Northeast Farm Access, LLC, initiated the following farm projects by building strong connections between investors, farmers and farmland. Our role in these projects expresses our dedication to farm access across a broad, diverse social base. All projects creatively link investments in farmland to the development and support of sustainable agricultural ventures. We consistently seek to build security and equity for all parties, and follow our NEFA social-investment criteria. Read more.
Copake Agricultural Center
Copake, New York
Farmland Renewal LLC’s Copake Agricultural Center was formed in 2014 to bring together farmers and social investors to develop an important and innovative project that creates long-term access to farmland while also growing farmer and investor equity. In just 12 months, it has purchased 192 acres, already moving 122 of the acres acres out of “conventional” agriculture into organic farming practices, produced tons of edibles and flowers, and begun to revitalize an entire community. Read more.
Chester Agricultural Center
Chester, New York
Situated on more than 270 acres of Orange County’s famously productive black dirt, the Chester Agricultural Center presents an opportunity to conserve land while putting it to its best use: growing clean, local food. NEFA facilitated formation of the Center in fall 2014, with its mission of farms, food and fairness, in partnership with the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation, Orange County Land Trust and others. The Ogden Foundation has taken the lead role in the Center’s ongoing operations. Read more.
Esopus Agricultural Center
Ulster, New York
In March 2016, Northeast Farm Access contracted to purchase 209 acres of prime farmland, woodland and one residence on the Esopus Creek in Ulster, NY, bordering on Kingston. This unusual parcel—uniquely situated between a diversity of both natural habitats and intensive human development—will become home to the first of several farms comprising the Esopus Agricultural Center, NEFA’s third dynamic Hudson Valley project in as many years. Several area individuals who support local agriculture and farm-based learning opportunities have already pledged financial participation in NEFA’s latest social-investment project. Four experienced farm entities are poised to come online at the Center in 2016. Read more.
Monadnock Agricultural Center (in Development)
In early 2017, Northeast Farm Access entered into a contract to purchase Hank Kenney’s Maple Homestead Farm in Marlborough, New Hampshire, closing in July.Maple Homestead Farm is one of a few remaining working farms in the Monadnock region, where land pricing makes it hard for farmers to purchase a “mid-scale farm” with so much acreage. We want to make it a forever farm, like the ones we have established at our three agricultural centers in New York’s Hudson Valley. Read more.
