The Farmers Land Trust

The work we do requires the involvement of each and every one of you, our partners. Together, we can create sustainable and resilient food systems that benefit communities and the planet by ensuring equitable land access and tenure to farmers using regenerative practices. Your belief in our mission and commitment to a better future is what drives us, and we are excited to take this next step with your engagement, collaboration and support. With your help, we can raise the capital needed to grow The Farmers Land Trust and guide, incubate and support the emerging Farmland Commons as inspiration and tangible examples of the revolutionary way we can reframe our relationship with land. Donate today through the link below! https://lnkd.in/ejqn4FbG #endofyeargiving #contributetowhatyoubelievein

A few exciting happenings from board members of The Farmers Land Trust! Picture 1: Tonya Lewis hosts the FeedBack Nashville event, "Setting the Table," which celebrated Nashville’s rich food landscape through storytelling & a community dinner. Picture 2: Clara Coleman's "Real Farmer Care," which supports farmers' self-care needs and allocates donated funds directly to farmers, is now being fiscally sponsored by American Farmland Trust. Picture 3: Sayota Knight is hosting an upcoming event on November 15, which brings Indigenous people from all over the country for celebration, learning, and connecting. Picture 4: Cheyenne Sundance is interviewed for TV to talk about the importance of living wages and employment opportunities for farmers as a better path forward than food donations and subsidies. We are so proud to be doing this work with these and other incredible people who make up the board of The Farmers Land Trust! To see the full board of The Farmers Land Trust, go to thefarmerslandtrust.org American Farmland Trust Clara Coleman Tonya Lewis Sayota Knight Cheyenne Sundance

Find "Land as a Common Good: The Farmers Land Trust and the Farmland Commons" on Wildlands! https://lnkd.in/e6H5vTzZ "In our modern world, this sense of oneness with our living Earth is an experience that fewer among us are able to claim. As our technologies advance and our virtual reality grows, our connection to curated content and instant communication masks our disconnection from the natural world that keeps us. Industry has become global and capitalism has seemingly solidified its reign over our culture and planet. Farming has become concentrated and commodified, and the concept of the home garden has been traded out for “gardening,” a highly marketable and luxurious hobby that many people cannot afford with their dollars or their time. Those who do choose to tend to crops and feed their communities outside of the influence of corporate, mechanized agriculture, are forced to sacrifice many of the support structures secured by a nine-to-five job such as financial stability, access to healthcare, and options for retirement. A livelihood derived from the well-being of the land is a beautiful expression of life, but a vulnerable one. These challenges are further compounded by the rising cost of land and land taxes. As an elder farmer begins to navigate the difficult emotions and realities of transitioning away from farming, they are often forced to sell their life’s work into the commercial real estate market. This market does not place any value on the gradual and measured development of vitality built by insightful and dedicated land stewardship." - Darby Weaver, "Land as a Common Good: The Farmers Land Trust and the Farmland Commons" on Wildlands https://lnkd.in/e6H5vTzZ Thank you Robin Motzer for featuring us! #landascommons #elderfarmers #farming #gardening

The Farmers Land Trust will be giving the opening talk at the National Farmers Union Women's Conference in San Antonio, TX, November 7-9, and we would love to see you there! See the full schedule and register at: https://lnkd.in/gjRp_kY #womeninag #womenfarmers #womensconference

"I have been walking around in the golden light feeling as though I live inside a miracle. These crisp autumn days in the plants are something I look forward to and cherish every season. Even so, as my eyes and heart are overwhelmed by the natural beauty, my phone pings tirelessly in my pocket with dark news. My joy for this beautiful season on the farm is slowly eaten away by insidious feelings of survivor’s guilt as I learn more about the absolute devastation in Southern Appalachia. Doom-scrolling the internet for even five minutes can leave you feeling powerless against the momentum of it all. And yet, as I study the brown lacewing larvae scarfing up aphids on my plants and thank the traveling turkeys for taking a tour of my lower pasture, I am reminded that hope is a seed and it is planted in the heart of every individual called to steward the land. Farmers are often overlooked members of our modern society. They rarely chase fame or TikTok views and are portrayed by modern media to be simple people with a lack of interest in adventure or culture. What the majority doesn’t realize, is that farmers are keepers of great wisdom and their skillful work and the land they tend are our greatest hope for a prosperous, green, and just future for all." >>> Read the full article on The Farmers Land Trust blog! https://lnkd.in/e69AAwy9 #hope #farmers #Appalachia #helene #farmlandcommons

The "LET'S GET THIS LAND" event at Wonderful People Micro Farm was FULL of great information on what funding is available for farmers, how to write grants, conservation support, protecting and accessing land, and more! The Farmers Land Trust is honored to have Tonya Lewis, the Program Director at Wonderful People Microfarm, as a board member and was honored to get to be part of such an incredible event. #urbanfarm #fundingforfarmers #conservation #landaccess

📣 New Template Drop! 📣 In addition to the 501(c)(25) Farmland Commons Bylaws already available on our website, you can now find a template for the 501(c)(2) Farmland Commons Bylaws! The Farmers Land Trust offers standardized national templates and structures, facilitating the implementation of the Farmland Commons while ensuring local shared priorities and practices. These templates are designed to be adaptable to the unique identities, desires, values, goals, visions, and regulatory frameworks of individual Commons. It is essential to incorporate local foundational understandings, experiences, and wisdom into these documents and agreements, reflecting the specific context of each community. 👉🏽 thefarmerslandtrust.org #Commons #landincommon #legaltemplates #communityland

Did you 👀 us in the latest issue of Mother Earth News?! A HUGE thank you to Mother Earth News who thought our work would be of interest to their readers for this incredibly generous gift of ad space in their latest issue! If you have land, and want it not just protected, but also given to farmers who have been, and who continue to be, systematically displaced from land, and to young and beginning farmers who will never be able to afford the prices of modern day farmland, for lifetime affordability and deep regenerative stewardship, give us a call. #farmlandtrust #farmlandcommons #regenerativeagriculture

Here’s what we’ve done in the first 12 months of building The Farmers Land Trust

📣 Meet our incredible board!📣 The board of The Farmers Land Trust is comprised of 12 unique and amazing individuals from diverse backgrounds and geographic regions. Collectively the board represents 8 States and 1 Province across North America, and brings forward experience, passion, and wisdom from lifetimes of work in agriculture, food systems, real estate, conservation, land trust law and practice, fundraising, faith, sustainable development, land and human justice, community weaving and cultivating, business entrepreneurship, social innovation, and a shared gift and drive to manifest passion through daily work and lives. This board represents the pillars of our work at The Farmers Land Trust and the skills needed to manifest just and equitable land transition for regenerative, organic, and biodynamic farming, and it also represents the many different groups of people our work serves. We are honored and inspired to share, connect, and collaborate with all of you! Go to thefarmerslandtrust.org to read each individual board member bio! https://lnkd.in/dpWDBC_Z Tonya Lewis Christopher Gutschenritter Clara Coleman Cheyenne Sundance Ashley Rozier Ian McSweeney Kristina Villa Sayota Knight Shani Mink Mark Lancaster Brian Roberts Eric Smith