Farm Commons

It's summertime and recreation is on the mind! The top 3 recreational uses we are seeing farmer landowners share with others are (1) nature recreation, like letting CSA members onto the farm for birding and hiking, (2) hunting access for friends and family that’s free or paid, and (3) foraging by individuals in the community. The big risk here is injuries and injuries can occur in many ways. In this episode, we share two strategies that are proactive and designed to manage the risk of visitor injuries, while also giving you a defense if those bad things do come to pass.

Recommended Resources:

1. Episode 50: Protecting Your Foraged and Wild Foods Revenue
2. https://assets.recenter.tamu.edu/documents/articles/570.pdf
3. https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/asset-external/ranchers-agricultural-leasing-handbook-grazing-hunting-and-livestock-leases/

This material is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency, under award number RMA22CPT0012392.

Given the typical profit-driven nature of insurance, many farmers and ranchers approach crop and livestock insurance with caution. But is the caution necessary? In this episode we explore what sets crop and livestock insurance apart from other types of insurance.

For a full transcript of this episode, please click here.

Additional resources: Crop and Livestock Insurance Options for Diversified Operations

This material is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency, under award number RMA22CPT0012392.

Have you heard that it's good practice to lease your farmland to your farm or ranch business? Have you wondered why this is and what this would look like? Tune in because we've got answers for you! In this episode, we explore the advantages and disadvantages of this leaseback arrangement, including balancing the upside of the farm business having a “friendly” landlord with the reality that the business might want to pay a fair market rental. We also highlight tax issues and identify key documents and paperwork to ensure the arrangement maintains legal integrity.

Recommended resources:

1. Sample Annotated Long-Term Agroforestry Lease Agreement
2. LLC Fundamentals
3. Farmers' Workbook for Creating a Governance Document

This work is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), grant no. 2021-70035-35372/project accession no. 1027099, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Federally-subsidized crop and livestock insurance is an important risk management tool available to farmers and ranchers nationwide. However, some farmers may encounter barriers to purchasing a policy or filing a claim due discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity, as well as other legally protected characteristics discussed in Episode 54: Addressing Discrimination in Crop and Livestock Insurance. When faced with this reality, farmers may decide that the best solution lies outside of the legal system. In this episode, Kate and Bonita explore real feedback from farmers on how choosing not to engage with a risk management tool can be a resilient decision.

This material is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency, under award number RMA22CPT0012392.

Food safety liability is basically the risk of someone getting sick from the food you’ve produced. This is a risk that often lurks in producers' minds because even when doing everything possible to produce and sell safe foods, there’s always the chance something can go wrong. Insurance is a key risk management strategy here to both cover damages resulting from a food safety incident and provide peace of mind in the meantime. However, food safety liability policies are typically clear as mud. In this episode, you’ll learn how food safety liability insurance coverage generally addresses common culprits of foodborne illnesses so you can move forward with clarity and realistic expectations.

This work is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), grant no. 2021-70035-35372/project accession no. 1027099, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

While federal crop insurance programs generally do not provide coverage for wild-crafted products that farmers might sell alongside their cultivated crops, farmer-foragers still have options to protect their income from foraged goods. In this episode Bonita and Kate share feedback from herbalists and farmers from across the nation about legal tools and strategies, including the use of sales contracts, for supporting and even expanding their income from foraged goods.

This episode builds on the legal background of the Micro Farm policy and Whole Farm Revenue Protection crop insurance program shared in Episode 50: Protecting Your Foraged and Wild Foods Revenue.

For a full transcript of this episode, please click here.

Additional resources:

Farm Sales Agreement Basics

This material is funded in partnership by USDA, Risk Management Agency, under award number RMA22CPT0012392.

Injuries to farm and ranch owners while at work are common. Accidents can happen with PTO tractor attachments, trailers that get unhitched, gates that malfunction on you, the list goes on. These dangers can lead to lost digits and limbs, which impacts the business and the farmer or rancher’s future livelihood. A key question for owners to ask themselves is: what kind of coverage do I have for work-related injuries right now? In this episode, we provide strategies for answering this question as well as explain how workers' compensation, disability insurance, and life insurance can be options for covering lost wages, chronic illness, or other debilitating conditions that leave you less able to earn your income on the farm or ranch.

Resources mentioned:

• Workers’ Comp Benefits: How Much is a Limb Worth?
• AgriSafe
• Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center

 This work is supported by the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), grant no. 2021-70035-35372/project accession no. 1027099, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Martha McFarland (she/her) operates Hawkeye Buffalo & Cattle Ranch on her family’s farm in northeast Iowa. Her father started the ranch, but today Martha owns the business and operates it on land she rents from her niece. This arrangement took years of conversations with family, tax advisors, and attorneys- and it is ultimately what allows Martha to run the farm with full autonomy, protect the land, and preserve family unity. In today's episode Martha shares her story of finding a legal solution that matched her priorities. 

You can stay up-to-date with Hawkeye Buffalo & Cattle Ranch on Facebook.

Stable long-term farmland access is essential for growing a sustainable agricultural business, but finding it is one of the biggest challenges facing farmers and ranchers today. Contributing factors to this pervasive issue are plentiful, and for Indigenous farmers, the difficulty of accessing their own ancestral lands adds an especially noxious layer. Michelle Week (she/her) intimately knows the heartache of navigating these trials, and she also knows the success of persevering through the ups and downs of different leasing relationships, harnessing her inner wisdom and community of support to grow a thriving farm business along the way. Michelle is the owner and farmer of Good Rain Farm, a mixed produce CSA farm near Portland, Oregon, focused on decolonizing diets, revitalizing culture, food sovereignty and the returning to reverent sustainable land stewardship. In this episode, Michelle shares her story of seeking stable farmland access and the hard lessons she's learned over many years and through many land-based relationships, leading up to her current pursuit: reclaiming stolen Native land to ensure her community's continued permanent and sustained land access and stewardship of the land.

Farm Commons is grateful to have worked with Michelle as a member of the 2022 Collaborative Learning Fellowship.

Katie Nixon (she/her) is a farmer and local food systems champion who has been working with and for agricultural producers for over 13 years in the Kansas City region. She is a co-owner of Green Gate Family Farm and a founding farmer/member of The Kansas City Food Hub, a cooperative association founded in the state of Kansas in 2016. In this episode, Katie takes us on a journey through the big ideas, conversations, relationships, and paperwork the cooperative's founding members managed over five years, all of which enabled the food hub to get off the ground. Farm Commons is grateful to have worked with Katie as a member of the 2022 Collaborative Learning Fellowship.

If you’d like to get in touch with Katie about cooperatives, follow her @green_gate_family_farm.

Here’s what Katie had to say about her experience sharing her story of legal resilience:

What is your hope for folks who hear your story?

I hope the length and challenges of the journey I have shared does not discourage others, but instead inspires them to dig in and get dirty! The best time to start working together is now so that in 5-10 years your work can start bearing fruit.

In sharing your farm resilience story, what are you most grateful for from that experience?

It is wonderful to make the space to reflect on how I have gotten to where I am and where the farm business and food hub business are at. It was made more enjoyable by sharing and learning in the cohort of other farmers.

What did the storytelling journey illuminate for you? What are you seeing differently as a result of this experience?

The story telling journey showed and reminded me how much work and collaboration it took to get where we are at. I am so appreciative of all the people I have been able to share this journey with. I look forward to continuing the work and being part of a vibrant food system.