Last month, our region’s Berkshire Community Land Trust hosted Jean Willoughby of Agrarian Trust as a guest speaker.
A national non-profit dedicated to expanding community ownership of farmland, Agrarian Trust develops legal tools and educates institutional funders on the benefits of community land-holding models to enable long term, affordable access to agricultural land.
The presentation cast light on innovative examples of community ownership of working lands from around the country. Facing steep historical inequalities and the imperatives of a warming planet, Jean shared how a renewed focus on non-extractive land tenure is drawing increased interest and resources to these emergent solutions.
I was invited to focus on the importance of community ownership—especially during this time— and how community ownership can play a role in a more equitable, regenerative future… For the first time in history, we’re seeing massive investment in community ownership… this is unimaginable even 10,15 years ago… It’s really making a difference.
Highlights
Community-Owned Land as a Tool for Equitable Development
Jean framed her presentation within the broader picture of widening wealth inequality in the US. “We know we suffer from both concentrated poverty and concentrated wealth in our society,” she said, “and that is by structural design…”
The past decade and a half have clarified the dynamics of extractive development: how speculative investment makes the wealthy wealthier, due to a higher return on capital, while often leading to displacement. Amidst this growing consensus, community control of economically-important sites represents a welcome alternative:
Community-based ownership is not only better for the soul… it actually weathers downturns far better than market-based strategies… it works. It’s a safer strategy for protecting and building community-based wealth.
A few of the successful strategies highlighted include the Community Land Trust model, Brooklyn Nehamiah Homeowners Associations, and the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative.
A Focus on Racial Equity
Agrarian Trust proposes community ownership and stewardship to support the next generation of regenerative farmers. Doing so, the group prioritizes addressing historic inequities in land ownership, particularly for farmers of color. Some 80% of farmworkers are people of color, yet people of color own just a tiny fraction—less than 2%—of U.S. farmland.
I do think it’s important to understand how we got here… 98% of all farmland in the country is owned by white families… I don’t think we should be surprised, based on our history, but I think we should never lose our moral capacity for shock… Because the value of land increases over time…we’ll never close the racial wealth gap so long as that remains the case…
This understanding informs the work of Agrarian Trust, which in 2023 was selected by the U.S.D.A. as mid-tier recipients for their Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access Program (ILA). Per Agrarian Trust, this new initiative “will provide approximately $300 million in funding to 50 projects to improve access to land, capital, and markets for underserved farmers, ranchers, and landowners. The funding allocated to Agrarian Trust and its partners will go towards…technical assistance and securing land for farmers who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC).”
As Jean insists, these times present “so many options for us to take action:”
What can we do to accelerate the pace of social change? We’re just at the beginning of something… of reimagining what this country can look like with equitable models in place.
Read our recent update on the Berkshire Community Land Trust’s Farmsteads for Farmers campaign here.