New field staff join the team! Winter workshops help you learn how to acquire your own farm, start a farm succession plan & more

Our Good Work, Fall 2023

With gratitude to our partners and supporters

In this season of giving thanks, we want to celebrate with all of you the good work happening to make more farmland available and access more equitable. We recognize your efforts and partnership!

We also share appreciation for the many partners, collaborators, funders, and individual donors who have supported us this past year - and most recently The Vermont Community Foundation and The Beveridge Family Foundation toward our equity-infused strategic planning process. Our food system depends on working agricultural land, which starts with your support!

Thanks to you, we were able to provide direct service to more than 200 farmers and farmland owners over this past year to help them strengthen their land tenure or advance a farm transfer plan.

And nearly 10,000 farmers, landowners, and agricultural service providers benefited from our resources. With an increased request for online resources, we upgraded our website to include improved navigation, new features, and a searchable directory of resources. Check out our new website at landforgood.org.

We've expanded our team! And we're looking ahead to many winter workshops to connect with farmers and help them on their road to finding farmland or transferring their farm. Read more in this issue:

New field staff help bridge the gap between retiring farmers & new generation
Learn how to acquire your own farm
Explore farm succession planning, training opportunities & more
Hear from farmers Dan & Elyse who continue the legacy of Wood's Market
Feel empowered & prepared to make land available for farming
Increase farming opportunities with a donation this giving season

Happy holidays! With gratitude for all of you this season,

The Land For Good team

New field staff helping bridge the gap between retiring farmers & new generation

We are excited to introduce new staff that are helping farm seekers on their path to acquiring farmland and retiring farmers with their transfer planning. Please welcome:

Kali Lucey, New Hampshire Field Agent

Kali joined the team in March 2023 and recently expanded her role to Operations Coordinator and New Hampshire Field Agent. In her own multi-year search for farmland, Kali experienced first-hand the many hurdles farmers face when trying to start or transition out of farming.

Katie Turcotte, Maine Field Agent

Katie’s first experience working on a farm was when she was 12 years old, growing up in Western Maine. She has worked for some of the best cheesemakers in Vermont, and recently returned to her hometown in Maine. Through her own work on a transitioning farm for nearly a decade, Katie understands the challenges we face keeping land in agriculture and transitioning to the next generation.

Deanna Levanti, Southeastern New England Field Agent

Deanna is filling a new role to help us reach more farmers and landowners, particularly in southeastern Massachusetts, Eastern Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Deanna is a farmer herself with 17 years of vegetable farming experience. Deanna believes that bridging the gap between retiring farmers and landless farmers is essential to maintaining agricultural spaces in densely populated New England.

Pictured above, Deanna met with the Working Lands Alliance in Connecticut earlier this month. Pictured left to right, Kae Vagas and Kip Kolesinskas (back) of CT Farmlink, Holly Lalime of Connecticut Department of Agriculture, and Will O’Meara, Connecticut Field Agent along with Deanna Levanti in her new role as Southern New England Field Agent for Land For Good.

Meet our new staff

Learn how to acquire your own farm

Finding, getting onto, and holding land for farming is harder than in past generations. Escalating cost of land, competition for uses, and concentration in ownership have compounded the issue.

Acquiring Your Farm training series for new and beginning farmers will offer a deep dive into the complex issues of farmland access and tenure, including how to conduct a land search, assess farm properties, identify goals and different tenure methods, discover keys to successful communication, and more. This course is most appropriate for farmers with a year or more of farming experience, or who have a business plan.

Apply now to join the six-session virtual series that will take place on Wednesday evenings from 6:30 - 8:00pm (EST) beginning January 17. Space will be limited for interactive sessions. Applications to attend will be accepted until December 20.

“What you shared with us will definitely be useful… so grateful for your knowledge. Now I feel ready to look for my farm,” shared a participant.

Apply now to attend this training series

Where to start with farm succession planning?

Start with this webinar series for transitioning farmers and junior generation farmers to learn the basics like how to get started, where to find support, and hear from farmers recently in transition!

A four-session webinar series on Farm Succession Planning will take place on Wednesdays during lunchtime from 11:00am - 1:00pm (EST) beginning January 17. Farmers from across New England are welcome to attend. Family members and farm partners are also encouraged to attend. Registration includes class worksheets and resources. Recordings will also be made available to all who register.

“Fantastic job packing so much information into short webinars! The course gave me a broad understanding of how financially, emotionally, and legally complex this is for families, as well as how much time it can take. It also identified resources to get started," shared a participant.

Looking for individual assistance with your plan? We can help you clarify goals and next steps; develop a farm transfer plan; build your team of advisors; obtain information from experts and educational resources; identify or recruit a farm successor, if necessary; explore financial, legal and management considerations; and work with you, your family, stakeholders and/or successor toward a smooth transition.

Get in touch through our Farm Succession Form

Opportunity for Massachusetts farmers to dig into farm succession

Farm Succession School is a three-day winter course for senior generation farmers - with or without an identified successor - who are ready to dig into creating a farm succession plan. Active, commercial farmers in Massachusetts who are looking to transfer their farm to a related or un-related successor are encouraged to attend.

Help get the conversation started, learn from advisors, clarify goals and next steps, and connect with resources that make a succession plan successful. Farm Succession School will take place in-person in Pittsfield, MA on January 31, February 28, and March 27. Farmers are required to attend all three days.

In partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources' (MDAR) Business Training Program, the fee for the course will be subsidized. It is important to us that course fees do not create a barrier to participation! If any of the course fees would prevent you from participating, please contact the course coordinators.

Learn more or register for MA Farm Succession School

Eager next stewards of Wood's Market, a beloved fixture in the Brandon community

Dan and Elyse were looking for the right piece of farmland for years. Dan worked on farms in Massachusetts and Vermont for seven years before the couple moved to Washington state. After five years of managing farms in Washington, Dan and Elyse began their search for farmland to call their own and turned their sights to New England.

In the summer of 2020, Dan connected with Mike Ghia, Land For Good’s Vermont Field Agent. Mike works with a number of farmers on farm transfer planning, and often works with farmers who do not have an identified successor to take over the business. While Dan and Elyse considered many properties, in the spring of 2022 they found their forever farm and an opportunity to continue another farmer’s meaningful legacy. After connections seeded by Mike, Dan and Elyse were introduced to Courtney Satz. Courtney and her late husband Jon ran a successful organic vegetable and fruit operation, Wood’s Market Garden, for 22 years in Brandon, Vermont. The future of their farm became uncertain when Jon passed away after a long illness.

Dan and Elyse were able to purchase Wood’s Market in December of 2022. Their first growing season is coming to an end, and they’re looking ahead to the future!

Read the story of Wood's Market Garden

Feel empowered to make land available for farming

When a landowner makes land available for farming, it helps secure a future for farming in our communities. Productive, sustainable uses for all or parts of a property can bring many rewards!

A two-part webinar series will take place on Thursdays during lunchtime from 12:00 - 1:30pm (EST) February 22 & 29 to help farmland owners - and their representatives - explore motivations, strategies, and mechanics for making any amount of land available to a farmer. Our goal is to help farmland owners feel empowered and prepared to share their land as an important piece of the crucial farmland base of New England.

“Thank you for this seminar. The resources and guidelines were great. It was very helpful and thought-provoking to hear from landowners and farmers in the final session,” shared a participant.

Hosted by the New England Farm Link Collaborative, a partnership of farm link programs and land access services in New England that provide a variety of farmland access support services, including Connecticut FarmLink, Maine FarmLink, Vermont Land Link, and Land For Good.

Increase farming opportunities!

Please renew your support to continue making a difference for farmers and farmland across New England!

Join our monthly giving program to become a sustaining donor and give conveniently with automatic donations. For donors who would prefer to give small gifts over time, rather than one large gift, you have the flexibility to do so.

The work we do has a strong tie to our monthly giving program because farmers are asking for our help every day!

Give now!

DONATE NOW

STAY CONNECTED

for news, highlights, farmer stories, resources, and trainings.