STORIES WE LOVE
A dairy farmer turned his family's land into a farm the community holds
By Sam Marwood
Story from Cornell Small Farms Program, 10 March 2025
Every now and then I find a story that shows exactly what we're about at Cultivate Farms: real people finding a way to keep a farm working and bring someone new onto it. I share them here because seeing it done by others makes it real. Here's one I love.
From Cornell Small Farms Program, 10 March 2025: "West Branch Commons: Small Farms Radio Explores an Innovative Land Tenure Model", by Kacey Deamer. Read the full story at smallfarms.cornell.edu.
Why I love it
A fourth generation dairy farmer in upstate New York meant to farm his family's land for the rest of his life. Pressure from the big dairies put him into debt, he had to sell the cows and lease parts of the place out, and still he wouldn't let the land go for good. What he wanted was to pass it to someone like himself, who'd respect the land and what farming does for a district.
Then he heard about someone setting up a not for profit to get new farmers onto land, built around regenerative growing and feeding the area, and he went in with them. The land is now held by that not for profit, which offers long affordable leases of up to ninety nine years, and helps get produce to market through a community supported growing round. Housing for farmers is planned. He says he picked this lot because they want the same thing he does.
Why it matters for towns like ours
This is one of the real ways a district ends up holding a farm. Not a committee starting from nothing, but a farmer with land and no way forward finding people who already had a structure, and the two of them putting it together. A grower from the city with no family land and no money for a lease heard about it at a farmland meeting, met him, took a lease and started farming there last year.
One step you could take
If you want a farm your district holds, start with the two halves. Find the farmer who's already stuck, and find the people who've already got a structure that can hold land. Read the three ways to start a community owned farm in our Community Owned Farms guide.
I share these stories because each one shows it can be done, by ordinary farming families, in places like yours. If you know a story like this, or you're living one, I'd love to hear it.