We continue to help more farmers and farm families and advocate for working lands across New England. For example, we have been actively educating lawmakers and other policy makers about the need for increased farm and food business technical assistance. Together with the Agricultural Viability Alliance and American Farmland Trust, we rallied 119 organizations and 50 members of Congress to request that USDA dedicate $300 million from the the American Rescue Plan Act to dramatically scale up one-on-one business technical assistance for small and mid-sized farm and food businesses. Read more

Dedicated federal funding to one-on-one business technical assistance, including for farmland tenure and transfer, could make a sizable impact on the viability of our small and medium sized farm businesses and the resiliency of our food system.

Read more in this issue about the advocacy and farm viability work happening, as well as state updates from across the region.

Please refer a farmer or friend to our services and resources, or help spread the news about this important work. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to connect with others, share your support and get the latest news.

With gratitude,

Jim Hafner

Executive Director

P.S. Catch up on any news you missed at landforgood.org/news.

Secure access to land is the top barrier for a new generation of farmers. Farm link programs and services help beginning farmers and farmland owners (including retiring farmers) connect with each other, providing unrelated parties with a way to meet. Free Living Farm (Brookfield, MA) owners Cara Germain and Michael Zueger run a small organic farm growing diverse vegetable crops, herbs, and flowers for their community on leased land we helped them find and secure. They connected with a landowner through New England Farmland Finder, a farmland listing and linking program that we established and manage with a collaborative of partners.

"The biggest obstacle has been and continues to be the search for permanent land,” shared Cara. “We checked off what we were looking for on New England Farmland Finder, and one day the perfect property was emailed to us. We connected with the landowners, had a few interviews, and eventually they chose us to farm their land!”

Religious organizations are among those who contact us with interest in making their land available for agricultural purposes and seek guidance on where to begin. Faith communities are a significant and unique type of agricultural landowner. FaithLands is a growing national movement of faith communities exploring how to use land they own or acquire to advance land stewardship, food security and social justice. For example, Abundance Farm (Northampton, MA) is an emerging Jewish food justice farm and outdoor classroom.

We have been supporting this movement for several years, including helping them create specialized land access resources, like the FaithLands Toolkit: A Guide to Transformative Land Use. We are committed and inspired to help religious institutions transform their land holdings into sustainable gardens and farms for the greater good of the land and all who depend on its bounty for sustenance and well-being.

This month wraps up the Land Access Project, Phase 3 (LAP3) that expanded services to help more beginning farmers access farmland in each New England state. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, together with our state partners we hosted a number of online workshops and webinars this summer.

Many have been recorded so, in case you missed it, you can now watch and learn! Find all these webinars and more, plus "mission moments" on our YouTube channel:

Pictured here, from a farm tour earlier this month, Jonathan Hayden, owner-operator of Winter Street Farm (Claremont, NH) speaks to other farmers about no-till practices. This farm tour and training also offered tips on land access to New Hampshire farmers. It was hosted in collaboration with NOFA-NH and Vital Communities.

Special thanks to our many LAP3 project collaborators, as well as these state partners: Maine Farmland Trust, Vital Communities (NH), New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (MA), Intervale Center (VT), University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension, and the Young Farmer Network (RI). Stay tuned for a wrap-up report on the project later this fall.

A two-day virtual training will strengthen the knowledge, skills and collaboration among legal, business and financial service providers who work with transitioning farmers and families in various ways across New England.

September 21 & 23 via Zoom

Who should attend? This training is specifically designed for attorneys, attorneys-in-training, financial management consultants, business planners, and tax accountants who work with—or want to work with—farmers in New England on farm succession.

With expert presenters, peer-to-peer learning and network-building, this training is creatively formatted to sustain the momentum and interaction throughout the sessions. We will record and make sessions available to all registrants.

Learn more or Register now!

This initiative is funded by the USDA through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NE SARE) program as a two-year grant to LFG to improve professional capacity to deliver farm succession planning assistance in New England.

In Maine: Farmland inventory project connects landowners with aspiring farmers

To institutionalize this knowledge of the working lands in Bowdoinham, and offer a hyper-local point of connection, a farmland inventory project began to take root. A new local matchmaking website helps connect the town's farmland owners and aspiring farmers. Our Maine Field Agent, Abby Sadauckas, is on the ground in Bowdoinham and offers support with listings, profiles, and refining searches to foster better matches.

“As a leader on farmland access and transfer issues, Land For Good has been an eager partner on the project,” shared Abby Sadauckas, our Maine Field Agent. “We’ve held community conversations with landowners who have a connection to the people and the land in Bowdoinham.”

The project's ripple effects benefit the entire town, from maintaining the rural landscapes and character of the town, to stewarding the land and supporting the next generation of farmers eager to nourish their community.

In New Hampshire: Connecting farmers with farmland

This month we joined over 70 partners to highlight New Hampshire Eats Local, a collaborative initiative of NH Food Alliance, UNH Sustainability Institute, NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, and other key partners, for a month-long celebration of local food and farmers. For the farmers who grow our food and steward our land, secure access to farmland is as critical as ever. Our local food system depends on the land security of our farmers.

Last year’s market disruptions spawned crises and opportunities for farmers in New Hampshire, and across New England. Many farmers responded to a boost in direct-to-consumer sales and CSA shares, while others struggled to keep their businesses afloat or were forced to consider retirement. Read more about our farmers' dedication and the communities that support them.

In New Hampshire, as across New England, there’s a critical need to keep active farmland in farming. Recently a few members of the Boscawen Agricultural Commission participated in an online program about land conservation and became concerned about the lack of efforts in New Hampshire to connect farmers with land. They reached out to us to locally promote how we help farmers get onto, hold, and transfer farmland.

“We have an aging farm owner population and it is good to have a mechanism for joining some of those wanting to retire from farming to young people who have the energy and enthusiasm to get into farming and just need a chance,” explained John Porter, UNH Extension Professor/Specialist, Emeritus.

In Massachusetts: Dairy farms are evaporating

In Massachusetts, seventeen of the 117 dairy farms are located in Berkshire County. They manage most of the farmland and inject millions into the local economy each year. Massachusetts is more food-sufficient for dairy than for anything else and most of the milk is bottled or processed into products sold in state. But about two-thirds of Massachusetts’ dairy farms have closed down since 1997. The viability of the region’s dairy farms are under tremendous pressure. Falling milk prices, combined with changing consumer preferences, development pressure from second homeowners and those moving out of larger metropolitan areas for more rural living, leave many dairy farmers struggling.

In Vermont: Helping keep farmland alive

It is estimated as many as 300 Vermont farms may change hands over the next five years as farmers scale back and transition from farming. Vermont will have a substantial transfer of agricultural land, according to the Vermont Agriculture & Food System Strategic Plan 2021-2030 released earlier this year by Vermont Farm to Plate. Supporting farm transfer and prioritizing creative approaches to farmland ownership and access will create farming opportunities for more people, including historically marginalized communities within and outside Vermont - and who are disproportionately underrepresented in farmland ownership.

The need for an aligned and coordinated network of service providers and diverse set of services is evident throughout the plan. We're working with Vermont farmers and farmland owners and other service providers to create more farming opportunities, help farm seekers gain access to land and secure tenure for their farm business, and guide exiting farmers through the farm transfer and succession planning process.

We've partnered with Farm Commons, a national leader on legal assistance to farmers, as part of our effort to strengthen farmer and farm business resiliency through professional education.

Farm Commons is a nonprofit membership organization providing farmers with the proactive legal counsel they need to become the resilient base of a healthy food system. Through legal education resources that cultivate a community of learning, Farm Commons empowers the sustainable farming community with workshops, print resources and audio/visual materials that help farmers move forward on many legal subjects, including business structures, farm employment law, land leasing, land purchasing, farm financing, insurance, liability, and food safety.

“Farmers need skilled and knowledgeable technical advisors who can work as a team to support and guide them,” shared Kathy Ruhf, our Senior Advisor. “Farm Commons resources are top notch for anyone wanting legal information on land access.”