Farmland for a New Generation New York Regional Navigators provide training and on-the-ground customized support for farmers and landowners in the region throughout New York. New York Agricultural Land Trust (NYALT) and Salt City Harvest Farm are collaborating as Regional Navigators to deliver education and support landowners and beginning farmers on topics related to farmland transfer and access, and are exploring how a farm commons model can create greater opportunities for land access for communities in Central NY.
Responses are attributed to Brandy Colebrook (BC), Executive Director for NYALT and Jacob Gigler-Caro (JGC), Executive Director for Salt City Harvest Farm.
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Where in New York State do you work?
Brandy Colebrook: I work in Central New York. NYALT holds farm conservation easements in Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga, and Seneca Counties.
Jacob Gigler-Caro: Kirkville, NY servicing farmers markets throughout Onondaga and Madison Counties
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What brought you to this work? What is your connection to agriculture?
BC: What brought me to this work is my love and passion for not only land conservation, but helping beginning farmers with land access issues. I started a community garden in my neighborhood which led me to become the director for an incubator farm program. During my time with the incubator farm, I saw an opportunity to preserve prime farmland by becoming the director of the New York Agricultural Land Trust and decided to switch gears. My connection with agriculture started by growing up in a small farming town in Indiana with grandparents who owned farms. I helped out on their farms and eventually studied at Purdue University in their Department of Agriculture. I joined Peace Corps after college and lived in Benin where I organized agriculture education activities. I did environmental education for a while after Peace Corps before moving to Syracuse, NY where I became involved with Syracuse’s community gardening network. On a personal note, I also had my own garden and raised chickens at my small house in the city. While I was working with community gardens and the incubator farm, I saw a real need for land access and started looking into solutions. By working for NYALT I saw an opportunity to help make farmland more accessible to beginning farmers by placing conservation easements on farms. Agricultural conservation easements restrict land use for agricultural uses only, which lowers the development value of the land, making it more affordable when it is sold.
JGC: I grew up in the city of Chicago and am a couple of generations removed from my family farming. In my late teens I found mentors in community gardens that inspired me to be more involved in land stewardship. At the age of 24, I packed a backpack and spent 4.5 months visiting and working on a diversity of farms throughout Illinois and California. I was hooked and committed my life to learning as much as I could through a deep experiential education in food and farming. Over the past 14 years I have worked on food and farm projects and businesses in Wisconsin, California, North Carolina, and most recently New York. Agricultural and food systems work has become my life’s work. For the past 5 years I have been the executive director of a growing agricultural nonprofit that grows food, culture, and community through the cross-cultural exchange of food traditions.
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What is your area of expertise? In what ways do you typically work with farmers and farmland owners?
BC: My area of expertise is agriculture conservation easements, outreach, and education. I work with farmers and farmland owners on a day-to-day basis by discussing conservation easements and land succussion. I also get quite a few inquiries from beginning farmers about any available land that we might be aware of. Placing a conservation easement on farmland can be a very complicated and lengthy process, so a lot of my time consists of answering questions from farmland owners about the conservation easement process and what their plans for the future are.
JGC: I thrive in an educational capacity and work with connecting farmers to land access opportunities throughout Central New York. The bulk of my agricultural expertise is in diverse vegetable production and business management. Currently in my role with Salt City Harvest Farm, I am supporting a network of 11 farmers in deepening their understanding in the administrative aspects of farming (budgeting, bookkeeping, record keeping, crop planning, and tax prep readiness).
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Can you give an example of one farmer or farmland owner you are currently working with, the challenges they are facing, and how you are helping them work through those challenges?
BC: I am currently working with a farmer/farmland owner who has very desirable lake views on their farm and has turned away many offers from housing developers. He and his wife are getting older and do not have anyone to pass their land to. As a result, they are very worried that if they do not get a conservation easement placed on their land in a timely fashion that their farmland will be lost forever. We are in the process of establishing a conservation easement on their property, but it takes 2-4 years. Unfortunately this is all too common, I also have two other farmland owners who are in a similar situation, one already has a conservation easement on his land and can rest assured that it will stay farmland, but does not know who will own the land once he is gone. NYALT helps landowners work through these challenges by providing the proper resources for each of their unique situations. Whether that is helping them through the conservation easement process, connecting them to beginning farmers, or linking them to educational programs to assist them with land succession planning.
JGC: One farmer I work with farms as side a business and has a primary job that provides for his family. Over the years he has gone from selling a couple hundred dollars of produce annually to now breaking into the five figures. He hasn't done the best job of saving receipts and tracking his farm income. I am encouraging him to pursue setting up a DBA, getting a business bank account, and staying on top of his record keeping. My team and I are prioritizing these services over the next year with all our farmers within the Salt City Harvest Farm network.
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What is one piece of advice you have for farmers seeking land or farmland owners hoping to keep their land in farming?
BC: For farm seekers my advice is to make a connection with a local farmer who might be looking for a successor and establish a relationship. This might mean working seasonally on the farm or assisting them in some other way. Which may lead to forming a partnership or being included in their land succession plan.
My advice for farmland owners is to not wait until you are past retirement age to start the process of placing a conservation easement on your land or finding a successor. Start doing your research and making connections when you are younger, so you have plenty of time to find the right succession plan for your farm or farm business.
JGC: Build relationships across generations. There are farmland owners looking for the next generation willing to continue farming the land. Succession plans, equitable land lease agreements, and partnership take patience, trust, and relationship building. For those seeking land, I'd reach out to local extension offices and ask the staff if they know of any leads. For farmland owners, I'd recommend posting your farm on the New York Farmland Finder, letting your local extension office know you have land available, and be flexible with your terms with farmland seekers.
