RELEASE: In Wake of Rising Farmland Prices and Loss of Farmland, National Young Farmers Coalition, Land Trusts, American Farmland Trust, and New York Farm Bureau Back the Working Farm Protection Act
Albany, NY (May 2, 2018) – The National Young Farmers Coalition, along with its New York chapters, New York Farm Bureau, American Farmland Trust, and land trusts from around the state, celebrate Assembly member Didi Barrett (D-106) today for taking a stand for farmers with the introduction of the Working Farm Protection Act. The Act would strengthen the New York State Farmland Protection Implementation Grant Program by funding conservation easements that make farmland permanently affordable to working farmers.
“Farmland ownership is the foundation of a successful farm,” says Lindsey Lusher Shute, Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition and co-owner of Hearty Roots Community Farm in Clermont, “but in today’s real estate market, selling vegetables or raising livestock doesn’t pay the mortgage. If we want working farms in this state, we must take action to ensure that the price of protected farmland is affordable to the farmers who need it. Without addressing farmland affordability and the needs of the farmers working the land, the farmland protection program will not fully realize its intended purpose. As non-farmers buy these parcels and bid up the price for land, the farmers will leave and our farm communities will be lost.”
Vermont Land Access Innovations Training
In April, the National Young Farmers Coalition and the Vermont Land Trust teamed up to host a two-day Land Access Innovations Training in Vermont. The training brought together staff from 26 land trusts, state agencies, foundations, and other organizations across 10 states to discuss tools and strategies for protecting working farmland and helping the next […]
Lessons in land access
Access to land is within reach; access to secure land is hard.
A new generation and permanent protection for Wingate Farm
Friends and supporters of local farming gathered earlier this month in Hinsdale, New Hampshire to celebrate the permanent protection of Wingate Farm. Wingate Farm’s new owners are Olivia Pettengill and her brother James. In their second season growing, Olivia and her business partner, Susan Parke-Sutherland, raised 700 pastured laying hens, hundreds of broiler chickens, eight […]
Land trusts: apply now to attend national land access training
The National Young Farmers Coalition and Equity Trust are convening our second-annual Land Access Innovation Training, aimed at helping land trusts utilize tools to protect farmland affordability. The training will take place on Sunday, October 11, 2015 in Sacramento, California from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. This one-day, in-person training is aimed at staff from […]
New case studies highlight successful partnerships between farmers and land trusts
Finding affordable land continues to be one of the biggest barriers facing beginning farmers and ranchers. Land trusts, which have long preserved farmland from development, are in a unique position to help new farmers access land. As NYFC found in our 2013 report, Farmland Conservation 2.0, land trusts across the country are seeing the need […]
How land trusts can partner with young farmers
NYFC’s land access campaign manager, Holly Rippon-Butler, recently collaborated on an article for Saving Land magazine, which is published by the Land Trust Alliance. The article, Partnering with Next Generation Farmers, highlights the crucial role land trusts have in ensuring farmers have access stop affordable farmland, and it outlines some of the tools land trusts […]
Check Out Our February Update: New Faces, Discounts, Campaign Updates
In our first monthly update of the year, we have lots of news to share from our snowbound headquarters in Hudson, NY: new staff, new board members, new advisors, and a new guidebook! We also have updates on #FarmingIsPublicService, a rundown of events and conferences, and a reminder about our money-saving member benefits as you […]
NYFC Releases "A Farmer's Guide to Working with Land Trusts"
In 2010, NYFC was founded by a group of farmers who were struggling to find affordable farmland to start and grow their businesses. Five years later, we know that accessing farmland is still one of the biggest obstacles young farmers face. The good news is that there is a growing movement of land trusts working […]
NYFC Takes a Step in Protecting Working Farmland with Land Access Innovations Training
“Forty years of farmland conservation, and we are watching it unravel before our eyes.” That was the warning that John Halsey, president of Long Island’s Peconic Land Trust, delivered to a room full of conservation professionals at this weekend’s Land Access Innovations Training in Providence, Rhode Island. He was referring to the acres of farmland […]