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Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan

The Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan is a long-range strategic initiative intended to guide actions to ensure that farmland and farming are available and viable for current and future generations in Massachusetts. It focuses on three overlapping goals to address challenges – protection, access and viability.
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What are the goals of the Plan?

The Plan is organized around three overlapping goals:

  1. Accelerate the permanent protection and stewardship of farmland.  Once farmland has been converted to other land uses, it will never return to agriculture.
  2. Increase access to farmland.  Enabling farmland accessibility requires equitable, affordable, and identifiable opportunities and options.
  3. Support and enhance the viability of farms and farmland. Successful farms are one of the best tools for protecting farmland.

Why is the Plan important?

We are losing agricultural land and farms fast! Between 1997 and 2022 Massachusetts lost 113,000 acres (2022 Census of Agriculture). That’s about 3.7 times the size of the land area of Boston or 1.8 times the size of Martha’s Vineyard. According to American Farmland Trust’s “Farms Under Threat 2040” Report, between 2016 and 2040 Massachusetts, without additional investment and policy changes, is projected to lose 1,200 farms and 50,000 – 89,000 acres of farmland. The farmland that we do have is often out of reach of farmers and aspiring farmers, primarily due to cost. And farms themselves struggle to remain viable, and their tenuous financial sustainability risks the loss of even more farmland to other uses.

How will the Plan be implemented?

This is a plan for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) is promoting, monitoring, and facilitating implementation of the Plan, building momentum from existing programs and initiatives. It is an integral part of the Commonwealth’s climate and natural resources initiatives.

Partnerships and collaboration are essential. Non-profits, municipalities, land trusts, other state agencies, educational institutions, private entities, and many others have key resources, capacity, expertise and/or jurisdiction that will be needed for successful implementation.

The plan also identifies opportunities for the legislature to make policy and fiscal choices to support farmland goals.

In recognition of how much work is contained within the Plan, MDAR created a new staff position – Farmland Action Plan Coordinator – to support coordination between all of the partners and to assist with implementation of tasks.  Katharine Otto can be contacted at Katharine.s.otto@mass.gov.

The Farmland Action Plan incorporates equity principles and include several equity-related actions and tasks. Effective implementation of equity goals will require broad engagement, empowerment, and coalition-building. Katharine Otto is working closely with MDAR’s EJ Team to engage with equity partners early in the process to ensure that Historically Underserved Farmers and the organizations that support them are involved.

The Plan

The Farmland Action Plan is a big plan!  There are lots of strategies, actions and tasks – and all the supporting information needed to support those.  Please see the bottom of this section for the full plan, including with several translations.

MDAR has been re-packaging the plan into bite-sized pieces for specific audiences.  Please visit "More about the Plan" for powerpoints, videos and meeting notes.

The 2024 Progress Report is another resource that summarizes key elements of the plan and outlines next steps.  Please visit "Updates and Progress Reports" for more information.

Additional Resources

More about the Plan

The following short videos give brief overviews of parts of the plan and its implementation:

The following are summaries of meetings for more general audiences, including conferences and summits:

The following are summaries of meetings for specific audiences:

  • Land Trusts
  • Buy Local organizations
    • 9/11/2024 MDAR discussion with Buy Local organizations - presentation.
  • Urban agriculture organizations
  • Regional Planning Agencies
  • Conservation Districts
    • 12/16/2024 MDAR conversation with Conservation Districts - presentation
  • Food Policy Councils
    • 1/13/2025 MA Food Policy Council Advisory Committee presentation - presentation.
    • 1/17/2025 MA Food Policy Council presentation - presentation.

Additional resources will be posted as they are created.

Updates and Progress Reports

Newsletter/ email updates are shared with partners approximately monthly.  They include information about implementation and spotlight parts of the plan.  Catch up on previous email updates –  Aug 2024, Oct 2024, Nov 2024, Dec 2024, Jan 2025, Feb 2025, early March 2025, late March 2025, April 2025.

2024 Progress Report
This first progress report shares updates on first steps towards implementing the Plan. It reflects initial conversations with potential partners who may lead or assist with implementation of tasks within the Plan. Next steps are being shared so that potential partners and interested individuals can see how everything fits together, and then start to discuss.  View the December 2024 Progress Report.  Visit the accompanying Implementation Matrix.

Implementation Matrix

The MFAP implementation matrix contains all the goals, strategies, action items, implementation objectives, and tasks from the 2023 Plan.

The matrix represents a review of the items from the Plan in an effort to:

  • Identify a potential timeline for implementation
  • Identify lead and other potential implementers
  • Clarify language to ensure clear understanding of item
  • Check whether additional tasks are needed to assist with implementation of actions

The matrix is a living document that tracks what partners have done and what partners plan to do. We anticipate additional refinements in 2025. From 2026 onwards the matrix will continue to evolve to reflect implementation progress but at a slower pace.

Revised versions of the matrix will be posted online as they become available, likely every 3-6 months. We recommend checking this webpage before you do any notable work to see if there is a new version.

You can propose edits or new items for the matrix by filling out the Matrix Feedback Portal.  Edits could include suggestions for language refinements, edits to the timeline or potential partners, as well as additional details about you as a lead implementer for the task.

Funding Opportunities

MDAR’s new Farmland Partnership Program is a grant program to help implement the Massachusetts Farmland Action Plan at the local, regional or statewide level. The goal of the program is to build networks of partners who work together collaboratively and in coordination to protect farmland, enhance farm viability, and ensure access to farmland.  This will be achieved by providing funding to eligible partners to work with farmers, farmland owners, agricultural service providers, municipalities and others to protect farmland, enhance farm viability, and ensure access to farmland, as well as coordinate and collaborate between partners as a cohort.

Learn more on the new Farmland Partnership Program webpage.

Applications must be received by May 19, 2025 at 5pm.  Contact Katharine Otto at katharine.s.otto@mass.gov with questions.

Upcoming events and meetings

Notifications about upcoming meetings and events are shared in the Plan Newsletter.

Farmland Action Plan Drop-In Sessions Resume in June

In June Katharine will be resuming regular drop-in sessions to chat about Farmland Action Plan Implementation.  These meetings will have no presentation – instead the conversation will be guided by your questions and comments.  For potential partners, we anticipate that recent discussions, new opportunities and your exploration of the implementation matrix have sparked additional thoughts, so this is an easy way to connect in.

We have divided the sessions for two audiences for June:

For Potential Partners (people who may help with implementation of the plan)

  • Monday, June 2 – 1 – 2:30pm
  • Another session may be added if there is significant interest

For other interested individuals (people who may have useful information to share and/or are interested in the outcomes, but likely will not be helping with implementation directly)

  • Monday, June 9th – 4 – 5pm

To RSVP or check which session to attend, please email Katharine – Katharine.s.otto@mass.gov

Sign up for newsletter/email updates

We are updating our contact lists for the Plan as we embark on the implementation phase.  Many people were involved in the development of the plan, but participation in implementation is open to anyone. It will take a broad group of committed stakeholders to reach the Plan’s ambitious goal, and we want to hear from you if you or your organization are interested in participating.

Please email Katharine to let her know of your interest to help with implementing the plan!   Katharine.S.Otto@mass.gov 

Sign up for newsletter updates on Farmland Action Plan and Farmland Partnership Program 

Contact

Online

Email Katharine Otto at Katharine.S.Otto@mass.gov

Phone

Call Katharine Otto at 413-544-2400

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