2020 Impact Report: Maine Farmland Trust

IMPACT REPORT 2020

2020: Moving forward, together Since the beginning, our work at Maine Farmland Trust has focused on both the present and the future. Our programs to protect farmland, support farmers, and advance farming aim to help Maine farms thrive right now, while also laying the groundwork for a more vibrant future. We strive for a food system that can feed all our communities while better serving the land and the farmers.

Our goal is not just to protect Maine farmland, but to revitalize Maine’s rural landscape by keeping agricultural land working and helping farmers, and their communities, thrive.

Across the country and here in Maine, agricultural communities are weathering the overlapping crises of a pandemic, climate change, economic and racial inequity, all of which expose the vulnerabilities in our current food system and threaten the future of local food production.

Like the farmers we work with, MFT has had to adapt and innovate to meet the emergent needs of our community this year. Now more than ever, we believe that hope lies in how we work together to grow a resilient and just food and farm system.

We are pleased to share the good ground we gained in 2020 in spite of the many challenges we all faced. With partners like you, we are excited for a future in which farming continues to be a cornerstone of our economy and communities.

Thank you for being part of making all of this good work possible!

Kristin Varnum and LouAnna Perkins Interim Co-Presidents

THRIVING FARMS: Farmland Protection 5 YEAR GOAL: Ensure that farmland stays in farming and is accessible for farmers by using strategic, creative, and flexible tools, and increase farm profitability by making sure that farmers get the support they need to establish, grow, and transfer their businesses.

Both new and established farmers face challenges in affording and accessing the land and tools they need to grow thriving businesses. As development pressure continues to increase in parts of the state, and climate change impacts begin to take a toll on farms, our work to protect Maine farmland and help farmers get and stay on the land is more important than ever.

In 2020, we worked with farmers and landowners to protect 22 farms and over 2,500 acres of farmland throughout the state.

THRIVING FARMS: Farmland Access & Transfer We facilitated 11 farm links representing 584 acres in 2020, many with beginning farmers who will continue to feed Maine’s people and economy.

We also held our sixth annual Farmland Access and Transfer Conference with Land For Good. This is the largest conference in New England that focuses solely on the issues of farmland access, tenure and transfer. A record number of attendees—over 200 farmers, landowners and farm advocates—joined virtually from across the country FARMLINK IN ACTION to learn and share ideas.

Through Maine FarmLink, the Tremblay family passed the pitchfork to the next generation of farm stewards when To acknowledge the history and ongoing legacy of inthey sold their Embden farm to Emily Eckhardt and Dillon justice and violence that has shaped access to land and Robinson. Protecting the land with an MFT easement enour food system, this year’s conference featured a wider sured that the farm would remain intact, and also made range of diverse voices and perspectives on farmland acthe land more affordable for the oncoming farmers, who cess and land tenure in our region. plan to start a small creamery.

THRIVING FARMS: Farm Viability Our Farm Business Planning programs deliver individualized business and marketing training to Maine farmers who want to increase profits and meet their business goals. In its fourth year, the program served 34 farms, providing 469 hours of one-on-one technical assistance.

Farmers who complete our selective Farming for Wholesale business planning program are eligible to apply for a competitive grant to implement their business plans. In

2020 we awarded grants totaling $238,103 to five farms ready to expand their businesses: Copper Tail Farm, Crescent Run Farm, Hall Brook Farm, Buckle Farm, and Morning Dew Farm.

At the end of 2020 we launched FarmCalc, a new cloud-database tool that helps farmers make more informed financial decisions. The tool lets farms directly compare costs and profits across crops to plan for production.

RESPONDING TO THE PANDEMIC

To meet the emergent needs of farms, we collaborated with MOFGA to create the Maine Farm Emergency Grant program, which distributed over $190,000 in grants to 117 farms impacted by COVID-19. We also advocated for more government support for small farms, and distributed information to our farmer network about funding opportunities.

“The wholesale program gave me the tools and skills I needed to look at my numbers in ways I never had thought to do previously. It really made me look at my individual enterprises and determine what was making, or losing money. The one-on-one technical assistance I received was invaluable.”

Christelle McKee, Copper Tail Farm, Waldoboro

HEALTHY, VIBRANT COMMUNITIES: Nutrition Incentives and Policy

5 YEAR GOAL: Grow the number of communities and people connecting with, eating from, celebrating and caring for Maine’s farms to help boost local economies, increase access to food, and increase quality of life while supporting our farm businesses.

MFT manages Farm Fresh Rewards, nutrition incentives that increase the value of federal nutrition assistance dollars spent at participating stores. With Farm Fresh Rewards, shoppers using SNAP/EBT receive bonus fruits and vegetables from local farms, stretching limited benefits much further. In 2020, MFT supported 19 participating markets in adapting their systems to the pandemic, and shoppers redeemed $158,000 worth of incentives for local produce between January and December, with a one-month program record of $17,000 redeemed in August.

Our Policy & Research work supports healthy, vibrant communities by advocating at the state and local level for the vital and varied roles farms play in our communities. In 2020 we collaborated with American Farmland Trust to create educational workshops for municipalities and land trusts interested in supporting farms and farmland. With our partners, we advocated successfully for broadband expansion in Maine, an essential tool for the growth of rural farm businesses and local economies.

HEALTHY, VIBRANT COMMUNITIES: Outreach and Art While we couldn’t convene our events in-person this year, we found innovative ways to engage members and farm-enthusiasts online and through self-guided activities. Over 300 families participated in our first annual Maine Farms Scavenger Hunt, and over 700 people across the state and beyond joined us for various online events, from book club discussions to virtual farm tours.

Our Gallery held four virtual exhibits, each culminating with an interactive presentation by the artists. Our Joseph A. Fiore Art Center residency program also went virtual, and held remote residencies in 2020. Four residents of varying disciplines participated in month-long remote residencies and shared their work through virtual open studio events and an online gallery exhibit.

STEWARDSHIP & CLIMATE: Stewardship and Policy & Research 5 YEAR GOAL: Support Maine farmers so that they can adopt and implement climate smart and other conservation practices to help alleviate the impacts of climate change while increasing farm profitability.

POLICY & RESEARCH This year, much of our policy and research work was focused on initiatives to support farm resilience in the face of climate change. We participated in the Maine Climate Council’s Natural and Working Lands Working Group, and helped ensure that the following recommendations were included in the state’s new Climate Action Plan: greater support for farmland protection, farmer use of climate smart practices, and the expansion of local agriculture to increase food security. We recruited four farmers representing diverse segments of agriculture to be part of a Farmer Advisory Group on Climate to advocate for policy that supports farmers impacted by climate change.

STEWARDSHIP After a farm is protected with an easement, our land stewards become the primary point of contact for all farmland owners. They work closely with farmland owners to provide support following the easement and by connecting farmers with other resources. In 2020 our land stewards worked with farmers to monitor a total of 250 farm easements throughout the state, encompassing over 37,000 acres.

In collaboration with partners, we continued to coordinate the Natural Climate Solutions Initiative to analyze the benefits, barriers, and opportunities associated with widespread adoption of natural climate solutions by Maine farmers. And in February, just before the pandemic hit, we organized a Healthy Soils, Healthy Farms event in Presque Isle for farmers to learn from each other about the soil benefits of climate smart growing practices.

EQUITY & INCLUSION: All Programs 5 YEAR GOAL: Increase our education and awareness around diversity, equity, inclusion and the structural barriers that exist in the farm and food system and then apply our learning to adjust our programming, governance, operations, and public messaging to help eliminate inequity.

In 2019 we committed to equity and inclusion through our five year strategic plan, and in 2020 it became ever more clear just how urgent that work is. We assembled a cross-department Equity and Inclusion team to plan and guide the organization’s work, and engaged a facilitator to help us lay the foundation for a work plan. MFT staff and board are participating in various workshops and learning opportunities to learn how issues of justice and equity intersect with our work.

As we expand on this work in 2021, we know it won’t be fast or easy, but are committed to both internal organizational change and external programmatic changes in order to ensure that farmland, farming, and our food system is accessible to and supportive of everyone.

OUR STAFF Charlie Baldwin, Farmland Protection Adam Bishop, Farmland Protection Katie Boss, Development Hannah Chamberlain, Stewardship April Costa, Stewardship Andrea Denny, Policy & Research and Database Catherine Durkin, Farm Viability Abby Farnham, Farm Viability/Policy & Research Alex Fouliard, Farm Viability Chris Franklin, Farmland Protection Karen Giles, Gallery/Fiore Art Center Caroline Ginsberg, Membership Caila Gorniewicz, Development Rachel Grant, Finance Ellen Griswold, Policy & Research

Caitlin Hopkins, Farmland Protection Sue Lanpher, Farm Access Lyndsey Marston, Stewardship Sarah Martel, Development/Legal LouAnna Perkins, Interim Co-President Meghan Quinn, Outreach Tricia Rouleau, Farmland Protection Ellen Sabina, Outreach Kim Sanborn, Office Assistant Sarah Simon, Farm Access/Farm Viability Brett Sykes, Farmland Protection Kristin Varnum, Interim Co-President Rod Vogel, Development Amanda Wheeler, Farmland Protection Nina Young, Land Protection

OUR BOARD Bill Bell, Saco Jason Bolton, Orono Stacy Brenner, Scarborough Dave Colson, Durham Meredith Eilers, Bowdoinham Walter Fletcher, Pittsfield Eleanor Kinney, Bremen James Lawrence, Rockport Susan Morris, Waldoboro Jon Olson, Mt. Vernon Taylor Mudge, Camden Steve Page, Bremen Henry Whittemore, Readfield