Project Overview
Commodities
Practices
- Education and Training: workshop
- Farm Business Management: business planning, farm succession, land access
- Sustainable Communities: quality of life
Proposal abstract:
As a result of this project, dozens of underserved farmers across the North Central region will find new opportunities to secure stable, resilient access to land through 4 innovative models. These emerging models address persistent problems experienced by underserved farmers and others, including lack of capital, poor credit, and low trust in lending institutions while leveraging the desire to farm collaboratively. This project doesn’t just teach- it gives voice to the deeper need of community members for representation and justice. We achieve these results by creating educational resources that offer technical and legal information alongside practical decision-making and reflection tools. The project learns from farmers as they use the materials, adapts to their feedback, and gives voice to their authentic viewpoints in the educational material.
As a result of this project, underserved farmers will have the practical resources necessary to choose from and adapt these tools to their own situations. Underserved farmers will see represented their own community’s stories, history, and feelings on these tools embodied in the outreach. This project is led by Farm Commons, an organization with strong success in creating highly effective technical material. Our process of building trust, listening carefully to our learners, and fostering leadership allows us to create truly empowering materials. We rely on our extensive farmer networks while working in collaboration with farmers and organizations that have even deeper relationships with underserved farmers. The social and economic sustainability of our region's farmers will improve through resilient land access.
Project objectives from proposal:
Objective: Create educational resources (4 guides, 4 webinars, 4 podcasts) on four innovative land access solutions: 1) Reparations and rematriation/repatriation, donations, 2) Buy-protect-sell model, 3) Profit-a-prendre, and 4) Entity-based FSA Farm Ownership loans
After creating and distributing the multi-media educational resources on the above, we will see:
800 farmers and landowners improve their understanding of the advantages/disadvantages, process, and legal mechanics of the 4 models.
200 underserved farmers (or farmer-landowners) create an action plan for moving towards one of the innovative models presented.
22 underserved farmers (or farmer-landowners) develop innovative land access opportunities appropriate to their needs and circumstances.