Brooks Lamb, Special Advisor for Strategic Communications at American Farmland Trust and author of Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place, explains why more than 300 million acres of American farmland, roughly a third of the nation’s agricultural land, is projected to change hands over the next two decades as current owners retire or die. Recorded live at the Old Salt Festival on the Mannix Ranch in Helmville, Montana, the conversation covers American Farmland Trust’s national Land Transfer Navigators project, which trains succession-planning specialists through partner land trusts, and the organization’s new podcast, Landed, which documents farm transition stories from Tennessee to Washington state. Lamb discusses Tennessee’s Greenbelt law, agricultural district models, and Boulder County, Colorado’s public farmland leasing program as policy tools that keep land in production, and describes a Kitsap Peninsula, Washington farm transition in which an aging couple secured a 20-year lease for a young farmer while keeping the land’s title in their family. The conversation comes as farmland prices, exceeding $30,000 an acre in Lamb’s home county in Tennessee, continue to put land out of reach for a new generation of farmers and ranchers.

Image credit Michael Ciaglo

What matters most isn’t necessarily keeping land in the same family forever, but making sure whoever tends it does so with care

Brooks Lamb is Special Advisor for Strategic Communications at American Farmland Trust, a national conservation organization founded in 1980, and the author of Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place (Yale University Press, 2023). Recorded live at the Old Salt Festival on the Mannix Ranch in Helmville, Montana, this conversation centers on one of the biggest and least visible questions facing American agriculture: as roughly a third of the nation’s farmland changes hands over the next twenty years through retirement or death, who ends up owning it, and will it stay in farming at all?

Lamb walks through American Farmland Trust’s three-part mission, protecting farmland from development, promoting sound land and water stewardship, and keeping farmers on the land, and explains why succession planning conversations are so often delayed until an exiting generation becomes sick or dies. He describes the three fates that commonly befall transitioning farmland: absorption into larger industrial operations, purchase by institutional investors treating land purely as a financial asset, or conversion to real estate development. To help address this, AFT runs the Land Transfer Navigators project, training land trust staff nationwide as succession specialists, and has launched a new podcast, Landed, telling geographically diverse farm transition stories. Lamb also references Wes Jackson’s “eyes to acres” ratio and the influence of Wendell Berry’s writing on his own book, which grew out of his graduate research at Yale School of the Environment.

The conversation closes with a candid look at land prices as the central barrier facing first-generation and returning farmers, and a survey of policy and creative tools working to counter that: Tennessee’s Greenbelt law, agricultural district models, Boulder County, Colorado’s public leasing program, and a Kitsap Peninsula, Washington family’s 20-year lease arrangement with a young farmer. Lamb argues that what matters most isn’t necessarily keeping land in the same family forever, but making sure whoever tends it does so with care, a question he frames simply: who will own rural America?

In this episode:

• The 300-million-acre question Roughly a third of U.S. farmland is projected to change hands in the next two decades as current owners retire or die; Lamb frames this as a question of who will own rural America.
• American Farmland Trust’s three-legged mission Protecting farmland from development, promoting sound land and water stewardship practices, and keeping farmers and ranchers on the land.
• Why succession conversations get avoided The economic, emotional, and fairness complexities that lead families to delay planning until an exiting generation dies or becomes ill.
• Three fates for transitioning farmland Land that changes hands is often absorbed by larger industrial operations, purchased by institutional investors treating it as a financial asset, or converted to real estate development.
• Land Transfer Navigators American Farmland Trust’s national, USDA-funded project training land trust staff across the country as succession planning specialists.
• The Landed podcast AFT’s new show telling geographically diverse farm and ranch transition stories, from Tennessee to Washington state.
• Wes Jackson’s “eyes to acres” ratio A framework for thinking about how many people need to be present and paying attention on a piece of land for it to receive proper care.
• Love for the Land Lamb’s 2023 book on why small and mid-sized farmers keep farming in the face of development pressure, agricultural consolidation, and, for farmers of color, historic injustice.
• Policy tools that keep land in agriculture Tennessee’s Greenbelt law, agricultural district models, Boulder County, Colorado’s public farmland leasing program, and AFT’s Cost of Community Services research.
• A creative transition model from Washington state A Kitsap Peninsula family that used a 20-year lease to give a young farmer secure land tenure while keeping the property’s title in the family.
• First-generation farmers Barriers facing people without inherited land or wealth, and why Lamb sees “who tends the land” as more important than whether it stays in the same family.

Links & Resources

Connect with Brooks

• Website: https://brookslamb.com/
• New York Times Opinion Piece: Why the Kids Won’t Farm 
• On Land article: We Need a Plan

Media & Books:

• Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place — Brooks Lamb’s 2023 book examining why small and mid-sized farmers keep stewarding their land in the face of development, consolidation, and injustice, based on his graduate research at Yale. 

Organizations & Initiatives:

• American Farmland Trust — National conservation organization founded in 1980 that works to protect farmland, promote sound farming practices, and keep farmers on the land. 
• Land Transfer Navigators — American Farmland Trust’s national project, funded through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, training land trust staff as succession planning specialists.
• Landed (podcast) — American Farmland Trust’s podcast telling farm and ranch succession stories from across the country. 
• The Land Institute — Salina, Kansas research and education organization focused on sustainable agriculture, co-founded by Wes Jackson. 
• National Young Farmers Coalition, Southeast Tennessee Chapter — Chapter supporting young, aspiring, and beginning farmers in the Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia region, referenced by an audience member.
• The Berry Center — New Castle, Kentucky organization founded by Mary Berry to preserve and share small-farm agrarian knowledge. 

Places & Landscapes:

• Mannix Ranch / Old Salt Festival — Helmville, Montana ranch and annual land-stewardship festival where this episode was recorded live.  

Government & Policy:

• Tennessee Greenbelt Law (Agricultural, Forest and Open Space Land Act of 1976) — Tennessee law taxing qualifying farmland at 25 percent of appraised value rather than market value, discussed as a model for keeping land in agriculture. 
• Cost of Community Services studies — American Farmland Trust research comparing tax revenue generated by agricultural land against the cost of public services it requires.  

People Mentioned:

• Wendell Berry — Kentucky farmer and writer whose concepts of imagination, affection, and fidelity to place shaped the framework of Lamb’s book.
• Mary Berry — Director of the Berry Center in New Castle, Kentucky, and Wendell Berry’s daughter; she spoke at the Old Salt Festival the day before this recording.  
• Wes Jackson — Co-founder of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, whose “eyes to acres” ratio concept was referenced in the conversation. 
• Cole Mannix — Mannix Ranch rancher and Old Salt Co-op member referenced by both Lamb and Bill; catch our conversation with Cole in Ep 50.
• Elizabeth Bragg — American Farmland Trust Land Transfer Specialist who helped set up the Kitsap Peninsula farm transition Lamb described. 
• Dan Skeeters — Farmer featured in episode 3 of the Landed podcast who advises families to begin succession conversations with their best-case scenario in mind.

Brooks Lamb is the Special Advisor for Strategic Communications at American Farmland Trust. Through writing, speaking, and partnership cultivation, he uses storytelling to reach broad audiences and advocate for a better future for farming, one that is more deeply rooted in conservation and community. Brooks is also an author and an adjunct professor. He grew up on a small family farm in rural Tennessee and now lives in Memphis.

image credit Mary Gunning

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