Other Ag News: Founding the Commons: Small Farms Radio Dives into West Branch Land Access Project

The last episode of the Small Farms Radio podcast spotlighted West Branch Commons, an innovative land access project that allows beginning farmers to lease affordable farmland with built-in market logistics support. We heard from Tom Hutson, whose family owned the West Branch land for four generations, and why he chose to stop dairy farming and contribute the land to West Branch’s project. We also heard from farmer Sea Matías and program coordinator Rhiannon Wright on why they believe West Branch’s unique land tenure model is changing the landscape for beginning farmers. The newest episode of Small Farms Radio continues the story of West Branch. In episode 3, co-founders Tianna Kennedy and Francis Yu share how they collaborated to start West Branch, and their vision for how similar programs could transform the small and beginning farmer world.

Kennedy and Yu currently serve as co-executive directors at the Catskills Agrarian Alliance, the non-profit that owns and operates West Branch. They met doing mutual aid work in New York City at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tianna had been working for the Catskills Agrarian Alliance, along with directing the 607 CSA program. She had also been working in the land access space since 2013 with the Land for Good program, the Center for Agricultural Development and Education (CADE), and the Chester Agricultural Center. However, the projects were small and Kennedy felt that they were not reaching their full potential.

“What I discovered was that where those [past] projects were struggling was that there wasn’t really great local management of the project,” Kennedy said. “It was sort of just these people that were foisting farmers and investors together and then disappearing.”

Kennedy envisioned a new land access project at a much larger scale, with holistic local management that would support farmers in every aspect of their business. She realized she would need help with her ambitious plans; Yu joined the team, initially leading the charge to reform the financial aspects of these smaller land access projects. They eventually decided to aim for something bigger, and began to create the large, integrated project that would become West Branch Commons. 

“They model they [previously] had no longer felt like the goal for us,” Yu said. “We started to explore the other organizational structures that made sense and really seemed to capture our values of reciprocity and stewardship and agroecology.”

They landed on the community land trust (CLT) model that would allow a non-profit to manage the farmland and keep leases affordable for beginning farmers. While CLTs are typically used today in the housing space to control rent for a community of residents, the model has deep roots in the agricultural world.

Yu also explained that their vision for West Branch Commons was to go further than just land; they wanted to provide farmers with a framework of resources that would not just get them started, but allow them to flourish in the long term.

“It’s an issue beyond land access,” Yu said. “How do we also develop a network of resources, a community? How do we access different markets so that our farm is viable, how do we access different neighbors so that we have the resources and tools that we wouldn’t be able to afford on our own?”

By partnering with organizations that provide logistics and distribution support, land management assistance, and community building, Yu and Kennedy have designed West Branch Commons to be holistic and participatory; it is for the community, and by the community. While they have been proud to perform this work in the non-profit space, they also believe that the West Branch model should be expanded and applied in the public sector in order to foster the growth of the agricultural industry.

“For the broader sustainability of the future of land access, there needs to be a give. And I think that needs to come from the federal government,” Yu said. “USDA needs to shift its focus to support land access via different policies that do conservation or provide […] accessible financing for new, young farmers or socially disadvantaged farmers. We can do this, but […] to continue to rely on foundations or philanthropists to provide that funding, I don’t think that’s sustainable.”

They think that these changes to the farmland tenure system could encourage more young people to get involved in farming. They also believe the West Branch model would benefit long-term environmental sustainability. The collective nature of CLTs fosters quality land stewardship and regenerative practices; Yu thinks this change in the relationship between humans and the land is long overdue.

“This [project] is coupled with the rapidly declining availability of farmland. I think the figure coming from American Farmland Trust is that New York State loses 51 acres of farmland a day,” Yu said. “This project reflects our relationship to land […] Our vision for the land is that we want to steward it and be able to develop a reciprocal relationship to it like Tom and generations of Tom’s family have […] our current systems have an emphasis on exploitation and extraction of land, of labor, and of resources.”

The farmers who operate on the Commons can feel the impact of Yu and Kennedy’s vision and hard work. Host Jamie Johnson asked Commons farmer Sea Matías of Serra Vida Farm what it feels like to be a beneficiary of the services of the non-profit.

“A hug,” Matías said. “I feel very supported […]  I have developed a community and family here […] For someone to understand what I’m trying to do, and what the farmers of this Commons want to do, and what they’re looking for, and believing in, that is just incredible.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more about the founding of West Branch Commons, and what its founders hope the West Branch model can bring to the future of farming.

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