March 3/10: West Branch Commons – Catskills Region, NY
West Branch Commons is working to transform a 287-acre dairy farm into a community land trust that offers long-term, affordable land access to queer and trans, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (QTBIPOC) farmers via long-term ground leases.
April 4/14: Commons Land – Minnesota
Commons Land Community Farmland Trust is a circle of farmers, land stewards and organizers building a community and a Land Trust to support a Commons vision that provides healing for land and people. Commons Land focuses on addressing structural inequities in agriculture by ensuring that good farmland is available and affordable to farmers of all backgrounds, prioritizing Black, Indigenous, Latinx/e, Asian, queer, and low-income white emerging farmers who have traditionally been marginalized from owning their own farms. Learn more at www.commons.land
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Are you interested in alternative land tenure and alternative business structures?
Join NOFA-VT and guest presenters from around the country and Canada for a monthly discussion exploring alternative land access models and business structures. Each month we’ll hear from an agricultural project that is actively engaged in land access or land tenure outside of conventional mechanisms, with a specific focus on first generation, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ farmers and land stewards. Presentations will provide an overview of the land access story and business model, sharing details and mechanics of each project, with time devoted to Q&A.
With the cost of land rising to a level that makes farming inaccessible to those without agricultural backgrounds or generational wealth, we’ll be asking questions about decommodifying land, working cooperatively, fundraising, building community, creating legal structures, and more.
Over the course of the series, we aim to build a network of land holders, land seekers, community members and service providers looking to reimagine existing structures, and rebuild resilient agricultural communities that work for everyone.