The Easement:
The agricultural easement will ensure that this farm will be held in perpetuity for farming and food production for our community for generations to come.

A typical Conservation Easement which most Land Trusts or organizations like The Nature Conservancy use involves tax deductible donations to purchase the development rights of a piece of land in order to preserve the open space and resource characteristics of that land.

In our case the tax deductible donations will include but go beyond this, creating restrictions so that future land owners will always be qualified farmers, each owner
will re-sell the land at a price affordable to the next farmer, and the land will remain in sustainable food production. The Agricultural Easement will be held, managed
and the restrictions monitored by a Pubic Land Trust organization, whose purpose is to hold and oversee these easements in the public interest.

In this way we take our land out of the world of land speculation and place it in the world of environmentally responsible food production, while also reducing andstabilizing the land's value so that future farmers can afford to purchase and work this land.

By removing the inflated visual, development, or home site value of farmlands, we can make farms affordable and desirable to farmer’s generation after generation.
Sustainability means we need to think beyond one generation, we need to create ways that these farms can be passed on and can continue to build sustainable soil, sustainable food production, a sustainable life style, and a sustainable farm economy.

Just imagine if every person knew the farms growing food for them, knew the farmer and their methods, knew the hands the foods went through to get to their plate.

Our main goals are to create a partnership: food security for local communities and land security for local farmers.

This partnership allows local communities and farms to work together and take personal responsibility and credit for the creation and use of a local or regional food production.

 To achieve these goals, we are creating a legal document called an Agricultural Easement that will be attached to the deed to our property.
  

The Easement and the Farmer:
The Easement will stipulate that this land must be farmed; the farmer must live on the farm; and the farmer’s income must come from farming.


Benefits to the community:
A direct connection to the people and place where our food is produced.

The security of knowing the farmland we depend on now will be maintained, and sustainably farmed, for future generations.

The gift of a beautiful, biologically diverse site where we and our children can visit to learn about agriculture, ecology, nutrition, and healthy living practices.

To name a few...

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DONATION
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