Submitted by Tom Andersen on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 2:03pm
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The tremendous energy of the local food movement is inspiring some landowners to convert their fallow fields to agriculture. Meanwhile, local farmers can’t afford land in Westchester, and are looking for land to farm.
When you add in the demand from consumers, chefs, and markets for locally grown food, the only logical response was to try to bring them all together – farmers, landowners, marketers, chefs and others, to form Westchester Land Trust’s Local Land, Local Food Farmer Network.
Inaugurated in December 2009, the program has grown to more than 100 participants, including organizations such as the Glynwood Center, the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, and Westchester County, all of whom are part of the fast-growing local food movement.
Protecting agricultural land has been a key part of Westchester Land Trust’s program for years. On 24 of the nearly 180 conservation easements we hold, agriculture is among the prime conservation values we are protecting; and we’re working on another half dozen easements which, if they bear fruit, also would allow agriculture.
| Patch.com profiles Doug DeCandia, who is farming at Ryder Farm and credits our Farmers Network for helping him get started. |
| Our then-Executive Director Ben Spinelli wrote an op ed piece about our farm protection program. Read it here. |
| Former Executive Director Ben Spinelli and Communications Director Tom Andersen discussed our farm work (among other topics) in two newspaper interviews from January 2010. Click here to see more. |
| Read about the first farmers-chefs speed meeting, here. |
In addition, we played a key role in securing state farmland protection grants for
Hemlock Hill Farm, on the Yorktown-Cortlandt border, and Stuart’s Fruit Farm, in Somers.
Key components of the Local Land, Local Food Farmer Network are:
- A farmer-landowner match program, where Westchester Land Trust connects farmers who need land with property owners who have land to rent;
- Educational presentations at monthly meetings to support and strengthen the members of the network and their enterprises, including topics on farm to table programs, farm intern education, landowner-farmer relationships, etc.
- A Yahoo email group for sharing information online
- An offshoot intern education program.
The program is staffed by Eileen Hochberg, Westchester Land Trust’s director of conservation outreach. If you’re interested in participating or learning more, call her at 914 241 6346 x12.
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