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About
Agrarian Trust and the Minnesota Agrarian Commons are currently seeding relationships, collaborations, and partnerships with stakeholders, community land trusts, farmer training and support organizations, and others engaged with the land in Minnesota. We actively engage those among us seeking land justice as a climate justice strategy in alignment with the agro-ecological orientation of the Minnesota Agrarian Commons and the Agrarian Trust.
Interactive Map of the Agrarian Commons Get the full experience on Google Earth
Land Acknowledgement
The Minnesota Agrarian Commons is located on traditional and ancestral lands of the Dakota, Ojibwe and of numerous other Indigenous peoples and nations. We honor their relationship with these lands and we honor their elders, past and present. Much of this land is unceded: territories were stolen, seized, or otherwise acquired through genocidal actions of the state, colonizers, and settlers. As an organization composed of settlers and people displaced from their own original lands, we are committed to renewing our relationships with Indigenous peoples, and supporting Indigenous sovereignty through word and action. Please visit native-land.ca to learn the names and histories of the Mdewakanton, Anishinabewaki, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ peoples who live here in Minnesota and continue to invite us into right relationship with its Native Nations.
Minnesota is one of several midwestern states with laws preventing most corporate entities, outside investors, trusts, and other entities from owning farmland. The Minnesota Agrarian Commons is working with local partners to secure farmland in perpetuity with democratic stewardship through a locally-managed Agrarian Commons, a 501(c)(2) organization affiliated with Agrarian Trust. Our partner Sharing Our Roots has played a critical role in this process and has been helping to ensure that the entity formed in Minnesota is in full compliance with state law. We have done community ‘animating sessions’ with many BIPOC farmers, emerging small-scale white farmers, Climate Land Leaders, policy makers, policy advocates, farm service organizations, lawyers, financial institutions, higher educational leaders, agronomists, ecologists, and researchers. These sessions have informed our strategy to inhabit the Minnesota Agrarian Commons in a way that disrupts the impediments to commoning and eases participatory democratic processes.
Legal Statement
The Minnesota Agrarian Commons is organized and shall be operated exclusively for the purpose of holding title to property, collecting income therefrom, and turning the entire amount, less expenses, to the AGRARIAN LAND TRUST within the meaning of Section 501(c)(2) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”). Agrarian Land Trust, the parent corporation of Southeast Minnesota Agrarian Commons, is a California nonprofit public benefit corporation exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(a) and described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Code.
Community
The Minnesota Agrarian Commons will serve the foodshed of Minneapolis-Saint Paul and adjacent communities in its first phase of work, and aims to be a leading model for community-owned farmland in the Midwest. This Agrarian Commons will work with local partners to secure farmland in perpetuity for equitable access, farmer and community wealth-building, and regenerative stewardship.
The Minnesota Agrarian Commons will be responsible for identifying and holding title to farms in the Agrarian Commons, administering long-term leases with farmers, and overseeing long-term stewardship of the farms.
Land, History & Community
Agricultural land use is central to Minnesota culture and identity: Minnesota ranks first in the nation in grain sales, second in hogs, and fourth in dairy. Yet despite its status as a top-ten state for overall agricultural sales, reports from Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota Extension show that net farm income has declined significantly over the past four years, even while farmland values continue to rise – making it increasingly difficult to access by incoming farmers.
Furthermore, recent legislative reports by the Department of Agriculture’s Emerging Farmers’ Working Group shows that farming opportunities are not equally available to all Minnesotans. As they note, despite the disproportionately high contribution to community food systems played by BIPOC farmers in Minnesota, over 99% of principle operators of Minnesota farms are white.
Approximately 2 million acres of Minnesota farmland transferred ownership from 2012–2019, pointing to the dramatic impact that retiring farmers and aging landowners have on the availability of farmland. More farmland on the market and continued population growth in Southern Minnesota present a dual opportunity. With more equitable access to land, local farmers can increase the acreage of regenerative and racially equitable agriculture and link urban and suburban communities to their region’s farms.
Structure
Model
Local Agrarian Commons Board
FARMERS & STEWARDS
COMMUNITY STAKEHOLDERS
The Minnesota Agrarian Commons board is being reconstituted.
AGRARIAN TRUST
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Founding Farms, Ranches, & Agricultural Organizations
PARTNERS & ALLIES
Sharing Our Roots (formerly Main Street Project) has played a critical role in the early development of the Minnesota Agrarian Commons. The organization has deep roots in the community and serves as a model of good stewardship. In the past ten years, SOR has ground-truthed a poultry-centered regenerative agriculture system, using it as the basis for a training program that provides beginning and immigrant farmers, majority Latinx, with the foundation they need to thrive in regenerative agriculture systems.
From biodiversity, human diversity, and community health to soil and riparian health and diversified agricultural systems, Sharing Our Roots has developed a strong framework for strength and resilience. As part of their community-driven mission, they have several acres of land in a “land share,” which is made available to low-income community members for food production and community sharing, networking, and support. They also host workshops, farm tours, and other community-oriented programs (from dance classes to community gatherings).
The formation of the Minnesota Agrarian Commons will offer long-term stewardship opportunities for farms such as this, and will seek to acquire farms to build a regional land base for farmers to have affordable, secure land on which to grow healthy, fresh foods for the community. Board members, advisors, and supporters of the Commons will work with the national leadership of Agrarian Trust to build a strong foundation to guide and grow the Agrarian Commons in Minnesota.
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