Maine Farmland Trust
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Name:             Maine Farmland Trust


Address:         Maine Farmland Trust

                        97 Main Street

                        Belfast, Maine  04915


Phone:             207-338-6575


Fax:                 207-338-6024


Email:              info@mainefarmlandtrust.org


website:            www.mainefarmlandtrust.org


Facebook:       

www.facebook.com/mainefarmlandtrust


Maine FarmLink Website:

                           www.mainefarmlink.org


Maine Forever Farm Website:

                           www.foreverfarms.org


Products and Services:


-supports farmland protection

-supports farmland viability

-supports farmland access

-supports public outreach and policy

-sponsors FarmLink

-Buy/Protect/Sell Program

-support farmers

-recognizes Forever Farms

-advances farming

-operates Farmland Protection Grant Program

-encourages farm-related arts - Gallery


What Makes Maine Farmland Trust Unique?


How fortunate that many residents in the state of Maine have mobilized in their communities to focus on the protection of land.  The Maine Land Trust Network has posted an online list of ninety-eight land trusts in Maine.  While some are focused on protecting coastal lands, historic properties, wildlife, or islands, there is one land trust in Maine that has done an outstanding job in preserving farmland.  It is rather remarkable to learn about all that has been accomplished in regard to the future of farming in Maine over just the past fourteen years thanks to the Maine Farmland Trust.


John Piotti, the President and CEO of Maine Farmland Trust, kindly shared information about the history of the organization.  In 1999, a  group of concerned citizens including farmers, farmer advocates, and individuals such as Russell Libby, Frank Miles, and John Piotti shared a common environmental ethic of protecting land. It became increasingly clear, as time evolved, that protecting farmland needed to become a priority.  Their first farmland protection project was completed in 2001.


According to Piotti, the late Russell Libby was well versed in agricultural statistics and he shared his concern about the demographics of farmers in the state.  It became clear that a large percentage of the farmland in the state was owned by older people.  To prevent widescale development and to protect its future as farmland, Maine Farmland Trust began to work with farmers and municipalities and other land trusts on assisting with the implementation of farmland easements.  While many land trusts had an interest in safeguarding land, they did not always have the expertise.


Maine Farmland Trust created new grant programs to encourage local land trusts to become more involved in farmland projects.  In 2011, they published “Cultivating Maine’s Agricultural Future” which provided technical assistance to interested municipalities.  They have partnered with many local land trusts to help shepherd them through the maze of farmland easements.


The initial members of the group that morphed into Maine Farmland Trust realized that the idea of farm viability was extremely important.  They worked to connect farmers with opportunities to fine-tune their business plans and increase their markets.  They encouraged the inclusion of such programs as EBT at the local farmers markets with the philosophy that local support of farming was essential. The shared-use equipment and community farm share program that Maine Farmland Trust initiated in 2011, enhanced the farm viability mission of Maine Farmland Trust.


Fully aware that the cost of purchasing large tracts of suitable land for farming was often prohibitive, Maine Farmland Trust set up the Maine FarmLink program in 2005, that helped to match new farmers looking for land with established farmers looking to sell or lease their farms.  Many services were put in place to help the new farmer receive the support that they would need to help them succeed.  Over one hundred successful FarmLink relationships have been formed in Maine with FarmLink representation in all sixteen counties.


In 2007, Maine Farmland Trust successfully raised 1.1 million dollars to protect Erickson Farm in Rockport.  The following year in 2008, the Buy/Protect/Sell program was introduced and the Maine Community Foundation awarded a one million dollar impact investment.  Because of the Buy/Protect/Sell program, over 8,000 acres have been protected and twenty-six farms have been sold to new farmers in Maine.


Public outreach through the arts has become an important part of the mission of Maine Farmland Trust.  Their Gallery  includes art and photos that celebrate agriculture. A recent exhibit “I Farm Because” includes a selection of photographs by Isabel Stearns. The Gallery was launched in 2008, and it is still going strong.  In 2010, the Maine Farmland Trust commissioned Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann of Pull-Start Pictures to film documentaries of eight Maine farms.  The result was the captivating Meet Your Farmer series.  Maine Farmland Trust also sponsored the beautiful book From the Land: Maine Farms at Work which includes the stunning photographs of Bridget Besaw, and insightful commentary by John Piotti.


Several other books are offered for sale through the Maine Farmland Trust’s online store, including a book of recipes from farmers’ markets of New England by Teresa Lagrange, and several literary selections from acclaimed artist, Dahlov Ipcar.  One of Ipcar’s signed posters and some hand-made pillows and rugs with her designs are also sold. Holiday cards and hand-printed block prints by Julie Crane are available.  The store also welcomes the purchase of Maine Farmland Trust memberships and their official Maine Farmland Trust hats and reusable bags,  Meet Your Farmer DVD’s, and an assortment of notecards by Lily Piel and Bridget Besaw.


Supporting the local food movement has been another aspect that is valued by Maine Farmland Trust.  They have sponsored press tours for distinguished food writers.  John Piotti has spoken extensively about the potential of Maine to become the major food producer in New England. In September of 2013, Maine Farmland Trust hosted MaineFare in Belfast.  Visitors and participants enjoyed all the locally-sourced foods.  There was a farmers’ market and midway, farmer forums, classes, a beer and oysters event, a Dave Mallett concert, a wine and cheese gathering, farm tours, and a farm to table dinner. MaineFare will take place once again in Belfast on June 20 and 21, in 2014.


Other efforts by Maine Farmland Trust to support local food have been demonstrated through their

Community Farm Share program which helps both farmers sell their produce and also assists low income residents to obtain the local produce at reduced costs.  Maine Farmland Trust has been working on developing a local food hub in the Unity area and in other areas throughout the state.  Five farmers markets were helped by Maine Farmland Trust with the introduction of the electronic benefit transfer (EBT) of the SNAP (formerly food stamps) benefits at their markets.  Sara Trunzo and the Veggies for All program, which reaches out to help low income individuals with the donation of locally-grown food, have recently been welcomed to become part of Maine Farmland Trust.


In 2009, the Maine Legislature adjusted Maine’s easement law and adopted a new property tax program that supported farmers.  The following year the Land for Maine’s Future fund was re-authorized by the Legislature with a large percentage dedicated to farmland easements.  While Maine Farmland Trust has appreciated the land that has been protected from these efforts, they realize that there is a need for significantly more funding and an adjustment in some situations to the government requirements that have been set in place.  They introduced their new Purchased Easement Program which focuses on working farms that will use the funds to improve their operations so that a new farmer interested in buying a farm will find more affordable land and a farm which has the potential to be more viable.


Perhaps you have noticed the Forever Farm signs in your travels throughout Maine?  In 2011, Maine Farmland Trust established a program where farms that chose to celebrate the fact that their land was protected by an agricultural easement could sign up and become a Forever Farm.  These Forever Farms involve a partnership between the landowner and the land trust that holds the easement.  Profiles of seventy Forever Farms are included on the Forever Farms’ website.  Unique Maine Farms has visited seven of these farms and links to profiles of these seven farms can be found on the Forever Farms webpage included in this profile.  A youtube video by Summerfly Productions of Franklin, Maine, provides a great background of Misty Brook Farm, a Forever Farm, in Albion, Maine.


Johnny’s Selected Seeds is one of the seven Forever Farms associated with Maine Farmland Trust which Unique Maine Farms included in this project.  Rob Johnston and Janika Eckert of Johnny’s Selected Seeds donated a conservation easement of 45 acres of their home farm in Albion to Maine Farmland Trust in 2005.   Their farm on Route 9/202/137, one mile east of Albion village, nicknamed the “Movie Palace,” was their second conservation project with Maine Farmland Trust. In 2009, the employees of Johnny’s Selected Seeds, voted to donate $40,000 to Maine Farmland Trust.  Another conservation easement was donated by Johnny’s to Maine Farmland Trust on a twenty-nice acre parcel in Benton in 2012.  The phenomenal support of Rob and Janika and the employee-owned Johnny’s Selected Seeds for the work of Maine Farmland Trust stands as a real testament to the value that this employee-owned company has placed on preserving agricultural land.


The Packard-Littlefield Farm is another one of the seven Forever Farms included in the Unique Maine Farms’ project. Maine Farmland Trust worked with Robert Packard and Ella Mae Littlefield-Packard and several entities including the Androscoggin Land Trust, the Maine Department of Agriculture, the United States Department of Agriculture,  Land for Maine’s Future, and the NRCS Farmland and Ranch Protection Program, to help the farm establish the conservation easements. For several years, the Packard-Littlefield Farm has been a home to Cultivating Community’s NASAP - New Americans Sustainable Agricultural Program.  Over thirty refugee and immigrant families have had the opportunity to farm at the Packard-Littlefield Farm in Lisbon each year.


In 2011, Maine Farmland Trust launched Maine Farms Realty as a for-profit LLC to provide real estate services to the farm community.  The intention of this real estate brokerage is to provide professional services to all types of farmers and farmland/conservation buyers, sellers, and investors. Maine Farms Realty has enabled Maine Farmland Trust to purchase a highly vulnerable farm property and place an easement on it and resell it to another farmer.  Since Maine Farmland Trust is often purchasing farmland with a high market value and selling it for much less so that a new farmer can afford it, a large gap had to be filled to raise additional money to keep the program going.  Maine Farmland Trust is presently involved in a fifty million dollar “Securing a Future for Farming” fundraising campaign to protect 100,000 acres and to support one thousand farm families.


The idea of raising fifty million dollars seems downright staggering.  Yet, after checking out all the programs that Maine Farmland Trust has introduced and operated in the past fourteen years, there is little doubt that it will be achieved.  In July 2013, Maine Magazine voted John Piotti as one of the “fifty people who have made a difference in Maine.” He has surrounded himself with skilled and dedicated individuals who passionately support the vision of the small original group of concerned citizens who met in 1999 to protect Maine’s land.  They have embraced that vision of protecting farmland and expanded the mission of the organization to make farms affordable and viable for a whole new generation of individuals interested in farming.


No matter what one’s ability might be to help

Maine Farmland Trust with their fundraising goals, recommendations of “Seven Ways to Help Keep Maine Farms Growing” are listed in the Maine Farmland Trust’s brochure.  These seven suggestions are certainly worth considering.  With Maine Farmland Trust’s approval, they have been posted on a separate webpage in this profile.













John Piotti is the President and CEO of Maine Farmland Trust. He is pictured here at a Slow Money Maine gathering.

Mike Gold, the Program Manager of Farm Viability at Maine Farmland Trust, is pictured speaking at a Slow Money Maine gathering in Augusta.

The Meet Your Farmer  DVD is available for sale through the Maine Farmland Trust online store.

Elizabeth Sprague is the Farm Business Development Specialist at Maine Farmland Trust. She works with farmers to enhance their ability to make business decisions.

John Piotti is pictured speaking at the Common Ground Fair.

From  The Land - Maine Farms at Work is available through the Maine Farmland Trust online store.

Clara Coleman of Four-Season Farm Consulting is partnering with Maine Farmland Trust to introduce season extension strategies to Maine farmers.

In July 2013, Maine Magazine voted John Piotti as one of the “fifty people who have made a difference in Maine.”

Over thirty refugee and immigrant families have had the opportunity to farm at the Packard-Littlefield Farm , a Forever Farm in Lisbon.

Darthia Farm in Gouldsboro is a Forever Farm.

This youtube video by Summerfly Productions of Franklin, Maine, provides a great background of Misty Brook Farm, a Forever Farm, in Albion, Maine.

The phenomenal support of Rob Johnston and Janika Eckert and Johnny’s Selected Seeds for the work of Maine Farmland Trust, stands as a real testament to the value that this employee-owned company has placed on preserving agricultural land.

In 2008, the Buy/Protect/Sell program was introduced and the Maine Community Foundation awarded a one million dollar impact investment.  Because of the Buy/Protect/Sell program, over 8,000 acres have been protected and twenty-six farms have been sold to new farmers.

Winterberry Farm in Belgrade is a Forever Farm.

Paul Birdsall (on left) from Horsepower Farm, a Forever Farm in Penobscot, is pictured with his son, Andy Birdsall.  Paul Birdsall is a pioneer in farmland conservation and a long-time supporter of Maine Farmland Trust.

Forever FarmsMaine_Farmland_Forever.html
FarmLinkMaine_Farmland_FarmLink.html
CollaboratorsMaine_Farmland_Collaborators.html
Seven Ways to Help Keep Maine Farms GrowingMaine_Farmland_Trust_Seven_Ways.html

The late Russell Libby was one of the founding members of Maine Farmland Trust.  As Executive

Director of MOFGA for many years, he worked closely to support the work of Maine Farmland Trust. Artist Robert Shetterly of the Americans Who Tell The Truth project kindly granted permission for his portrait of Russell to be shared on this webpage.