GLOCULL Pilot Projects: Coalition of Farmland Preservation
Local First Arizona recently introduced an ongoing series about GLOCULL Pilot Projects, a series of projects aimed at moving the needle toward a thriving local and sustainable food economy with both local and global support. With ongoing partnerships with ASU’s School of Sustainability and School for the Future of Innovation in Society, City of Phoenix, and City of Tempe, we will continue to explore these innovative projects. The first project was a Coalition of Farmland Preservation.
Coalition of Farmland Preservation
The fundamental ingredient to sustaining a resilient food system is viable farmland. Without secure access to land, farmers cannot put seeds in the ground and grow food! Development pressures are mounting in urban areas, in the outskirts of cities, and in rural areas across Arizona. Several Maricopa County farms that supply fresh fruits and vegetables to farmer's markets, food banks, restaurants and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs) are set to lose land in the next few years, with very limited options on finding land that is affordable with good soil and access to water. But no matter the fanfare and growing consumer demand for sustainably-produced local food, the land challenges that the region’s talented farmers are facing are many and complicated.
Local First Arizona took the lead to meet this concern by connecting farmers, landowners, and supporting organizations to create a coalition to steer the charge for conserving farmland. So far, the Coalition of Farmland Preservation consists of representatives from land trust organizations, conservation groups, farmers, food system advocates, and city and state agencies and has been working to research land preservation models that could be effectively transferred to Arizona.
The Coalition formed through this project will be able to convene important stakeholders to discuss how models could be activated in our state. Among them, cooperative farming models, agricultural land trusts, and policy to prioritize farmland stand out as tangible solutions. The Coalition recently released its organizational charter and are on their way to making important farmland conservation practices more accessible to Arizona food stakeholders.