Our Good Work, Spring 2018
Springtime is the land awakening.
As we celebrate the arrival of the planting season and prepare for the work ahead, we also mark a season of growth with exciting Land For Good staff transitions.

While two valued members of our team have moved on - Andrew Marshall, our first Education & Field Director, and Rachel Murray, our Connecticut Field Agent - we are excited to welcome new faces to our team!  Our new Maine Field Agent, Abby Sadauckas, is a farmer, service provider, leader, collaborator and former client. Abby is training alongside Jo Barrett, our current Maine Field Agent, who will retire later this year. Finally, we have hired a new Program Director (announcement soon).

Learn about more of the good work you and other generous supporters make possible :
This spring we ask you to renew your support. Won't you please join with us to keep farmland in farming? Help us connect more transitioning farmers and landowners to today's beginning and expanding farmers. Renew your support at landforgood.org/donate .

Our quality of life and food security depends on the land security of our farmers.


With gratitude,  
 




Jim Habana Hafner
Executive Director
maineMaine farmer joins our team

We welcome Abby Sadauckas, our new Maine Field Agent, pictured with fiance Jake Galle, on their farm, Apple Creek Farm (Maine). Photo credit: Kristin Dillon and Blue Horse Photography 
Abby Sadauckas, a farmer and agricultural service provider of Bowdoinham ME, has joined our team to help tackle the farmland access, tenure and transfer needs of Maine farmers, landowners and food system.

Nearly one-third of Maine's farms and farmland are expected to change hands in the next decade, and access to land is a top challenge facing new and beginning farmers in Maine and nationwide. Abby will work statewide to provide direct assistance and training to farmers, farm families and farmland owners who are seeking land, want to plan a farm transfer or want to make land available for farming. She will continue to work with our many Maine collaborators - like Maine Farmland Trust, The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Cultivating Community, among others.

"A Land For Good field agent was instrumental in helping my fiancé and I, along with his parents, achieve a farmland lease that honors our shared values," shares Abby. " I look forward to working with landowners and land seekers in Maine to bring them the same sense of satisfaction."

succession Succession planning, a difficult and critical part of farm planning

Farmers in CT, MA and RI made huge strides toward completing their plans as part of the Farm Succession School led by Kathy Ruhf (Land For Good) and Jon Jaffe (Farm Credit East). 
   
Farmers are used to planning: crop plans, business plans, marketing plans. In our experience, succession planning is among the most difficult types of planning for farmers. Many farmers are reluctant to talk concretely about the changes their businesses - and lives - will undergo when farm operations and assets pass to a next generation or owner. Twenty-one farms in southern New England attended our Farm Succession Schools in CT, RI, and MA this winter. While each farm brought a different business and family situation to the table, they shared a desire to secure their farm's legacy by passing it on. There is no one way to deal with farm transition; what works for one family won't work for another. It was powerful to hear the solutions that farm families were developing and the obstacles to be overcome.

"The majority of farmers I work with want their land to stay in agriculture," says Tess Brown-Lavoie, LFG's Rhode Island Field Agent.   "The legacy of the land is often a cherished value." 

We help farm families take action to ensure the legacy of the land by helping them develop plans for how land, equipment, other assets and management will be passed on to heirs or new owners. For free resources visit our toolbox or get in touch to find out how we can help . 

LAP2LAP2 partners boost services for beginning and transitioning farmers

Farmer advisors reflect on LAP2 and its work in the region. Special thanks to Janet Woodward and Tim Wheeler of Indian Head Farm (MA), Ryan Voiland of Red Fire Farm (MA), and Stacy Brenner of Broadturn Farm (ME).  
Thousands of farmers have benefited from the Land Access Project  ( LAP) across New England since it began in 2010. LAP is in its final push before it wraps up phase 2 (LAP2) this summer. 

Thanks to the great work of more than 40 collaborating organizations, LAP2 has improved farm link programs, explored innovative land access methods, trained numerous advisors, and built state support networks. This project has also reached thousands of farmers with training, materials and 1:1 guidance. With core funding from the USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program, LAP2 has had lasting positive impacts on the conditions for finding and transferring land regionally and nationally. 

Farmers are making more informed decisions about accessing land and ensuring their farm legacies - and land is transitioning to a new generation of farmers. Watch for a final report on LAP2 this summer!

spring-appealPlease Give! Support the working farms and farmers you value

You can help keep land in farming and put more farmers on land. Your support is critical to our ongoing work with farmers, landowners and communities. This work ensures that more of New England's working landscape remains in productive use, instead of developed or abandoned.

You can help us continue to connect New England's transitioning farmers and other landowners to a new generation of farmers.  Your gift helps ensure that land remains available for farming, creates farming opportunity for the next generation, and transitions farms so that exiting farmers can secure their life's legacy .

"Tackling the farm purchase was not easy, and we didn't think it would be possible. But we felt it was the right thing for so many reasons, to see this farm stay a farm, and come to life again! Jo helped to make the farm and farm plans
a reality, and now our community has a Forever Farm," shared a farmer-client. 

Help ensure the future of farming in New England!
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Land For Good | 39 Central Square, Suite 306, Keene, NH 03431 | 603.357.1600