Call for Land Access Case Studies
The Access to Land network is seeking case studies of local authorities that have helped farmers and growers get onto the land. Do you know of any projects where local authorities have helped to make land available for food production? If so please get in touch and let us know.
Community Land Trust History: Interview with Bob Swann
An Interview with Bob Swann Conducted by Kirby White (1992) Originally published in Community Economics (Summer 1992): 3– 5. COMMUNITY ECONOMICS: Would you talk about how the community land trust model was developed, and how your own experience led to the development of the model. BOB SWANN: As a conscientious objector during world War II, I spent two years […]
Shifting African policy towards women and agroecology
The role of rural women and smallholder farmers in African society has been highly undervalued. This is so despite the fact that around 80% of Africa’s population is dependent on smallholder agriculture, it is the backbone of the rural economy, and women provide over two-thirds of the farm labour. There is clear evidence that agroecology […]
Land rights and acequia culture in Milagro Bean Field War (1988)
As directed by Robert Redford, The Milagro Beanfield War is a diverting account of how little guys join forces to fight big-bucks interests. Though this is a life-and-death issue for land conservationists, Redford handles it with a light touch. In his Milagro, land rights are not a matter for the social agenda but an occasion […]
8 Principles for Managing A Commons
Elinor Ostrom, a political scientist at Indiana University, received the Nobel Prize for her research proving the importance of the commons around the world. Her work investigating how communities co-operate to share resources drives to the heart of debates today about resource use, the public sphere and the future of the planet. Based on her […]
Occupy the Farm
OCCUPY THE FARM tells the story of 200 urban farmers who walk onto a publicly-owned research farm and plant two acres of crops in order to save the land from becoming a real-estate development. This direct action set up a vibrant tent village on land destined to become condos, while their crops blocked the development […]
Increasing Demand For Farm Loans Forecasted for 2016
The Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) loan programs provided over 37,000 farm loans to farmers in the U.S. over the past year, an increase over the previous year. The FSA programs include loans to beginner farmers and socially disadvantaged farmers, down payment loans, and microloans. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition’s blog analysis provides additional data and links […]
Out-of-State Farmers Express Interest in Washington Farmland
Droughts are not stopping out-of-state farmers and property investors from wanting to purchase or lease Washington owned ag lands. Pacific northwest farmland continues to increase in value. Read More: http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/31/washington-state-farmland-finds-out-of-state-buyers.html
Succession Plan has the Community in Mind
A 153 year-old family farm in Saratoga Springs, NY gets a plan for the future that could include education, a farm incubator and more. From an article Dennis Yusko in The Times Union: One of the city’s last and best-known farms would be preserved as a community resource under a partnership planned between its owners, […]
Farmers walking away from their leases in the Midwest
A report from Reuters News Service: Across the U.S. Midwest, the plunge in grain prices to near four-year lows is pitting landowners determined to sustain rental incomes against farmer tenants worried about making rent payments because their revenues are squeezed. Some grain farmers already see the burden as too big. They are taking an extreme […]