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On the occasion of FarmLink’s 25th anniversary, we decided to take a look back and explore our history. In early 1999, four people aiming to create future opportunities in California agriculture, including founding director Steve Schwartz, incorporated California FarmLink. Many of their original ideas centered on intergenerational transfer, and to support land access for beginning farmers who lacked the means to access land.
Steve had learned about sustainable agriculture as a Peace Corps volunteer and recently shared, “What I didn't realize for a couple of years after FarmLink was rolling was that my family story was driving some of my passion for this work. My dad was an immigrant. He came here without documents, without speaking English, without money. His family had generations in farming. But his family was ripped off of their family farm by the Nazis and then his parents were killed at Auschwitz, and the family never got to farm that land again.” Steve, who now serves as the executive director of the Interfaith Sustainable Food Collaborative, continued, “I understood the connection to life on my family's farm in Czechoslovakia. FarmLink became a way for the tragic end to that chapter could be channeled to something that served people and built community.”
“When we first started and were dreaming of FarmLink,” reflected founding board member Lawrence Jaffe, “we were hoping to make 50 links between older farmers and beginning farmers in the first two years. Also, we outlined how having a library of legal documents such as leases for the farmers to use would be a great service.”
The ambition was palpable, and the legal resources quickly took root. Those resources have been updated and expanded ever since, including partnerships with law schools and volunteer attorneys. Lawrence, then a small farmer and now an attorney and community advocate in Sonoma County, continued, “We hoped FarmLink would become a reliable and trusted source for farmers at both ends of the age spectrum to post their needs and be able learn what [land] was available and what type of terms were needed to make transitions possible.”
Steve initially worked from a donated office space in Sacramento, and the first grant – $1,200 – supported farmer meetings. Reflecting on what was learned, Steve said, “In Sonoma County, and then down in Tulare County, we learned that the issues of succession and helping beginning farmers with land tenure was cross-cutting throughout agriculture. It wasn't something that just belonged in the sustainable ag community or the farm bureaus.”
As FarmLink continued its work in those early years, a bigger picture came into view. Steve remembered, “I'd gone to an EcoFarm Conference and met all these beginning farmers, and I thought, ‘They're facing so many barriers to getting land and being able to pay for starting their own businesses.’” It was clear that beginning farmers needed access to land, capital, and knowledge, and the organization started to diversify its work. Follow the journey in this newly published 25-Year Timeline.
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