Land for Whom? Diversity, Land Trusts, and Farmers and Gardeners from Marginalized Backgrounds in New England, U.S.

Abstract

Land trusts in the U.S. play an important role in preventing the loss of farmland to development. Farmers seeking affordable land may benefit from these conservation efforts. Yet the distribution of these benefits across farmer groups is unclear. This study asks: To what extent are land trusts meeting the needs of farmers and gardeners from marginalized backgrounds? Interviews with land trust staff and focus groups with marginalized farmers and gardeners in New England, USA reveal discrepancies in how diversity and land access are discussed. Access to adequate, affordable land was a serious concern among farmers and gardeners, yet few land trusts had programs to increase access for diverse populations. Land trusts approached diversity, equity, and inclusion work by making limited commitments, pivoting to social class, and avoidance due to perceptions of mission drift. These findings have significant implications for who benefits and who is excluded from private farmland conservation.

Keywords:

• Conservation
• diversity
• farmers
• land access
• land trusts

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to undergraduate research assistant, Veronica Dumas, for her assistance with this project. Special thanks to Madeleine Fairbairn, Zenia Kish, and Katharine Legun for their critical feedback on earlier drafts.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article.

Notes

1 We applied additional filters to yield a manageable number of land trusts: Terrafirma Insured, Members of the Land Trust Alliance, and Land Trust Alliance Accredited. We aimed for representation across New England, sending emails to key staff at these selected land trusts. Our response rate was 31 percent. Our final sample consisted of 15 land trusts with a minimum of no full-time staff and a maximum of 46. Land trusts in our sample conserved a minimum of roughly 700 acres to a maximum of roughly 150,000 acres. All interviews took place virtually on Zoom between July and December 2021, and lasted between 24 to 64 minutes long.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agricultural and Food Research Initiative Competitive Program, Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities, grant number: 2018-67024-27695.