
In 2016 our Greenhorns network surpassed 62,000 – a community within reach of our media projects, news and inspiration. We are continuously working to broaden and diversify our network of new agrarians, to bring the voices, testimony and success stories of today’s new agrarians to ever more aspirants and students. Please take a moment to review our 2016 impact report for all the clever details.
Thanks to your support, we continue to grow stronger.
Happy Winter, The Greenhorns’ Team
You may have missed this in the swamp of election news last week: In These Times published this excellent run-down of Agrarian Trust, the recent symposium, and the land use problems that challenge regional food systems.
“Increasingly, communities recognize that a regional farm economy is more responsive, adaptive, resilient and culturally satisfying,” says von Tscharner Fleming. “We want more diverse, more local, less thirsty, more prosperous regional food systems. It is in this context that we talk about land access for incoming farmers, about successful businesses, and about land transition for existing farms and retiring farmers, as well as mechanisms for restoration of degraded ecological features and infrastructures.”
WHO: Mary Wood, Rick Prelinger, Kim Stringfellow, Tezozomoc, Devon Pena, Ruth Breach, Stanley Crawford, Wes Jackson, Emily Vogler, Ildi Carlisle-Cummins, Eric Holt Gimenez, Kate Levy… and more
Our organizations work together to strengthen practical knowledge – on both problems and solutions – in the field of access to land for agroecological farmers. We thereby aim to promote the emergence and consolidation of grassroots initiatives, working towards securing access to land and land stewardship, as well as fostering a broader evolution of national and EU policies and regulations on land use and management.
• Identifying relevant national organisations
• Understanding options for land tenure
• Developing specific knowledge and resources about several areas of work
2- Build citizen support for land access
• Building up knowledge and skills of volunteers/ local groups/ the public on European land context
• Engaging with other CSOs, in particular CSAs, farmers’ organisations, rural development organisations and others.
3- Contribute to the evolution of the support system for farmers’
For more information about this amazing website, click HERE!
SEVERINE FLEMING, Agrarian
The entering generation of Agrarians has demonstrated a bold vision to build thousands of farm businesses for local food security. We need many more to succeed. Many who try are confounded when they try to find durable land access and tenure. Severine argues that we need to design and enact new frameworks for community land-ownership. All of us benefit from the revival of these farm-steads, and the initiatives of young farmers, orchardists, and dairymen and women. Today, the macro-economy imposes extraction, speculation and degradation of our land, but that will not worktomorrow. How can our water-shed, our food-shed, and the historic cultural landscape inform the new economy we need? How can eaters reconnect meaningfully with both the eco-system and economic system that will sustain the quality of the places we love?
Agrarian Trust’s May 3rd training workshop with the NY State Agricultural Mediation Program (NYAMP), Negotiation Your Way to Land, is SOLD OUT. You can get a podcast of the program by joining the Agrarian Trust email list.
For those of you in the Hudson Valley, there are two more workshops coming up THIS weekend, hosted by the the Hudson Valley Farmlink Network (HVFN), a project of the American Farmland Trust (AFT) and a partnership of organizations dedicated to improving access to farmland for next generation farmers.
These workshops are focused on farm leasing for farmers and landowners, include farm leasing panels and networking sessions, and will take place in Ulster County and Orange County on May 4th and May 6th, respectively. The workshops will feature panel discussions with local farmers, landowners and attorneys with leasing experience and cover issues including: farm leasing basics; legal issues; farmer and landowner perspectives on what works; common mistakes to avoid; and negotiating the right farm lease for your situation. There will also be opportunities for informal networking sessions with regional farmers and landowners to explore potential matches and to further develop leasing plans.
The May 4 Ulster County workshop will be held at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in the 4-H Youth Building, 249 Libertyville Road, New Paltz from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To register call 845-340-3990 or email to: emh56@cornell.edu. The cost of the workshop is $5 per person and includes snacks and drinks. Pre-register by May 1.
The May 6 Orange County workshop will be held at Kaplan Hall, The Great Room at SUNY Orange Newburgh Campus, One Washington Center, Newburgh from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. To register, call 845-344-1234 or send email to: mru2@cornell.edu. The cost of this workshop is $10 for an individual or $15 for a farm or family and includes snacks and drinks. Pre-register by May 2.
Funding for both workshops is provided by the United States Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency.
For more information about these workshops and other Hudson Valley Farmlink Network projects, contact Tim Biello at tbiello@farmland.org.
By Lindsey Rebhan
The agricultural landscape in the U.S. is at another turning point in history. The number of people who lived 
on farms peaked in 1935, 54% of the nation’s citizens lived on 6.8 million farms. Today, farmers make up less than 1% of the population. Despite this historical move away from farming, we have seen a revival recently as young people choose to reclaim their agrarian roots.
According to the USDA, since 2002 the percentage of farmers under 35 has doubled (New Ag census figures are expected in February 2014). While the average age of the American farmer is 57, the average farmland owner is over 70. (USDA 2007 Census of Agriculture) As a result of this aging population of owners, an estimated 70% of farmland will change ownership in the next 20 years! Land access remains a key component in helping people get back on farms. We are at a crossroads–a time in history that young people can reclaim a connection to the land.
The new agrarian movement is vibrant with energy, and the latest mover and shaker is Agrarian Trust. Agrarian Trust is a resource that helps sustainable, next-generation farmers access land. The Trust has a mission to highlight projects from across the country, offering diverse tactics for land access, transition, and legal and financial frameworks. The first order of business for Agrarian Trust is to showcase models that demonstrate creative land access strategies. The Trust’s website offers a profusion of innovative strategies. Anyone with an interesting land access story is encouraged to share it on the website.
Co-founder and Agrarian Trust Advisory Board Member Severine von Tscharner Fleming explains, “With our next publication, we’ll be looking to history to look at models, to contextualize this issue. Four hundred million acres are changing hands and we can’t afford it, this is an issue of homeland security.”
Continue HERE
