Six Steps to Saving a Small Farm

The campaign that raised the $750,000 purchase price of Fairview Gardens and put its 12 acres under trusteeship of a land trust didn't happen overnight; nor did it strictly involve pleas for funding. Though most of the money came in over about a two-year period, the community outreach activities of the farm over the years and the dedication and devotion of the farm's staff and core supporters were key factors in the creation of the nonprofit Center for Urban Agriculture. The following six steps characterize these efforts.

1. Reach out to your neighbors.
Hosting programs and events will be helpful in getting the community to identify with the land and therefore help preserve it. From offering veggies for children to feed to the animals to hosting a summer concert series, from programs in horticulture therapy for the disabled to the creation of an herb and vegetable garden at a local AIDS hospice, Fairview Gardens has found ways to involve consumers and neighbors.

2. Cultivate the media.
Use all forms of media to get your plea out there. Fairview Gardens' efforts received national, regional, and local coverage -- all of which helped to attract support.

3. Choose a campaign manager.
Identify an individual in your community who has the means and connections to make the campaign happen -- the kind of person who can ask for money and get it, from individuals and foundations. The Campaign to Save Fairview Gardens also drew the support of prominent environmentalists and fellow farmers such as Wendell Berry, David Brower, Wes Jackson, and Alice Waters, who now serve on the Center's advisory board.

4. Find the right partner.
Your relationship with the land trust will exist indefinitely, so that group's goals and philosophy must be aligned with your own. Most land trusts deal with open space; fewer have an interest in cultivated land, so you may need to look beyond your local land trust.

5. Have a solid plan.
Know and have well established what you plan to do with the land. How will you sustain it, financially and otherwise? Craft a mission and design steps for carrying that mission out. This information will be written up formally in the conservation easement.

6. Keep working toward the vision.
Begin with a mental picture of what you want the place to look like when the preservation effort is complete. Then, look at its current state, and take small steps, one at a time, toward achieving that vision. Hard work and perseverance are what make it happen.

Reprinted with permission from Orion Afield, Summer 1998 issue, © The Orion Society, 195 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230.