This Guide explores the following alternative ways to purchase farmland:
- Seller-financed land acquisition
- Purchase by installments
- Lease with an option to purchase.
Location: United States
Farm Succession Advising: An Attorney Training Guide
Among beginning (and other) farmers’ biggest challenges is accessing land, including land and farms in the hands of older farmers. Therefore, how those farmers transition their farms to the next generation (family or unrelated) is of utmost importance. Land For Good’s Training Guide provides attorneys with solid legal background material and technical tools to use in assisting farmer clients to develop their farm succession plans.
Your Legal Toolkit for Starting a Farm
When you’re starting a farm business, there are lots of important legal issues to consider, from what type of business entity you’ll form to how to protect yourself from liability and plan for the future. This comprehensive webinar will equip farmers with the legal know-how to tackle these key decisions and start off on a strong legal footing.
Elements of a Farmland Lease
When a farmer works with a landowner to put together a farmland lease, there are many important considerations. This webinar will inform farmers and nonprofit farm organizations about the key elements that should be in a farmland lease.
Presenter: Jeff Polubinski, Gravel & Shea.
Labeling Your Food Product
Small food businesses and farms with value-added processing often sell their products locally, but understanding the Food and Drug Administration’s rules for labeling those products can be challenging. This webinar will prepare you to feel confident creating a food label and selling your product.
Presenters: Rachel Gartner & Zac Maciejewski, Faegre, Drinker Biddle and Reath.
Starting your Farm or Food Business: Succession Planning
When you’re forming your LLC or other business entity, it is important to plan for the future. This webinar will prepare you with key questions to consider about succession planning when forming your business.
Presenter: Kim Memmesheimer, Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts, PLLC.
A Working Guide to Current Use Taxation for Agricultural Lands
Developed by Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, “A Working Guide to Current Use Taxation for Agricultural Lands” provides an overview of current use policies across the U.S.
Current use programs—which generally allow farmers to pay taxes on their land at current (agricultural) value rather than its assessed value for another non-farming use—are an important tool in the farmland preservation toolbox.
Written by Vermont Law School adjunct professor Jess Phelps, this guide explains the concept of current use and examines current use policies and programs. Identifying common challenges and opportunities, it aims to help policymakers adapt current use programs to modern farmland preservation needs. It also dives into a case study of current use in Vermont to explore how a program functions at the farm level, and includes a handy reference guide to state current use statutes across the country.
This guide was funded by the National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A Guide to Protecting Your Recipes
When it comes to food businesses, preventing others from using your recipes and processes is an important aspect to ensuring a competitive edge. A concept in the law called a trade secret may offer protection for recipes and food production processes. Many companies have trade secrets that are essential to their operation and success. This is a guide that will introduce you to what a trade secret is, what must be done to establish it, and how it is protected.
Reorganizing a Farm Business with Chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code: A Brief Guide
Farm reorganization through chapter 12 is a powerful tool for farmers seeking to restructure burdensome debt, change production models, or even transition a farm to the next generation. It can help farming and fishing operations avoid financial distress and allow them to transform their operation or transfer it to the next generation—without requiring liquidation or financial insolvency. This guide covers who is involved, who is eligible, the benefits, and how it works.
You can also read a higher-level summary about chapter 12 in the slide deck linked below:
Intro to Co-Op Formation
A cooperative (“co-op”) is a type of for-profit business that is communally owned and democratically managed by its members. This legal guide covers common types of co-ops, tax benefits of co-ops, benefits and risks, as well as how to form a co-op.
Options for Forming a Social Enterprise
As a farmer or food entrepreneur, you may want to create a successful business while also working for social good. In a social enterprise, these goals go hand-in-hand. In this webinar, we’ll discuss the details of a social enterprise. And, we will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of common business structures that can be the foundation for your social enterprise (sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, corporations, co-ops, and non-profits).
Presenters: Colin Antaya, Esq. and Kohei Ishihara Founder of Movement Ground Farm
Opening Your Farm to Visitors and Controlling for Liability
From farm dinners to CSA pick-ups, and from Airbnb to educational programs, you might open your farm to friends, neighbors, and even tourists. As you welcome visitors to your farm, you need to be ready to handle the myriad of risks that they bring with them. Join us to receive practical advice from an agritourism expert, an insurance agent, and an attorney. Each will provide you with tools to prepare for the worst and enjoy the best.
Presenters: Attorney Mary Rose Scozzafava; Stuart Farnham, AFIS Vice President of Frazer Insurance Agency, Inc.; Lisa Chase, University of Vermont Agritourism Expert
Hiring Your First Farm Employees
Congratulations! Your farm business has grown, and you are in dire need of hiring some help. Enter employment law – specifically, agricultural employment law. Join our one-hour webinar to learn the general laws that you are required to follow as an agricultural employer. We will cover important pay considerations, how to get employees properly set up, and best practices to avoid discrimination lawsuits. After this session, you will feel confident to make your first hires.
Presenter: Attorney John S. Gannon, Skoler-Abbott LLC.
Resolving Challenging Issues through Agricultural Mediation
Sometimes, as a farmer, you find yourself stuck or facing a conflict. Whether your business has been threatened, a creditor is hounding you, or a neighbor is making complaints about your farm, you are not alone. The USDA’s certified Agricultural Mediation programs can help you through these situations.
The mediation program is a free service that gives all voices an opportunity to be heard and work together toward a solution that works for everyone. In this webinar, you will have a chance to meet Agricultural mediators in New England. They will give you an overview of the program and share some stories that illustrate the effectiveness of their work.
Presenter: Matt Strassberg, Director of the Environmental Mediation Center
Understanding Purchase and Sale Agreements
A purchase and sale agreement is the document that establishes the steps of the transaction, as well as the responsibilities of the Seller and the Buyer. Purchasing real estate can seem like a complicated process but we will walk you through it.
During this webinar, Massachusetts attorney Richard Cavanaugh of Common Grow, LLC will discuss typical provisions in a purchase and sale agreement. He will also cover some other issues – like zoning and wetland restrictions – that you should consider when deciding whether or not to buy a property.
Presenter: Attorney Rich Kavanaugh, Common Grow LLC.
What is Mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary process in which a neutral third party (the mediator) assists the parties in resolving their dispute or conflict by facilitating their negotiation. Mediation can be used as an alternative to a lawsuit. This guide will go through the ins and outs of mediation as well as the advantages of it as a tool for conflict resolution.
Selling Farm Products Through Online Food Hubs
In response to market changes, many local farmers have started selling their farm products directly to customers through local food hubs. Farm produce and local value-added products go right from the farmer, cook or baker to a delivery hub where orders are assembled and prepared for delivery or pick-up. Before you sell your products through a local food hub, you need to understand what may be required of you. This legal guide discusses:
• Pros and cons of participating in a food hub
• Vendor agreements with a local food hub
Running a Farmer Operated Food Hub
In response to market changes, many local farmers have started selling their farm products directly to customers through other farmers. Farm produce and local value-added products go right from the farmer, cook or baker to another farmer or business where orders are assembled and prepared for delivery or pick-up. This model is generally known as a food hub. If you are considering setting up a local food hub, this guide outlines the following legal considerations to keep in mind:
• Forming a separate entity
• Terms and conditions of agreements between farmers or vendors
• When a warehouse license must be obtained
• Collecting sales tax
• When a 1099-K must be issued
Home Delivery of Farm Products
Local farmers are adjusting their business operations to incorporate new ways of getting their products to customers and seizing the opportunity to add new marketing channels to their existing farm businesses. For many farmers, this shift has meant delivering products directly to the doors of their customers. If you are a farmer engaged or considering engaging in home delivery of farm products, this guide outlines some legal considerations to keep in mind.
Step-by-Step Guide to Forming a Limited Liability Company
This legal guide discusses the features and obligations of operating your business as a limited liability company (“LLC”) and provides step-by-step instructions for forming an LLC including:
- How to register an LLC
- What to include in an operating agreement
- Additional filings to be aware of
Protecting Your Recipes: Trade Secrets and More
Mary Rose Scozzafava, Senior Fellow at Conservation Law Foundation presents a webinar on how best to protect your recipes as a food entrepreneur. Topics include: challenges to protecting recipes, trade secret, trademark, and using the recipes of others.
Employment Payroll Tax Basics
The rules governing payroll taxes can be complex. Payroll taxes are generally calculated as a percentage of the employee salary. Farms that employ workers must withhold money from their employees’ paychecks, timely submit withheld amounts to the appropriate tax authorities, and file payroll tax returns with state and federal agencies. This guide outlines what payroll taxes are, and how and when to pay them. After reading this guide you will know:
- what are payroll taxes and who is responsible for paying them
- the different types of payroll taxes
- the special exemptions given to agricultural employees
New England Food Policy Advocacy Guide
This guide is designed to provide organizations and advocates with information, support, and inspiration to promote policy changes that build a more robust and resilient regional food system. The report is intended as a tool to guide individuals, organizations, coalitions, agencies, and policymakers to pursue supportive public policies and remove policy barriers. It was developed by American Farmland Trust, Conservation Law Foundation, and Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.
Copyright Law Basics
Copyright law can seem complicated. But it’s simply a law that says that if you create something, then you own it. For businesses, copyright can apply to things you use everyday such as graphics used on websites and in advertising or blog content. Get to know how to create and protect your copyrights. This guide examines how to protect your own copyrighted materials and avoid improper use of copyrights belonging to others.