Attorney Kate Z. Graham featured in The Farmer Magazine

Attorney Kate Z. Graham was recently featured in an issue of The Farmer Magazine. The article by Janet Kubat Willette is titled “Challenges about for farmland access, transitions” and features the voices of other important contributors to this field, including Fred Kirschenmann of the Leopold Center and Stone Barns Center, and Susan Stokes formerly of Farmers Legal Action and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and now at Lind Jensen Sullivan & Peterson. From the article:

“In the ideal situation, the farm owner identifies one or two farming heirs. The farm is incorporated with the heirs purchasing shares of the business. The real estate is held separately and leased to the operation so the farm owner can continue to draw income from the land. The transfer occurs gradually over 10 to 15 years.

Too often, Graham said, there is only a promise to the farming heir, with nothing in writing so when the farm owners die, the land is split equally among the children. Planning needs to take place much earlier than most people think.”

Read the full article here.

Attorney Kate Z. Graham featured in Minneapolis Star Tribune

Attorney Kate Z. Graham was featured in the Business Section of the Sunday, November 10 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper. The story featured excerpts from an interview with Kate by reporter Adam Belz. In it, Kate discussed her work assisting farmers with their succession and generational transfer plans, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities she sees in this important work.

From the article, “The relationship that farmers have with their land is extraordinary. It’s a beautiful way to understand our connection to the earth in a very tangible way. I hope that people can get interested in these issues even if they’re city people, because I think hanging onto that understanding of our connectedness to land is something that as modern urban people we don’t get to experience most of the time.”

Read the whole article here.

Save the Date: Farmland Access Summit Oct. 21

We know that farmland is changing hands rapidly, and there are many factors at play that are accelerating this trend. The farming generation is aging and farmers are ready to retire. Current economic trends are pushing some farmers into an early retirement or causing them to sell land to satisfy creditors. Land is also changing hands through inheritance. Even so, most beginning farmers report that access to farmland is the biggest hurdle they face to success. But if farmland is to remain in farming we certainly need beginning farmers to keep working farms operational. And we want to make farmland accessible to anyone who wants to farm, not just those with the easiest access to capital.

But how do we accomplish these goals? That’s a question that the Farmland Access Summit and its participants will be looking to answer together. If you’re interested in these issues, you may want to save the following date: October 21, 2019. The Summit is sponsored by Renewing the Countryside and is being organized by a group of people representing a variety of organizations and professionals who work with farmers and in farm transitions, including me. The Summit will take place in Red Wing, MN, the day before the National Farmland Viability Conference begins. And if you have the chance to stay for that conference as well, it should be a great educational and networking experience for professionals who work with farmers and in agribusiness. The National Farmland Viability Conference is held only every other year in a different location each time, and this year Red Wing, Minnesota had the honor of being chosen. Registration for the Farmland Viability Conference is already open, with details on speakers and topics to come.

So, watch this space for more details as we firm up the slate of speakers and topics for the Farmland Access Summit.