Farm Preservation Resources
Model Documents
The following draft legal documents for preserving farms, together with explanatory commentaries, are available for free download:
Preserving Farms for Farmers Manual
Preserving Farms for Farmers: A Manual for Those Working to Keep Farms Affordable, presents projects that permanently protected the affordability of whole farms, including land, farmhouse, barns, and other infrastructure, and ensured their continued use for food production. It also provides model legal documents, a model agricultural easement with option to purchase and a model agricultural ground lease, with commentaries. Farmland Access in Urban Settings
Despite increasing interest in urban agriculture, little exists to help farmers navigate access to land in urban settings. Jo Rosen of Equity Trust and Kathy Ruhf of Land for Good co-authored a guide that addresses urban land access for commercial farmers. The guide looks at the unique challenges in locating urban properties, and dealing with urban ordinances, soil issues, and …
Beyond Conservation Easements
If we're serious about agricultural preservation, it's not enough to protect the land alone...
This Equity Trust video discusses ways of going beyond traditional conservation easements to meet the new challenges posed by the growing market for rural estates.
View online Gaining Ground
How CSAs Can Acquire, Hold, and Pass On Land
This discussion of land tenure and financing for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) was adapted from a chapter prepared by Chuck Matthei of the Equity Trust for Farms of Tomorrow Revisited, edited by Trauger Groh and Steven McFadden (Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1997). It lays the groundwork for what has become our farms for farmers program, while setting forth ideas on how to balance individual and community interests, as well as practical ideas on developing a relationship with a land trust and on financing a farm purchase.
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