Zester Daily has published an article explaining the important work being done by the Maine Farmland Trust to protect farmland for the future.
Into the breach came John Piotti, executive director of the Maine Farmland Trust. Founded in 1999, MFT is a nonprofit whose mission is to retain Maine’s vulnerable agricultural land base and keep Maine’s prime farmland from disappearing into “a vast tract of ranch homes.”
MFT is working to support and secure the transfer of farming from one generation to the next. Through a variety of easements that guarantee the land in perpetuity for farming use, and a series of creative and flexible cooperative ventures with counties, the state, the federal government and private benefactors, MFT is able to purchase land from families like the Jordan family at close to market price and sell, lease, or lease with a buy-back provision, to a next generation of family farmers.