Greenbelt Works to Keep Essex County Farms Farming
On the eve following the season's first snowstorm, Greenbelt hosted the National Young Farmers Coalition for a workshop on how to find and afford farmland.
NYFC believes the healthiest future for food and farming in the United States requires continued support for independent family farms that own and operate their own land and businesses.
Farmers must own their farmland in order to insure long-term financial security, but acquiring farmland is the greatest challenge facing young farmers, particularly those who want to stay near their families in areas like Essex County where property values are high.
Thirty-two young farmers from Essex County and the surrounding area learned about the tools and resources available from both NYFC's Michael Parker and Chris Grant, a local farmer who's in the process of buying Brown Spring Farm in West Newbury in partnership with Greenbelt.
The workshop was part of a series of educational opportunities Greenbelt provides to farmers to help keep Essex County farms farming.
On February 26, Greenbelt will host a day-long Farm Succession Planning workshop for farmers who are nearing retirement. Farmers who have gone through that process will discuss how to plan for the future of a farm beyond their tenures.
These workshops are part of the matching portion of the $1,000,050 Regional Conservation Partnership Program Greenbelt and four partners were awarded to protect Merrimack Valley farmland.
For more information on the National Young Farmers Coalition and finding farmland, visit www.youngfarmers.org. For more information on our upcoming Farm Succession Planning workshop, contact Vanessa Johnson-Hall at vkjohnson@ecga.org, or 978-768-7241, x16.