# The Hidden Work of Keeping Farmland in Farming

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/one-bite-is-everything-354028/the-hidden-work-of-keeping-farmland-in-farming
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/one-bite-is-everything-354028/the-hidden-work-of-keeping-farmland-in-farming.md
Podcast: [One Bite is Everything](https://stenobird.com/podcast/one-bite-is-everything-354028)
Published: 2026-04-16T09:15:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.onebiteiseverything.com/
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/bb483080-e69f-4b62-94cf-8d37b9177174.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/one-bite-is-everything-354028/episodes/the-hidden-work-of-keeping-farmland-in-farming
Duration seconds: 2205

## Resource

There are about 2 million farms in the United States. Every year, a significant number of the farmers running them are approaching retirement age with no clear plan for what happens to their land when they're done. Farmland doesn't just disappear when a farmer retires. It gets sold, subdivided, converted, or absorbed into larger operations. And in a lot of cases, that means the end of a working farm, a community food source, and sometimes four generations of family work. In this episode, Dana sits down with Molly Johnston Heck and Olivia Fuller from American Farmland Trust's Farmland for a New Generation program, a New York State initiative that connects retiring farmers with the next generation of land stewards. Olivia isn't just a program staffer. She's a fourth-generation farmer who used AFT's own tools to navigate her family's transition out of dairy and into direct-to-consumer beef, pork, and sheep. She knows this story from the inside. They cover: What conservation easements actually do (and what they don't) The Farmland Protection Implementation Program and how it puts real money in a farmer's hands Preemptive purchase rights and why they matter in high-pressure real estate markets like the Hudson Valley The land-linking platform connecting farmers who have land with farmers who need it Why a "bad match avoided" counts as a success The invisible crisis of farm transitions that wait until there's a foreclosure to begin The role of navigators, mediators, and social workers in the hardest conversations farm families face This episode is a companion to a fuller story Dana is building. If you're a farmer thinking about what comes next, or a landowner who wants to see your land stay in production, this conversation is for you. Resources mentioned: Farmland for a New G…

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## Transcript

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