New Food First Backgrounder Addresses Land Reform and Resistance in the United States

May 06, 2014 • Agrarian Commons, Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Land Access Stories, Land Access Strategies, Land Justice and Equity, Sustainable Farming • By Agrarian Trust

OAKLAND, Calif., May 1, 2014 – The disastrous effects of widespread land grabbing and land concentration sweeping the globe do not affect all farmers equally. The degree of vulnerability to these threats is highest for smallholders, women and people of color—the ones who grow, harvest, process and prepare most of the world’s food. A new […]

A New Perspective on Succession

May 01, 2014 • Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Land Justice and Equity, Sustainable Farming • By Agrarian Trust

On the weekend of April 4th- 6th, I was lucky enough to have attended The New Farmers Summit hosted by the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES). The diversity of people in attendance was truly astonishing. From teenagers to veterans of the farming community, we all came together to learn, discuss and network. Many […]

FarmHer: Documenting Women in Agriculture

Apr 30, 2014 • Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Land Justice and Equity • By Agrarian Trust

Check out Iowa photographer Marji Guyler-Alaniz’s work to document the rise of women in agriculture. From FarmHer: Photography My name is Marji Guyler-Alaniz and I am a photographer from Iowa. My goal is to use my camera and my vision to further this cause. FarmHer is about documenting women in agriculture. The only way for […]

A Story: Open Spaces & Ranching

Apr 10, 2014 • Agrarian Commons, Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Land Access Stories, Land Access Strategies • By Agrarian Trust

By Pamela Dewell, Executive Director of Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust from the Land Trust Alliance website Some friends of ours have a ranch that straddles a county road.  Unpaved, the road draws traffic mostly in fair weather.  In the spring, and after summer thunderstorms, they use their tractor to haul unknowing travelers out […]

Farm Tenancy in Kansas 1917-Now

Feb 18, 2014 • Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Sustainable Farming • By Agrarian Trust

by fourth generation Kansas farmer Tom Giessel The Twentieth Biennial Report of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture was published in 1917. The very first chapter was dedicated to the topic of Rural Welfare and began with an article by George E. Putnam, Associate Professor of Economics in Lawrence, Kansas. He devoted the first twenty […]

Wall Street Banks Eye American Farmland

Feb 18, 2014 • Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Land Access Strategies, Land Justice and Equity, Sustainable Farming • By Agrarian Trust

From the Oakland Institute: The wolves of Wall Street are eyeing millions of acres of U.S. farmland that will soon come up for sale, much of which has been in the hands of family farmers for generations, according to Down on the Farm, a new study from the Oakland Institute. “Institutional investors”–including hedge funds, private equity, […]

News in Farm Justice from Agrarian Trust Advisor Elizabeth Henderson

Feb 15, 2014 • Agrarian Commons, Agrarian Trust, Land Access Strategies, Land Justice and Equity, Sustainable Farming • By Agrarian Trust

Farmworker Organizations Give Strong Support to the Agricultural Justice Project By Elizabeth Henderson Unique among domestic fair trade claims, farmworkers and farmers negotiated directly with one another to hammer out the standards of the Agricultural Justice Project (AJP). The goal of these standards, which are the basis of AJP’s Food Justice Certified label, is to […]

At Long Last . . . Legislation

Feb 08, 2014 • Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Land Justice and Equity • By Agrarian Trust

For those of you following the Illiad of the 2014 Farm Bill (once called the 2012 Farm Bill . . .), the final passing gives us 5 years of regulation surrounding Agriculture and other national food concerns. This graphic from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition helps show the ups and downs of the version passed […]

New Farm Finance Options Guide: Affording Our Land

Jan 14, 2014 • Agrarian Commons, Agrarian Trust, Commons Alliance, Food Systems and Security, Land Access Strategies, Press Releases and Announcements • By Agrarian Trust

In April of 2013, Kendra Johnson, Severine Fleming, and Kristen Loria completed the guidebook “Affording our land: a farmers guide to farm finance options.” It has been at the head of our growing Resource List and is available for free to download. This guidebook is meant as a compilatory resource for farmers looking for land, […]