Today we are joined by Kristina Villa of the Farmers Land Trust [https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/] who is confronting one of the most intractable challenges and deepest inequities within our food system today: Land access and tenure.

Kristina shares her remarkable journey that has culminated in launching her own organic farming business and founding an organization that enables emerging regenerative farmers to gain access to arable land that then can be held in community for generations rather than going back into a commodity market that favors traditional development.

In this episode, we cover:

- Kristina’s story and how her childhood reliance on food banks led her to organic farming and launching the Farmers Land Trust

- The importance of thinking about land transition to help aging farmers pass on their legacy

- Why we’re meant to farm in community

- Layering enterprises to get more people back on the land

- Crowd-sourcing land acquisition

- Addressing inequity in land access, ownership, and tenure through a farmland commons strategy

- How anyone can start their own community land trust

- Kristina’s advice for getting into farming from a non-farming background

- And much more...

More about Kristina and the Farmers Land Trust [https://www.thefarmerslandtrust.org/]:

Kristina Villa is the Co-Executive Director of The Farmers Land Trust, and is a farmer, communicator, and community coordinator who believes that our connection to the soil is directly related to the health of our bodies, economy, and society. With over a decade of farming, communication, and fundraising experience, Kristina enjoys using her skill sets to share photos, stories, and information in engaging ways which help to inspire change in human habits and mindsets, causing the food system, climate, and overall well-being of the world to improve. Kristina has spent the last several years of her professional career saving farmland from development and securing it in nonprofit land holding structures that give farmers, stewards and ranchers long-term and affordable access and tenure to it. Most of her work in the land access space has focused on equitable land security for BIPOC growers, addressing the inequities and disparities in how land is owned and accessed in this country.

Find the Famers Land Trust on social media at: Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Farmers-Land-Trust/100093197624819/], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thefarmerslandtrust/?hl=en], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@thefarmerslandtrust], LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-farmers-land-trust/], X [https://twitter.com/FarmersLT?t=R_3g1swgiF_G8NcvWvGn3g&s=09], Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/@TheFarmersLandTrust]

Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song.

Igniting a Farmland Commons Movement with Kristina Villa

It's no secret that conventional farming is wreaking havoc on America's farmland, but is it really economically possible to convert conventional row crop farms to a regenerative approach that heals our planet? And how can the concept of an agrarian help foster stronger ties between rural farming communities and the cities they feed?

In this first episode, we dig into the answer with someone who's done it: Josh Payne of Rusted Plowshare Farm [https://www.rustedplowshare.com/] shares the story of how he and his sister Larin transformed their grandfather's corn and soy row crop operation into regenerative pastureland complete with sheep and cattle, microgreens, and over 30 acres of chestnuts.

In this episode, we cover:

- What it means to be an Agrarian

- How they transformed their farm from conventional row crops to regenerative

- Caring for each other through disagreement

- The concept of the "hinterland," and how to create stronger ties between urban and farming communities

- Keys to establishing regenerative pastureland

- And much more...

Learn more about Josh, Larin, and their farm here [https://www.rustedplowshare.com/].

Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller [https://open.spotify.com/artist/0WvWTz5TPYOuoZ77e2iIX8?si=UNVJVNZxR32olf9WOfbf3A], who also wrote our theme song.

Building the Next Generation of Agrarians with Josh Payne

Welcome to Agrarian Futures, a podcast exploring a future centered around land, community, and connection to place.

Join hosts Emma Ractliffe and Austin Unruh as they chat with farmers, philosophers, and entrepreneurs reimagining our relationship to the land - and to each other - to showcase real hope and solutions for the future.

An Introduction to Agrarian Futures

Join hosts Emma Ractliffe and Austin Unruh as they explore a future centered around land, community and connection to place.

Visit agrarianfuturespod.com [https://www.agrarianfuturespod.com/] to join our email list for a heads up on upcoming episodes and bonus content.

Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller [https://open.spotify.com/artist/0WvWTz5TPYOuoZ77e2iIX8?si=aWSQLIX0ThOMiqOVWq2J-w], who also wrote our theme song.

Twitter: @agrarianfutures [https://x.com/agrarianfutures?s=11&t=zpfBCgxXojsB0QAj0JDZDA]

