Finding Farmland, Finding Farmers
The Finding Farmland, Finding Famers (FFFF) Project
As part of our Ecosystem Building work, the Finding Farmland, Finding Farmers project aims to answer the question of how Marin’s agricultural land base could be utilized to support increased land access for small farmers, especially BIPOC and underserved farmers.
The project emerged from discussions with partner organizations who identified a unique set of challenges and opportunities facing agricultural producers in Marin County. Changes in the dairy and ranching industries and an aging farmer population have brought up questions about the future of agriculture in the region. Marin County has a large amount of working land, much of it protected under agricultural easements. At the same time, many small farmers in the region have struggled to find stable land access in proximity to the thriving local food economy of the Bay Area.
By working both with small farmers and ranchers as well as landholders in Marin country, the Finding Project aims to create equitable access to land for small sustainable farmers and ranchers. With funding from the Marin County Parks, Open Space, and Sustainable Agriculture quarter cent sales tax Measure A, Kitchen Table Advisors began work on the project in 2024 in partnership with UC Cooperative Extension of Marin County.
Finding Farmland
The purpose of the Finding Farmland work is to study real agricultural properties and assess how they can be leased to new farmers. The outcome of this research will both give landowners the information to decide whether to lease acreage, and create a model of inquiry for other landowners to do the same.
Our framework for evaluating ranch lands was developed in collaboration with two ranch owners in Marin.
The resulting guide is a tool that landholders can use to identify the soil, water, and infrastructure conditions that would make a parcel suitable for lease to a specialty crop grower. While designed with Marin County ranches in mind, it is applicable to ranch lands throughout the state.
Completed Ranch Assessments for Reference
Finding Farmers
Guiding our Finding Farmers work is the understanding that long-term access to stable, affordable land is a key barrier to farm business viability. Thus, we are approaching this work with the goal of building more opportunities for aspiring skilled farmers, especially underserved and BIPOC farmers. Marin County is a particularly challenging environment for land access due to the cost of land and housing, the relative lack of row crop land, and the common practice of handshake leasing agreements.
Our work sees us building alliances with community leaders in the North Bay who are also working on land access and community food sovereignty. Recognizing that there are inherent power differentials between landseekers and landholders, we are also working to deepen landowner understanding of the implications of leasing land to farmers and increase the potential for success on both sides of the relationship.
The Agriculturalist and Landholder Relationship Guide is a resource we developed in 2023 to share best practices around building healthy relationships in farmland leasing arrangements. We are in the process of developing additional resources to identify and support the pipeline of underserved farmers in the North Bay. We believe that, with adequate attention to transparency, equity, and intentional relationships, there are opportunities in Marin County to build a strong foundation for the next generation of farmers and land stewards.
Read more about the Agriculturalist and Landholder Relationship Guide on our blog. The accompanying post details the importance of nurturing healthy relationships around land by diving into two client stories that portray some of the barriers to land access that farmers and ranchers experience.
