Join us to connect with staff of land-based farm incubator and apprenticeship training programs!  Share challenges faced by land-based training programs supporting a diversity of beginning farmers and brainstorm ideas, solutions, and shared resources.  Network in breakout groups to mix and mingle with other incubator farm program staff and apprenticeship staff across the country to do some networking, connecting, and sharing of project updates! 

This month's session topic is:  Rethinking land access, tenure, and stewardship with a focus on agrarianism, social and environmental justice, community well-being, and Earth.

By holding land to provide long-term, affordable and secure lease tenure to farmers and ranchers for regenerative agriculture, the Agrarian Commons are strengthening local food systems and transforming community relationships to land across the country.  Learn about Agrarian Trust's model for the Agrarian Commons and dive into questions about how you can support your farmers to access secure farmland as they transition from your farm training programs or seek to expand their operations.  We will explore questions such as: 

1. What are some strategies you use to overcome land access barriers and challenges in your work?
2. What are some resources, strategies, and organizations you see as helping to facilitate the transition of farmland so that it stays in active agriculture as aging farmers retire out?
3. What are some resources or partnerships or organizations that you rely on to support land access?
4. How are your communities supporting next generation farmers and next generation farm viability?
5. How are you seeing creative ways producers are accessing farmland in your area?

We will be hosting monthly networking sessions throughout the winter months (First Fridays of the month at 1pm EST) as a way to connect, continue to learn from one another, build the network, and engage in topic-based discussions of interest (bring your enthusiasm for a topic you’d like to discuss).

Come with questions you’d like to get diverse perspectives from peers across the country.  We are open to a diversity of conversation topics – come ready to share and/or gain new perspective on some of your sticky programmatic challenges!  If you have a topic you’d like to host at a future session, please email Jennifer to discuss ideas:  jennifer.hashley@tufts.edu.

If you have new staff working with your incubator farm program or your apprenticeship training program, please invite them to come and network and meet their peers across the country to build connections.