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Our Good Work Newsletter Winter 2013
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From the Executive Director,
All organizations face transitions along the way. If handled well, profound shifts such as when a founder departs, can provide new energy. I am extremely grateful to LFG's dedicated staff and board for their efforts to manage our changes. Recently, the Board of Directors appointed me as Executive Director. We also moved our office to a bright new space only a block from our previous location. Even a local move is a big undertaking, but we are happily settled.
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Kathy Ruhf
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We are bringing on new staff, including a Deputy Director, Communications Specialist and two new field staff. Strategic development is moving forward with a great consultant and a board-staff retreat is planned for the spring.
Meanwhile, our work thrives!! For example, I recently presented on LFG and farmland access issues to a national gathering of beginning farmer projects funded by USDA. I've been invited to participate in another national gathering -- this time in Washington, DC, focused on farm succession.
Also, we are partnering with American Farmland Trust to train 80 "farmland advisors" from Extension, land trusts and other organization in New England and NY. They'll get the basics of land access and transfer so they can provide better guidance and referrals to their audiences.
Please read on to see where we have been busy presenting workshops and to hear more about our new publications coming from the Land Access Project.
I'm very excited and honored to lead this wonderful organization as it evolves. We are fortunate: there's no shortage of need, issues and opportunities for us to tackle. All of us at LFG deeply appreciate your support, welcome your involement and look forward to serving you.
Kathy Ruhf, Executive Director
 LAND FOR GOOD WEBSITE
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Board of Directors
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David Ames Jr.
Ames Realty Trust
Massachusetts
Jeffrey Cole
Conn. College
Connecticut
Clem Clay
Trust for
Public Land
Massachusetts
Judith Haran
Community Healthlink
Massachusetts
Andrew Marshall
Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Assoc.
Maine
President
Glen Ohlund
TD Bank
New Hampshire
Treasurer
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Land For Good's mission is to keep New England's farmers and agricultural lands working.
We specialize in helping people get onto, care for, and pass on farms and other agricultural properties
across New England.
Our educational programming, research and advocacy have reached communities throughout the region and nation. Please help us to continue to find solutions that are good for farmers, landowners, communities, and the land.
Please support us. Donate today!
Thank you!
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Land Access for Diverse Farmers
Beginning farmers are a diverse population, bringing different experiences, tradition and needs to the business of farming in our region. Land For Good is fortunate to collaborate with partners who specialize in working with unique groups of farmers. Recently, we partnered with Cultivating Community (CC), based in  Portland, Maine. CC's New American Sustainable Agriculture Project (NASAP) helps Latino, Somali and Sudanese farmers begin farming in the U.S. and produce for local markets.
As part of their training, these farmers attended a workshop on access to land led by LFG's Kathy Ruhf. They were exposed to the basics of leasing and ownership, and had plenty to say about their land access desires and challenges. Many are farming small plots in NASAP's farmer incubator program. "Although they deal with language barriers and cultural differences, the enthusiasm and patience of these growers is inspiring," reflected Kathy. "It was a terrific experience to dialogue with them about land tenure issues."
Land For Good also has a contract with Nuestras Raices, a Holyoke, Massachusetts-based farm incubator. There, LFG had conducted several workshops, worked one-on-one with farmers of Puerto Rican Heritage on the site, and assisted with developing policies for land use. We're also working on a guide for their farmers on accessing land once they move from the incubator.
New Publications
There's a lot of excitement about the new publications coming out of our Land Access Project. We've published three
for landowners, and two for farm succession audiences. One is for retiring farmers without identified successors. This is a major challenge, so our guide is a welcomed contribution. We've also published a guide on team approaches to farm transfer planning targeted to service providers. To download, link to our hot-off-the-press guidebooks below:
Out and About
Winter is a busy time for workshops and presentations. Here is just a sampling of where we're showing up this season:
- Northeast Beginning Farmer Learning Network
- Harvest New England conference
- Northeast Organic Farming Association/Massachusetts conference
- Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Journeypersons training
- Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group conference
- Local farmland access information sessions in NH and MA
- "Just Land", a national convening of farmland access advocates in Rochester, MN
- Common Ground Fair, Maine
- Maine Agricultural Trades Show
- Non-farming landowner workshops in Downeast, SE, and Central Maine
For information on upcoming workshops, CLICK HERE
New Year, Moving Forward
Dear friends, clients, and supporters of Land For Good,
Whenever I introduce Land For Good, a service we provide, or one of our staff to someone new, I invariably use words like "comprehensive," "customized," or "adaptable." It is allegiance to these qualities that has made LFG into such an indispensible resource to so many people over the past decade; and it has been these tenets that have kept us strong and forward-looking over the past few months of transition.
The last time I wrote, it was to announce that Bob Bernstein, a founder and longtime principal at LFG, was leaving to establish his own consulting firm, Northeast Farm Access, focusing on creative strategies to land transfer projects. We wish Bob the best and look forward to the continued impact his vision and work will have on working lands in New England.
I can tell you that Land For Good, meanwhile, is flourishing. Kathy has stepped up to provide steadfast leadership and continuity as Executive Director, and we are poised to make some more structural adjustments that will support her and the rest of our incredible staff. Our board is engaged, committed, and excited to help usher in a new era at LFG.
Personally, I am committed to Land For Good not only because I believe that its services are so unique, valuable, and effective; I am committed because I have seen the tangible results that LFG's work has had for the farms and farmers of Maine and New England. I can't imagine doing the work that I do without LFG as a partner and ally. I hope you'll join me in rallying around this important organization.
With best wishes,
Andrew Marshall, Board President, Land For Good
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