The FarmLASTS Project

FarmLand Access, Succession, Tenure and Stewardship
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About the FarmLASTS Project

The project has three working groups:
While each has its own activities, the project's integrated approach assures that findings will flow across teams and out to farmers, ranchers, service providers and policymakers.

Project partners are focusing on three areas:
  • Farmland access and tenure for farm entrants
  • Farm succession challenges for exiting farm operators
  • The impacts of tenure and succession arrangements on land use and the environment
Why this is important?

The future of U.S. agriculture depends on the ability of new generations to establish successful farms and ranches. One of the biggest challenges to entry is gaining access to affordable and secure land. At the same time, older farm operators face unprecedented complexities as they prepare to exit farming.

An estimated 70 percent of U.S. farmland will change hands in the next twenty years. This includes land owned by farmers as well as non-farming landlords who rent to farm operators. There are multiple challenges in farm entry, exit, tenure relationships and succession. Traditional methods are no longer adequate to meet these challenges.

Farm and ranch land access and transfer are particularly important for small and medium-size farms and ranches that currently control over 80 percent of U.S agricultural land. In the balance are the quality of life and economic vitality in agricultural communities and the use, protection and enhancement of the nation's working lands.

This integrated, 2.5-year project is supported by USDA/CSREES through a National Research Initiative grant #2007-02807 to the University of Vermont.

Who we are

This project is supported by the National Research Initiative of the USDA/CSREES, , Grant #2007-55618-18222 to the University of Vermont. It is directed by Bob Parsons (University of Vermont) and Kathryn Ruhf (Land For Good). (Please see here for Project Team members).  For more information, please contact Kathy Ruhf at kzruhf@verizon.net.