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The Shared Landscape

The Shared Landscape

by FIELD Network

Season 2

Quivira Coalition New Agrarian Program

This episode documents how a multi-state, paid, residential ranching apprenticeship supports graduates in building sustainable career pathways in livestock systems—particularly in contexts where land access and affordability constrain new entrants. It focuses on: (1) the program’s design premise that livestock work requires a “trust threshold”; (2) common graduate decision points; (3) three observed pathways for accessing land and responsibility; (4) the role of relationships and role transitions as enabling infrastructure; and (5) the support mechanisms NAP uses, alongside a named capacity gap––the ongoing need for compensated alumni transition support. Case Study Transcript of complete interview Impact Interview Questions for Quivira Coalition New Agrarian Program “The Grazier's Toolbox” webinar series Manager Fellowship

Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA)

This episode documents how a long-running farm incubator and an emerging land access initiative support farmworker-farmers as they move from training into independent operations in one of the country’s most competitive agricultural regions. It focuses on: (1) ALBA’s phased pathway from classroom training to subsidized incubation; (2) the typical transition timeline from incubator acreage to outside land; (3) the land access strategies now emerging in the region, especially clustered leasing and purchase-oriented projects; (4) the role of partnerships, technical assistance, and relationship-building as enabling infrastructure; and (5) the major bottlenecks that remain, especially parcel size, land security, and access to capital. Case Study Transcript of complete interview ALBA Impact report California FarmLink - land access, lease review, lending, and capital access support Kitchen Table Advisors - individualized business coaching Resource Conservation District - irrigation, nutrient management, and land assessment support La Cultiva / Tera Farm - land stability, clustered access projects, and purchase-oriented pathways

Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming

This episode documents how Glynwood supports farmers and landowners through the complex preparation and relationship-building work that often comes before a successful land access agreement. It focuses on: (1) Glynwood’s role as a regional navigator within a broader land access ecosystem; (2) the shift from ad hoc responses toward clearer intake and referral systems; (3) how farmer readiness, landowner expectations, and site fit shape whether an opportunity is appropriate; (4) the importance of communication, lease detail, and power awareness in farmer-landowner relationships; and (5) the value of networked support when one organization cannot provide every technical, legal, or site-assessment service in-house. Case Study Transcript of complete interview New York Farmland Finder platform American Farmland Trust Regional Navigator network Glynwood Comprehensive Skills Assessment Glynwood Vegetable Skills Assessment Glynwood Hard Skills Assessment Pace Food and Farm Business Law Clinic New York State Agricultural Mediation Program (NYSAMP) Contact email: farmertraining@glynwood.org CRAFT: Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training

Oregon Farm Corps, Friends of Family Farmers and Oregon Agricultural Trust

This episode documents how three statewide Oregon organizations––Oregon Farm Corps, Friends of Family Farmers, and Oregon Agricultural Trust––built a coordinated ecosystem to support farmer land access. Rather than offering a single land access program, the partnership aligns complementary functions across a farmer’s progression from early business readiness to land matching and transaction support, while also addressing the landholder side through succession, viability education, and conservation tools. It focuses on: (1) how each organization clarified their role across the land access journey; (2) the infrastructure that makes collaboration operational; (3) the pathway logic they use to support first-generation and beginning farmers who are not inheriting land or capital; (4) the land access mechanisms they most commonly see succeed; (5) how relationship-building and communication skills function as enabling infrastructure for access; and (6) the capacity gaps that persist, including sustained funding for intensive one-on-one support and better cross-organization journey tracking. Case Study Transcript of complete interview Oregon Farm Corps (OFC) Farm Launch (business planning program) Changing Hands Land Connections workshops Changing Hands Elevator Pitch Template Business planning templates Oregon Market Garden Start-Up Checklist Friends of Family Farmers (FoFF) Oregon FarmLink database Navigate program (1:1 land seeker support) Oregon Pasture Network Farmland Navigator program guidebook Oregon Agricultural Trust (OAT) Fact sheets/resource guides on succession, easements, and financial topics.

Season 1

Rock Steady

This episode examines how a queer led cooperative farm in New York’s Hudson Valley has built a decade of shared governance, diversified revenue, and community rooted production on leased land. It focuses on: (1) the farm’s land tenure model, a ten year rolling lease negotiated to base payments only on infrastructure assets rather than land value, allowing Rock Steady to farm 5.5 acres while maintaining long term affordability and stability; (2) the evolution of the ownership team, from three experienced founding farmers to a four owner cooperative supported by a 13 member staff, with clear distinctions between hierarchical field operations and democratic ownership decision making; (3) the business model, which began with the purchase of equipment and customer lists from a previous farm and has grown into a mixed vegetable and flower operation supported by CSA sales, philanthropic funding, fiscal sponsorship, and consolidated loans through Seed Commons; (4) the governance systems that sustain the cooperative, including weekly owner meetings, quorum based voting, structured onboarding for new owners, conflict resolution protocols, and participation in the Webatuck Valley Farm Collaborative, a sociocracy inspired network of neighboring farms that share decision making through circle structures and ranked voting; and (5) the lessons learned over ten years of cooperative farming, including the importance of human resources support, the need for conflict management training in farmer education, the value of transparent decision making, and the benefits of combining cooperative governance with a flexible LLC and fiscal sponsorship structure that supports both business operations and nonprofit aligned programming. Transcript of complete interview Rock Steady Employee Manual Worker Owner Agreement Overview Owner Rights and Responsibilities Rock Steady Decision Making Matrix Rock Steady Farm website

Fountain Heights

This episode explores how a Black led urban farming collective in Birmingham is transforming abandoned neighborhood lots into a community rooted food system that blends land stewardship, cultural connection, and cooperative practice. It focuses on: (1) the cooperative’s land strategy, which has grown from a backyard garden into 11 farmed lots across Fountain Heights, acquired through neighbor relationships and city processes, with a long term goal of activating 119 lots to feed the neighborhood; (2) the collective of farmers, apprentices, and volunteers who steward the land, drawing on shared cultural experiences, a commitment to healing through the Earth, and a strong ethic of mutual care that supports both individual farm businesses and the collaborative as a whole; (3) the business model, where an LLC with fiscal sponsorship operates a joint CSA called We All Eat, collaborates with six other farms, accepts EBT and Double Up Bucks, and reinvests revenue into infrastructure, labor, and a forthcoming Heart of the Farm building that will include wash pack space, cold storage, a market, and apprenticeship housing; (4) the governance and conflict navigation practices, including a Neighborhood Advisory Council, annual healing workshops with the Aya Institute, shared systems for tracking farm tasks, and a culture that prioritizes direct communication, collective well being, and community accountability; and (5) the lessons emerging from urban farming at scale, including navigating restrictive ordinances and costly resurveying, building soil on former house sites, balancing ambitious food access goals with realistic capacity, and designing a long term cooperative structure that can support future farmers while keeping land in community centered production. Transcript of complete interview Fountain Heights Farm website

Tierra Fertil

This episode explores how a Hispanic led cooperative farm in western North Carolina emerged from a community food distribution effort and is now building long term land security, shared governance, and culturally rooted agricultural production. It focuses on: (1) the cooperative’s land journey, beginning with informal shared space on a flood prone field, followed by a small leased church plot, and culminating in the 2024 purchase of a nine acre property supported by Equity Trust and the Persimmon Collective Fund; (2) the worker owners’ shared identity and values, shaped by their leadership in the Abundancia food distribution program and their commitment to creating stability, mutual support, and culturally relevant foodways for their Hispanic community; (3) the cooperative’s business model, which blends diversified crop production, sales to farmers markets and food access programs, technical assistance and Spanish language workshops through Transplanting Traditions, and a fiscal sponsorship arrangement that compensates the farm for food distributed through Abundancia; (4) the governance structure, where an LLC partnership operates with cooperative principles, democratic decision making, consensus based meetings, and intentional practices to help members find their voice and build trust; and (5) the challenges and lessons emerging from the cooperative’s growth, including the difficulty of sustaining fair compensation, the need to refine ownership and retirement models now that land is secured, the importance of supporting women in farming, and the long term goal of creating a stable, intergenerational farm that can one day be passed on to younger growers. Transcript of complete interview Tierra Fertil website

Land-based Condo

This episode examines how a long standing rural homestead community in western Wisconsin uses a land based condominium structure to share more than 300 acres of woods, fields, and common infrastructure while allowing each household to privately own a five acre parcel and home. It focuses on: (1) the origins of the land based condo model, beginning with a single family purchasing the land in the 1970s and later converting it into a condominium so multiple households could build equity while sharing 276 acres of common land; (2) the ways residents use the shared landscape for recreation, maple syruping, foraging, hunting, and small scale agriculture, including one farmer who operates a one acre flower and agritourism business supported by access to extensive common land; (3) the governance system defined by bylaws, twice yearly meetings, and a 70 percent vote requirement for major decisions, along with informal cooperation around tools, equipment, and land stewardship; (4) the financial and social dynamics of shared ownership, including equal responsibility for taxes on common land, shared decision making on improvements, and tensions that arise when individual owners invest disproportionately in common infrastructure; and (5) the lessons and challenges of collective landholding, such as the need for clearer shared values, the difficulty of aligning ecological priorities across diverse residents, and the potential for this model to support future agricultural enterprises by lowering land access costs while still allowing individuals to build equity in their homes and parcels. Transcript of complete interview Shared land management tracker Land-based condo bylaws

Growing Together & Mill Ridge Park

This episode explores how a Nashville nonprofit is expanding land access for immigrant, refugee, and beginning farmers through two shared land production sites, one on church property and one in a city park, while navigating the complexities of insecure tenure, intensive staff support, and evolving program design. It focuses on: (1) the dual site land access model: a long standing one acre lease with Christ Lutheran Church that supports five Bhutanese and Burmese or Myanmar farm businesses, and a five year renewable license with the City of Nashville for seven acres at Mill Ridge Park, where two additional farm businesses operate; (2) the program’s origins in community healing and cultural reconnection, where farmers, many from agrarian backgrounds, grow culturally significant crops, build belonging, and sell through CSAs and a new farmer led market; (3) the nonprofit’s operational role, including managing CSAs, procuring inputs, coordinating irrigation schedules, hosting weekly farmer meetings, and providing infrastructure such as greenhouses, cold storage, wash pack stations, and volunteer support; (4) the challenges of scaling a staff intensive model, especially language access, individualized CSA management, and the need to set clearer boundaries and expectations for future cohorts, alongside new strategies for partial cost recovery through markets, sliding scale education programs, and corporate volunteer partnerships; and (5) the broader lessons emerging from both sites, including the importance of clear SOPs and MOUs for shared resources, the limits of farming on insecure land, the need for city level policy change around water and land access, and the potential for TNFP to shift toward a hub and spoke model that supports farmer autonomy while expanding community agriculture across Nashville. Transcript of complete interview Mill Ridge Permit for use of park spaces Community Farm Rules Memorandum of Understanding for Farm in the City Growing Together Farmer Agreement License Agreement for Growing Together License Agreement for Mill Ridge Liability and Photo Release Community Agriculture Network Webpage

Backyard Basecamp

This episode examines how a young, mission‑driven nonprofit in Baltimore is working to expand land access for Black and Brown communities through urban farming, nature‑based education, and a developing Farmland Commons partnership. It focuses on: (1) the organization’s origins in stewarding a 3‑acre parcel BLISS Meadows and managing an adjacent 7‑acre city‑owned forest, transforming both into community‑serving spaces for food production, education, and recreation; (2) the strategic effort to secure a larger, contiguous 10–50 acre property for commercial‑scale production, supported by a partnership with The Farmers Land Trust, GIS mapping, and ongoing landowner outreach; (3) the nonprofit’s operational model, where a small team manages production, education, and operations, and where farmers receive salaries, healthcare, and professional development funds that enable skill‑building in areas like beekeeping and season extension; (4) the governance structure: department‑based decision‑making, bi‑weekly staff meetings, board oversight focused on community impact, and a forthcoming 501(c)(25) Farmland Commons that will jointly hold land with at least three nonprofit partners; and (5) the challenges and lessons emerging from urban land stewardship, including slow city processes, legal barriers around livestock, the difficulty of acquiring affordable land near the urban core, and the tension of pursuing a mission‑driven model that must shift community habits while diversifying revenue beyond grants through agritourism, value‑added products, and direct sales. Transcript of complete interview Backyard Basecamp website

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