Jim Oldham, Director of Equity Trust, will be presenting at the February 22, 2014 Farming Our Future Conference in Columbia County, NY. Conference details: http://www.farmingourfuture.org/.
Jim will join Marissa Codey of the Columbia Land Conservancy to lead a workshop about farmland access strategies used by conservation organizations. Marissa will describe how the Conservancy helps make farmland available to farmers through its Farmer Landowner Match and Conserve a Local Farm Programs, as well as how farmland can be permanently protected from non-agricultural development. Jim will then talk about several new and innovative tools that can further ensure farmland remains available and accessible to farmers, including ground leases, affirmative farming clauses, and provisions requiring that certain farmland only be sold to qualified farmers.
The presentation will draw on Equity Trust’s two decades of farmland protection work and share information about our new Hudson Valley Farm Affordability Program.