Agraria_Journal_WINTER_2022

What’s happening on Agraria KNOWLEDGE, SEEDS, … LAND Land access. It’s one of the main barriers beginning farmers face, yet it’s gone relatively unaddressed until recent years. Now a range of efforts, including a new state law and recent workshops through Agraria and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), aim to open the gate to those who are gearing up to grow but lack access to high- quality agricultural land. “You can have all the knowledge, you can have the seeds, but if you don’t have the land, you don’t have a farm,” Tia Stuart, Agraria’s BIPOC Farming Initiatives Director, recently observed. Land access is an especially urgent issue for BIPOC farmers and others who haven’t historically owned land — or from whom land has been taken away, she added. “There are so many stories of land being taken inappropriately from BIPOC farmers,” Stuart said. This fall, in collaboration with Central State University Extension, Agraria organized its second annual virtual workshop on options for accessing land. Access doesn’t necessarily mean ownership, Stuart emphasized. The workshop helped participants explore farmland leasing, co- op farming, and land ownership options. And it convened experts from different types of lending institutions to educate beginning farmers on how to get “loan-ready” and work effectively with lenders. Stuart sees financial literacy as a means to address — and reverse — an assumption among some beginning farmers that farmland is simply out of reach. “If you think you can’t access land, that’s also a barrier,” she said. Agraria also took part in OEFFA’s fall workshop on land access, with Stuart offering a session on assessing the physical attributes of farmland, such as soil type, slope, and water sources. “If you have a choice, those are the attributes you need to look at,” she said. Statewide, land access efforts gained traction with last spring’s passage of HB 95, the Family Farm ReGeneration Act. The bill promises a tax credit to those who sell farmland and related buildings and equipment to beginning farmers. And beginning farmers are eligible for a tax credit if they attend a financial management program. Advocates say the new bill is a step toward bridging a generation of retiring landowners and a new generation of farmers seeking land and capital. To keep Ohio land in agriculture and boost opportunities for beginning farmers across the state, facilitating land access is key. “Land access has to be part of the conversation,” Stuart said. ~Audrey Hackett BANNER YEAR FOR BLUEBIRDS Thirty-two eastern bluebirds fledged from their nestboxes on Agraria this year, a record for the Operation Bluebird project on Agraria. They were joined by 35 tree swallow and 24 house wren fledglings. Agraria staff and volunteers monitored and recorded details of nine bluebird boxes on the land from May until mid-August as part of Operation Bluebird, a collaboration spearheaded by the Tecumseh Land Trust, Cate Anderson of Xarifa Farm, and local naturalist Bethany Gray. By collecting data regarding nesting materials, bird species, and eggs, 36 AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022