Farmland Commons Template Documents
The Farmland Commons template documents were created from decades of experience in farmland transfer, protection, and tenure work rooted in community. The Farmers Land Trust worked in collaboration with Sustainable Law Group's Land Clinic, and an extensive network of diverse reviewers (listed below) to give valuable input, guidance, and feedback.
Definitions for some of the terms used in the template documents can be found here.
These documents are best used after reviewing the Farmland Commons Process page.
USE AGREEMENT
By downloading, sharing, using, and/or publishing these documents, you: (1) acknowledge you have read and are in general agreement with the "Why a Farmland Commons" framework, (2) agree to utilize the name Farmland Commons and credit "The Farmers Land Trust" in connection with all uses of these documents and the information contained therein, and (3) acknowledge and accept the Farmland Commons being provided on an open-source basis under a non-commercial Creative Commons license and agree to adhere to the terms of such license.
The Farmers Land Trust is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Anyone using these documents should consult their own counsel to determine the appropriateness of the material for their specific circumstances.
Framing Guidance:
The Farmland Commons model values national and local movements for farm access. It recognizes the importance of doing so to acknowledge the interconnectedness and collaborative potentiality.The Farmers Land Trust offers standardized national templates and structures, facilitating the implementation of this model while ensuring local shared priorities and practices. These templates are designed to be adaptable to the unique identities, desires, values, goals, visions, and regulatory frameworks of individual Commons. It is essential to incorporate local foundational understandings, experiences, and wisdom into these documents and agreements, reflecting the specific context of each community. Finally, we strongly recommend engaging with local legal counsel before finalizing and executing these documents.
​
Questions to think about as you read the templates and apply to the documents as fitting for your community:
-
How can these documents and the process be made more accessible to all involved in your Farmland Commons, helping to continue strengthening all relationships in the direction of mutual trust and understanding?
​​
-
What foundational understandings and agreements seem most aligned and worth keeping in the documents, and what, if anything, would best to remove from the templates?
-
What are some changes that could be made to the documents to further address forms of equity, capital, safety, farm ecology and enterprise autonomy, ecosystem stewardship, data collection, accounting, storytelling, and farm viability?
Equity and Land-Based Practices
First, the invested stakeholders find their common ground through agreement on shared Equity and Land-Based Practices. These practices support shared understandings on aligned values, farm practices and vision.
Bylaws
Second, the Bylaws are then used with Articles of Incorporation to frame and structure these values and vision into a nonprofit, collaborative, community-centered land-holding structure, i.e., “Farmland Commons.” and incorporate at the state and then federal level.
Lease
Third, only after these shared values and governance processes are agreed on and the Farmland Commons entity is incorporated with land, the Farmer and the Commons agree on the Lease terms. The Lease frames expectations, agreements, rights and responsibilities between the Farmer, the Common’s board and land.
DOWNLOAD LEASE TEMPLATE
Farm Management Plan
Fourth, a living, annually reviewed and updated plan and aggregation of documents on farm and agriculture, stewardship, management practices, infrastructure and improvements, and equity considerations.
DOWNLOAD FARM MANAGEMENT PLAN TEMPLATE
Farmland Commons Template
Review Committee
The Farmers Land Trust and the many stakeholder communities exploring and engaging with the Farmland Commons model now and into the future thank the following reviewers for sharing their input, thoughts, questions, and wisdom. We are grateful to be in community and in this work with the following people and organizations, and we are grateful for the valuable time and expertise they gave in bringing these templates to fruition.