Map of My Kingdom
Who’s going to get the farm? And what are they going to do with it? Will your plans create harmony or strife for your family? Map of My Kingdom, a play written by Iowa poet laureate Mary Swander and commissioned by Practical Farmers of Iowa, deals with the critical issue of land transition. This one-woman show features […]
How we farm is how we govern
In this lecture (starting at about minute 30), Professor Donald Kagan describes the changes in agricultural organization and ownership that may have brought about the Greek golden age. Following the lead of Victor David Hanson, he describes how the farmer became the backbone of the polis.
Use-Value Assessment of Rural Lands – Time for Reform?
Use-value assessment (UVA) is the practice of valuing rural land in the United States based on its current use rather than its market value to reduce property taxes. Originally this practice was put in place to slow the loss of farms, reanches and forests to urbanization. This report, published by the Lincoln Land Institute, looks […]
The Kentucky Cloth Project
Fibershed has been in collaboration with various organizations to support raw hemp plant processing and cloth creation processes for this historic project. This video documents the first decortication of the 2014 Kentucky hemp crop from Growing Warriors, and introduces the wool and alpaca farmers who are providing fiber to blend with the hemp. For […]
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 […]
Land for Good in New England
The non-profit Land For Good has been awarded $641,000 to help beginning farmers who are trying to find land in New England, or who want to improve their tenure situation. The project will also help established farmers who want to transfer their properties to a new generation of farmers. For more information follow this link.
New Farmers Grant Fund 2015 Request for Applications
2015 Request for Applications New York State has allocated $1 million in the 2015-2016 state budget for the second round of the New York State New Farmers Grant Fund. Its purpose is to provide grants to support beginning farmers who have chosen farming as a career and who materially and substantially participate in the production […]
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 […]
Millions Available to Support Landowner-Farmer Matchmaking
Access to farmland remains one of the most difficult challenges that new farmers face when looking to start farming. Fortunately, since 2008, there has been a federal incentive program that encourages retiring landowners to sell or lease long term to new and underserved farmers. The Transition Incentives Program (TIP) is an option for farmers and landowners enrolled in […]
Land, Co-ops, Compost: Boston Neighborhood Takes Back the Land
Growing local food starts with the land, and the current flourishing of food initiatives would not have been possible without residents fighting to control their land and development in the 1980s. Today, the Dudley neighborhood, which sits between Roxbury and Dorchester, has a 10,000-square-foot community greenhouse that has become a hub for the local food […]