The Little Jubba Central Maine AC gives the SBCA the opportunity to lease farmland in a 99-year rolling equitable lease, which in turn allows the community to transfer their prized agricultural skills, knowledge and traditions to future generations. Partner organization Agrarian Trust and the SBCA are now fundraising to make this farmland purchase possible by December 1st, 2020.
In the US, 98% of farmland owners are white, the majority male. In Maine, this statistic is even more extreme. This is not only an exciting opportunity towards land ownership for black Maine farmers but immigrant farmers. As Muhidin Libah, the Executive Director of the SBCA explains: "For the last 30 years we have been refugees, moving through different towns in Somalia and living in refugee camps in neighboring Kenya. For 30 years we have been looking for a place we can call home. Home in our community means a place that is safe and secure, where we can farm freely and where we can exercise our cultural traditions. Getting this property will check all the boxes and for the first time we have a place we call home.”
The SBCA engaged partners and community members in a year-long visioning process that has guided the search for secure farmland. The SBCA took inspiration from leaders in the food and land justice movement such as Soul Fire Farm, Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. Local guidance on land seeking came from partner organizations including Land in Common, Land for Good, Maine Farmland Trust, The Cooperative Development Institute, Slow Money Maine and others. With this advice and inspiration, the SBCA decided to join the first cohort of 10 Agrarian Commons across the country, creating the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons in partnership with Agrarian Trust.
The Agrarian Commons keeps land locally controlled and makes it accessible and affordable to small-scale farmers so they can grow food for their community. As data now clearly demonstrates, the cost of land and access to it challenges most small farmers who don’t inherit land, especially farmers of color and other socially disadvantaged groups. This model of land tenure also promotes regenerative diversified food production, collective ecosystem stewardship, and returns natural capital to land.
Somali Bantu Community Association's mission is to provide vital transitional services, advocacy, and programming that empowers members of the refugee community to uphold cultural identity and thrive in their new life here in Lewiston, Maine. The mission of the SBCA’s Liberation Farms is to provide new American farmers access to, and culturally-appropriate resources for, the means of sustainable food production for themselves, their families, and their communities.
Agrarian Trust is creating innovation in land ownership, access, tenure, and equity opportunities to transform our relationships to the land and each other. With 400,000,000 acres of farmland currently changing hands, and with 98% of all farmland being owned by white people and a majority of non-farmers across the country, the time for transformation in how land is owned, accessed, valued, and used is now. Agrarian Trust is collaborating with stakeholders, networks, and collective efforts, and creating the local Agrarian Commons model to own land, farms, and agricultural assets and convey tenure to the next generation of farmers and ranchers to foster a regeneration of the land and care for the Earth.
Learn more about the farm project opportunity and the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons: agrariantrust.org/
Support this land acquisition project directly by donating to the Little Jubba Central Maine Agrarian Commons: agrariantrust.org/
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Follow: @agrariantrust @somalibantumaine | #agrariancommons #littlejubbacentralmaineAC
