Farmers Land Trust

= U.S. based initiative "to facilitate the preservation of farms and the transition of land ownership into community stewardship" [1]

URL = https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/

Description

"TFLT”) exists to facilitate the preservation of farms and the transition of land ownership into community stewardship for a resilient and just future. Our organization is founded on a heritage of innovating the Farmland Commons model to serve local and regional farming communities. We exist to continue building on this heritage by developing the principles and practices needed to allow this mission to grow, evolve and live on to meet the needs and opportunities that this generational transition of land requires. The Farmers Land Trust exists in service to key members of the ecosystem – the Land itself, transitioning Landowners, and Community-based Farmers (see Appendix A). The Farmers Land Trust organizational structure and offerings are in service to these members towards a just transition to healthy land, food and communities through the distinct focus of implementing the Farmland Commons model when land ownership transitions arise.

We are inspired by the vision of communities historically and intentionally removed from land access generating food sovereignty through this model of community stewardship. We are inspired by the hope-filled vision of generations from now experiencing the richness of healthy agricultural ecosystems, where the practices give back to the Land and communities more than they extract. We are inspired by this idea that the way we think about land ownership is on an evolutionary journey towards more gift and stewardship models of tending to and caring for land and communities.

We are serving this immediate moment during which an average of 45% of farmland in the United States is expected to change hands in one generation. There is a call from landowners who are interested in participating in legacy building not through wealth and personal hoarding, but legacy building through community sharing, continued land stewardship and healing of the environment.

The Farmers Land Trust (“TFLT”) exists to facilitate the preservation of farms and the transition of land ownership into community stewardship for a resilient and just future. Our organization is founded on a heritage of innovating the Farmland Commons model to serve local and regional farming communities. We exist to continue building on this heritage by developing the principles and practices needed to allow this mission to grow, evolve and live on to meet the needs and opportunities that this generational transition of land requires. The Farmers Land Trust exists in service to key members of the ecosystem – the Land itself, transitioning Landowners, and Community-based Farmers (see Appendix A). The Farmers Land Trust organizational structure and offerings are in service to these members towards a just transition to healthy land, food and communities through the distinct focus of implementing the Farmland Commons model when land ownership transitions arise.

We are inspired by the vision of communities historically and intentionally removed from land access generating food sovereignty through this model of community stewardship. We are inspired by the hope-filled vision of generations from now experiencing the richness of healthy agricultural ecosystems, where the practices give back to the Land and communities more than they extract. We are inspired by this idea that the way we think about land ownership is on an evolutionary journey towards more gift and stewardship models of tending to and caring for land and communities.

We are serving this immediate moment during which an average of 45% of farmland in the United States is expected to change hands in one generation. There is a call from landowners who are interested in participating in legacy building not through wealth and personal hoarding, but legacy building through community sharing, continued land stewardship and healing of the environment."

Projects

• Farmland Commons: "People, Community and Land are ... brought together in creation and incorporation of a nonprofit Farmland Commons. They then raise engagement and the many forms of capital needed to transfer farmland into the Farmland Commons and transition farm to the next generation."

More info via https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/process/

Examples

Blue Rock Farmland Commons

Kaisa Goodman:

"For more than 30 years, Annie and Jay Warmke have visioned, created, and cultivated Blue Rock Station into a living classroom rooted in peace, sustainability, resilience, and joy. What began as a quiet Appalachian hillside became a place of learning and belonging, where thousands of trees were planted, tens of thousands of visitors were welcomed, and care for the land was inseparable from care for community. Their stewardship was guided by a belief that land can teach people not only how to live differently, but how to recognize themselves within the larger web of life.

Now, as Annie and Jay transition Blue Rock Station into the Blue Rock Farmland Commons, they are extending that vision forward. By partnering with The Farmers Land Trust, they are choosing a future in which the land is protected and remains accessible, regenerative, and held in common for those who will farm and develop kinship with it going forward. Though their land has recently been appraised for $400,000, Annie and Jay are choosing to sell their farm into the Farmland Commons at an extreme discount of $250,000. The decision to convey their land through a bargain sale into the Farmland Commons reflects both humility and hope—a willingness to make their property affordable and accessible, ensuring that new stewards can step in and carry the work into its next chapter."

(https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/the-story-of-the-blue-rock-farmland-commons/)