As Rhode Island Farmers Face High Barriers to Land Access, Some Land Trusts Are Creating New Pathways for Growers

If Frontier Farm founder Cassidy Whipple hadn’t fortuitously found land with Westerly Land Trust, she would not own a farm business. If Phillip and Vue Yang of Good Earth Farm in Hope hadn’t collaborated with Southside Community Land Trust, they wouldn’t own a farm business either. The hundreds of pounds of tomatoes, kale, carrots, peppers and herbs they harvest wouldn’t be feeding thousands of people through their CSAs and markets each summer or helping to educate students about the benefits of fresh, local produce.

With Rhode Island land prices and development at their peaks, many farmers like Whipple and the Yangs have experienced these high barriers of entry into farming. Land trusts statewide, including Westerly and Southside, see this as an opportunity to put conserved land that’s not forested or native habitat to use. During this critical time in the state’s land access journey, land trusts may be the only way for new farmers to farm and develop new agriculture, while tackling the state’s high rate of food insecurity and warding off new construction.

“It was like the perfect storm of timing, resources available and my skill set—because land in Rhode Island is the most expensive farmland in the country. It’s so hard to find. Young farmers that are coming out of on-the-job training typically have no savings, no capital. Unless you get funding from family or others, what do you do?” says Whipple, a 2015 graduate of University of Rhode Island in wildlife conservation biology. As she walks the path around her 2.5-acre parcel at Barlow Nature Preserve and Farm Stand on Westerly Bradford Road, she reflects, “This wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t make the connection with the land trust.”

Farmland ranks as some of the most urgent to conserve, says Westerly Land Trust (WLT) Executive Director Jennifer Fusco, because when a house is built [on farmland], it rarely, if ever, returns to green space or agriculture. People also enjoy eating locally and minimally processed when possible and want to know where their food comes from, she adds. These lenses help focus the organization’s mission and, in 2019, helped it to conserve the former hayfield and subsistence garden where WLT offices, Frontier Farm and Echo Rock Flowers now operate.

“This property borders a wetland, and we are conservationists, so we didn’t want anything commercial here or with heavy fertilizers or pesticides. And so what they’re both working with fit the guidelines of being environmentally friendly,” Fusco says. “That means a lot. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the community. It’s good for the people who eat the foods they produce. This is our first venture into growing food on land trust property, and we felt like we had a responsibility to do that, because this land was originally farmed. If we just conserved it and said, ‘Look at this beautiful field,’ and didn’t put it to use, that would feel like it wasn’t as successful as it could have been.”

With a 20-year track record leasing rural land to small and beginning farmers, South-side Community Land Trust (SCLT) knows land preservation and farming are inextricably linked. Its Urban Edge Farm in Cranston offers 40 farmers in 17 different operations space to grow, sell, collaborate and support each other across 50 acres. It owns Good Earth Farm less than a mile away as well, with greenhouses, retail opportunity and resources for four farmers across nine acres of arable farmland.

The land trust’s primary demographic is immigrant refugee communities that have a history of agriculture who arrived in Rhode Island eager to adapt those traditions to this environment, says SCLT Director of Programs Ben Torpey. He adds it’s a great way to manage land, and fosters farmers’ deep cultural legacy and entrepreneurial spirit.

“Why do we support small and very small farms? As a way to preserve productive green space in the community. That’s SCLT’s whole reason for existing. To improve access to healthy, affordable food in low-income and low-access neighborhoods, and to support the desire to access land and grow food,” Torpey says.

It’s not without setbacks, however. A long waiting list for community garden space and rural farmland, as well as farmer training and support services, is a frustrating reminder that the demand is high, he says. While farmers lease this land, their payments don’t cover SCLT’s operating expenses, including water, electricity, supplies, staff and insurance. U.S. Department of Agriculture grant funding is never truly guaranteed year-to-year either, so the organization is regularly negotiating additional sources of income.

Whipple also adds that it’s risky to invest time, energy and money in land she does not own, with a landlord who controls the property.

Phillip Yang agrees but since he and his wife, Vue, are small part-time growers on a third of an acre at Good Earth Farm, they have few options for expansion or owning their own land. They grew up in Laos growing corn and rice with their families and came here as teens hoping to continue in agriculture. But they maintain full-time jobs elsewhere while they work nights and weekends farming produce to sell at the farm on Saturdays, local shops and the Plainfield Pike Flea Market on Sundays.

“We started community gardening many years ago in Providence with Southside, and this is our fourth season here [at Good Earth]. They helped us get this land, lease, the greenhouse, the resources. Without them, I don’t think we could operate and become a small business,” Phillip Yang says. “The business is hard because it’s small-scale, and we need bigger equipment to go to the next level. We have no machines, and we’d need more acres and more staff to make it worthwhile. I do want to grow more produce for the local markets, but finances are an issue, land is an issue. We’re doing what we can right now.”

The urgency and demand show growers are interested in accessing pieces of land anywhere in the state, and Torpey says farmers are motivated and willing to travel within 45 minutes of urban centers. So SCLT, along with its Westerly counterpart, will continue to operate some of their conserved properties for the benefit of producers in the Ocean State.

“Farmland in Rhode Island is out of reach for many small and beginning farmers,” Torpey says. “If we want more local food and working farms in the future, we need ways to make land accessible, like supporting increased public funding and finding other creative solutions. We see our collaborative model as one piece of that puzzle.”

Annie Sherman has spent more than 25 years covering the Rhode Island food scene, from makers and restaurants to agri/aquaculture and food security. She also covers nature and climate topics, travel and design for regional and national publications. The author of Legendary Locals of Newport, she is an 11th-generation Newporter, and lives there with her family.

Frontier Farm at Barlow Nature Preserve
449 Westerly Bradford Rd., Westerly
FrontierFarmRI.com;
WesterlyLandTrust.org

Good Earth Farm and Garden Center
1800 Scituate Ave., Cranston. Southside-CLT.org/gef

Photography credit SueChesterPhotography.com