Gaining Ground in Maine

Gaining Ground in Maine

Summary

Throughout its 18-year history, Equity Trust, Inc. has worked closely with small farmers across the country to develop innovative economic relationships to ensure the long-term sustainability of small farms. To further expand, focus and model its work, Equity Trust began to concentrate its efforts on a state-by-state basis by initiating the two-year Gaining Ground in Maine project in 2008. Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (NESARE) has supported Gaining Ground in Maine with a two-year grant of $10,000.

The intention of Gaining Ground in Maine is to improve the practices of agricultural land preservation. We will introduce a model (see description below) that will permanently protect farms in their entirety – the soils, the infrastructure and their affordability for farmers. We are: surveying 120 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers on their land tenure issues, providing a series of workshops to farmers and land trust representatives, exploring resources to improve farm preservation in Maine, and providing targeted technical assistance to farmers and land trusts.

Equity Trust’s Model

Equity Trust works with farmers to partner with their community to protect their farms. While Equity Trust’s model can work for any farm, we have chosen to work primarily with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers because they have a natural base of community supporters, their CSA members from whom they are often able to get fundraising help. These community supporters, who buy annual shares from the farmers early in the growing season and eat the farm’s produce help carry out a one-time fundraising campaign that raises money to purchase and monitor the newly protected farm.

On behalf of the community, a local land trust uses the capital raised to either purchase an agricultural conservation easement, or title to the farm’s land. In the latter case, the farmer holds a lifetime, inheritable lease to the land. In both cases, the farmer retains ownership of the farmhouse and barns, and must sell them to another working farmer. Enforceable, positive restrictions are placed on the land that requires the farmer to farm the land as long as he or she owns the house, and limit the price for which the farmhouse can be sold.

Equity Trust’s model does not rely on the active farming restrictions themselves to bring down the resale price of the farm, or of the house and barns. Instead, we require that the farm or the house and barns be resold at their appraised restricted agricultural value. Strict enforcement of this requirement is made possible by the purchase option held by the land trust or another nonprofit entity representing the community’s interests.

Objectives/Performance Targets

The goals of Gaining Ground in Maine are to reach out to farmers; provide education related to access to and retention of affordable farms for farming; and create agreements and put together financing for three-to-six farms and/or land trusts to ensure the viability and affordability of farms in perpetuity.

The objectives are to:

1. Work with small farms and land trusts to protect the affordability and use of farms.

2. Increase the understanding and skills of conservation land trusts with regard to using Equity Trust’s models for conserving farms.

3. Evaluate the program.

Accomplishments/Milestones

Gaining Ground in Maine is a two-year project, which has just completed its first eight months. We are ahead of schedule on one important aspect of the program. Discussions with farmers are already underway to preserve three farms as a result of Equity Trust initiating Gaining Ground in Maine.

Other work completed to date includes:

• Convening an eight-member advisory committee that brings together Maine elected officials, staff from land conservation and farming organizations and agencies, community-supported-agriculture (CSA) farmers and a legal advisor to guide the program (see Attachment A).

• Contracting with and training a Maine-resident consultant who is surveying the 120 CSA farmers in the State about: the viability of their farms, the type of assistance that would be beneficial to them and their input on farm assistance needs in general. We have found the number of CSA farms is closer to 120 rather than 150 anticipated. See Attachment B for a copy of the survey instrument, which is posted on line for the farmers to complete. Attachments C and D are letters that were sent out to CSAs and land trusts.

• Setting up Gaining Ground workshops (see Attachment E) held or to be held at the following venues: Maine’s Agricultural Trade Show in Augusta, Maine, on January 13, 2009, an all-day workshop on January 31, 2009, in Portland, and one in Unity on March 7, 2009. We have submitted a proposal to Maine Coast Heritage Trust to provide a workshop at their May State-wide gathering of conservation land trusts as well.

• Meeting with land trusts including: 1) Brunswick Topsham, 2) Scarborough, and 3) Great Works.

• Contacting agricultural offices and organizations in Maine including: the Maine Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension, Maine Women’s Agricultural Network, Maine Farmland Trust, MOFGA, Coastal Enterprises, Maine Coast Heritage Trust and Land for Maine’s Future.

• Entering discussions with farms throughout the State that would like to work with us to preserve their land and make it available to resident farmers in perpetuity. Thus far, the concerns farmers have shared with us are: their needs for long-term access to land and a greater number of acres, retiring farmers’ desire to pass on their farms, and farmers’ lack of equity when working on land owned by land trusts. We believe our model to protect farms for farmers addresses all of these concerns.

• Kirby White, an Equity Trust board member and significant thinker in the land tenure movement in the United States, completed a draft of the Farm Preservation Manual. It was sent out to a group of technical readers. A round-table discussion of it took place in June with representatives from Equity Trust’s board, the Vermont Land Trust, Mount Grace Land Trust (Massachusetts), a former member of the Columbia Land Conservancy (New York), New York Department of Agriculture, American Farmland Trust, Caretaker Farm (Massachusetts), Land For Good (New Hampshire) and Burlington Associates (Vermont). Especially interesting were the discussions about how to vary the legal documents and the nonprofit partners depending upon each deal’s requirements, and how interfacing these relationships in layers might be the most useful approach.

Although fundraising is not supported by this grant, we are pleased to report significant funding for Year 2 of the project is in place. We have raised $50,000 in foundation support and $15,000 in individual contributions thus far for 2009.

Conclusion

Our accomplishments, and the outpouring of support we have received, during 2008 indicate we have begun a dynamic project in Maine. Moreover, the model we have developed appears to be attractive to farmers and the community as a mechanism for farm preservation for farmers. Equity Trust is well on its way in realizing its goals

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Through Gaining Ground in Maine, we have contacted 120 farmers, 100 representatives of land trusts and 8 other organizations. The impact of this contact is just beginning to be realized. We have seen increased consciousness on the part of State agencies and officials, conservation land trusts, farm organizations and other non-profit organizations about the need to preserve farms for farmers.

Collaborators: