How Globilization Effects Farmers and the Food We Eat
Early in 2013, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), published this paper on what we call “land grabs”, or purchase of farmland by non-farming parties. Land Grabs and Fragile Food Systems: The Role of Globalization, by Sophia Murphy Used under creative commons license from CIMMYT. Farmers around the world are having land they’ve […]
Agrarian Investments in New England
Making a profit off of real estate investment is no new thing, even when it comes to farmland. Land grabs make the land valuable without valuing the land. There are some investment groups, though, that aim to invest in land sustainably. One such group is The Entrepreneur Agrarian Fund (EAF), a private equity fund establishing […]
A Brief History of How We Lost the Commons
In an article published earlier this year by Guernica Magazine, Peter Barnes investigates how humankind lost “The Commons”, the land that once belonged to everyone. He follows a quick lineage from hunter-gatherers to the culture of Ancient Rome, and onward into the present. His closing argument reiterates the mission of Agrarian Trust: “The world today […]
LandFund: What they’re doing with $7 million
An acquisition of $7 million worth of farmland by the Nashville-based closed-end private equity firm LandFund is a stark recent example of why those concerned with responsible stewardship of the land need to act soon to preserve our agricultural lands. An article in The Tennessean breaks down the reasons why investing in farmland is so […]
All the News That’s Fit to Print: New York Times Op-Ed Piece Advocates for Farmers
A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times winds through the hills of upstate New York looking for a solution to keeping agricultural land in the hands of farmers. “In the next 20 years, 70 percent of the nation’s farmland will change hands.Farmers do not live forever, and most farm kids do not choose […]
Land Conservation Efforts Need Re-evaluation
The National Young Farmers Coalition released a report yesterday that reveals how current farmland conservation practices are failing working farmers. Farmland Conservation 2.0: How Land Trusts Can Protect America’s Working Farms surveyed 200 land trust leaders from across the United States. The report discovered that one-quarter of land trusts have seen protected farmland move out of […]
Land and Capital: Challenges for the Young Farmer
This story about young farmers in Illinois points to the challenges of land and capital as the biggest inhibitors. An excerpt from the article, first published by the Bloomington Pantagraph. “Capital is tight across the board, and it’s not just for our new farmers, but it impacts them as well,” Brockman said. Olson’s father and uncle […]
Giving Voice to the Soil
The methods we use to gain attention for agricultural land access must be as diverse as the land we aim to preserve. Doug Nopar, a farmer and program organizer for the Land Stewardship Project, authored a creative dramatization about land gifting called “Look Who’s Knockin.’ The play gives life to the ethics and motives behind […]
Landless Farmers in South America Win Land Rights
After 20 years of struggle and waiting, the families camped out in the municipality of Prado (in extreme south of Brazil’s Bahia state) finally received legal title to their land. The roughly 5,025 acres of farmland has the capacity to settle about 280 families. For members of the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the Rosa Prado […]
Policy News Around the Nation From American Farmland Trust
Here are a handful of farmland updates from across the nation from American Farmland Trust New Hampshire Rededicates Funding for Farmland Conservation After several years of being diverted, all proceeds from New Hampshire’s deed recording fee—an estimated $8.45 million over the next two years—will be dedicated to the state’s Land and Community Heritage Investment Program […]