Maine Farmland Trust Highlights Food Security Models
One consequence of the shifting balance away from small farming is food insecurity. As farms become larger and more industrialized, the food on the shelves comes from further and further away. This distance can leave some communities out in the cold. Without access to local food, more and more food insecure citizens turn to hunger […]
Take the National Young Farmers Survey!
Every 5 years, the National Young Farmers Coalition puts together a survey to give them better data on the needs, demographics, and policy inclinations of young farmers across the country. They use this data to inform their positions and proposals for the upcoming Farm Bill. With the next Farm Bill coming into play in 2018, […]
A Year in Review: The 16 Top wins for Sustainable Farming in 2016
2016 was a landmark year for many reasons, not all of them good. Though the election cast a dark shadow on the future of many public programs promoting sustainable agriculture, there have been some major wins for beginning farmers in our country. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has put together a list of the best […]
The Local Motive
Understanding our food system has grown increasingly difficult in today’s globalized world. Everything we could ever want to eat is at our fingertips, regardless of season or location, yet this accessibility is deceiving. Vermont PBS has created a six part series called The Local Motive which looks at Vermont’s local food system through various lenses including: production, processing, distribution, farm to […]
Virginia Outdoor Foundation stands up to Atlantic Coast Pipeline
The Virginia Outdoor Foundation stepped into the spotlight when they denied the applications of the Atlantic Coast pipeline from crossing land held by that trust under conservation easements. While the ACP submitted applications to VOF stating their intended crossing followed all regulations and would not change the status of the land, VOF saw it more […]
Farmland Affordability through Community Land Contribution
In Martin Adams’s new book Land: A New Paradigm for a Thriving World the author tackles the questions about land’s use and values through a plethora of lenses. In chapter 13, Adams delves into the impact of sustainable farming and farm access. Echoing Agrarian Trusts beliefs in land stewardship and the need for a affordable farmland […]
The Waning West
The landscape of the American West is diminishing so rapidly that we can literally see the change with our own eyes. According to the Center for American Progress, every 2.5 minutes a football field worth of land is lost to development in the American West. Click here to learn more about how and why natural areas are being lost […]
How Agrarian Trust is Fighting for Future Generations
Land access is one of the greatest barriers to entry that farmers today are facing. Arable land is decreasing, while land prices are increasing. Severine von Tscharner Fleming, the Board President of Agrarian Trust, talks to Rural America – In These Times about issues of land transfer and access, and how Agrarian Trust is working to […]
An Interview with Wes Jackson: Solving the 10,000-Year-Old Problem of Agriculture
Our dear friend and colleague, Wes Jackson, was interviewed by In These Times in 2016. His words continue to echo the truth:”In 1978, I wrote an essay for the Friends of the Earth publication Not Man Apart on the history of Earth abuse due to agriculture. I suggested building an agricultural system based on the way […]
Sustainable Capitalism and Farming
John Ikerd details a possible path for advancing Sustainable Farming in his article Farmland for New Sustainable Farmers: A Capitalist Approach to Land Reform.