Land Access

The way we use our land impacts more than agricultural communities – our food system, the environment, and our economy. For this reason, land use management should focus on ecological integration and protect publicly held land for agricultural purposes.

With more and more competition from investors and arable land lost to development, accessing land is increasingly becoming harder for farmers. Land access is inextricably linked to credit access and the opportunity to build equity. However, the challenge of obtaining credit and thus also accessing land is becoming larger than ever before for small-scale farmers, organic and polyculture farmers, and farmers of color.

We believe that everyone should have access to land. The land that farmers cultivate is the very foundation of their livelihood and access to land is deeply intertwined with all aspects of farmers’ success. Recently, there has been a push amongst farmers of color to reclaim land; a movement that has generated increased attention to discrimination in access to programs and credit. While acknowledging systemic discrepanised in access to programs is a large step forward, it must be followed through with action that supports farmers of color, small-scale farmers as well as organic and polyculture farmers in order to ensure equal access arable land.

You can learn more about challenges in land access here or here and find out how you can get involved in the equitable land access movement here.