Strategic Development

The Farm School is leading a project funded by a Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant to increase land access and land transfers to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) farmers and nonprofits in central Massachusetts. The project is led by The Farm School’s Strategic Planning Director Carmen Mouzon in collaboration with The Mount Grace Land Trust, East Quabbin Land Trust and the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust.

The goal of this project is to define and articulate the Land Trust and Conservation agencies organizational, state, and federal policies and practices that have contributed to and have maintained the current racial demographic breakdowns of farmland ownership in rural Massachusetts, which currently is over 96% owned by white farmers. We will work together to develop and implement new policies and practices devoted to outcomes that lead to increased BIPOC owned farmland/conservation land and increased access to farming resources for BIPOC farmers in rural MA. This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program under subaward number FNE22-022.