West Branch Commons: Small Farms Radio Explores an Innovative Land Tenure Model

One of the greatest challenges facing a new farmer is the search for land. It is difficult and costly to find quality acreage with the infrastructure needed to support a budding agricultural operation. However, there are many organizations trying to change this. The second episode of our Small Farms Radio podcast explores the founding of the West Branch Commons, a land access project that is working to bring land, logistical support, community, and sustainability to beginning farmers in Delaware County, New York.

The story of West Branch begins with Tom Hutson, a fourth-generation dairy farmer. He dreamed of farming on his family’s land for the rest of his life after graduating college, but pressure from large industrial dairy farms drove him into debt. Hutson was forced to sell his cows and lease parts of his property, but he refused to let go of his land for good. He wanted to sell his family property to someone like him who would honor land and respect the role of agriculture in the community.

That’s when Hutson heard of Tianna Kennedy, who was looking to start a non-profit land access project that would prioritize regenerative agriculture and food security for the surrounding community. He decided to partner with her to realize her project.

“Why did I pick what I did with the farm last year and this group of kids? Because they want the same thing [as me],” Hutson said.

The project born out of the partnership between Tom and Tianna was West Branch Commons, a community trust land access project that supports beginning farmers. In partnership with the Catskills Agrarian Alliance, the non-profit that owns Hutson’s former farm offers 99-year, affordable farmland leases. Additionally, they offer logistical support to market and distribute farmers’ products upstate and into New York City through The 607 CSA, a community-supported agriculture program. In the future, they plan to construct housing that will build a tight-knit community of farmers at West Branch.

Programs like West Branch allow beginning farmers to find a foothold in agriculture. One such farmer is Sea Matías from the Bronx. When Matías’ grandmother passed away, they wanted to connect with her again through plants and the outdoors. They decided to join Farm School NYC, where they learned how to farm in an urban setting. Matías became an apprentice at Morning Glory Community Garden in the Bronx, but soon grew bigger ambitions and wanted to scale up to a farm of their own. 

Matías quickly learned that finding one’s own land is not as easy as it sounds; land was expensive and hard to find, and they lacked family support or other means to fund a lease. They decided to attend a meeting of the American Farmland Trust, where they learned about the West Branch Commons and met Hutson. Matías began a lease on the Commons land and began Serra Vida Farm in 2024. 

People like Rhiannon Wright, a program coordinator at the Center for Agricultural Development and Entrepreneurship (CADE), believe that stories like Matías’ and programs like West Branch Commons could be the future of small and regenerative farming. 

“Land access is the number one issue that beginning farmers are facing, and the cost of land is the number one reason why,” Wright said. “Beginning farmers are being really clear that we need new models of land tenure … the income that is possible from running any type of regenerative farm enterprise just really isn’t aligned with the cost of land.”

Wright highlighted the participatory nature of West Branch and the many supports that it offers as a source of potential for the land access model.

“One of the guiding pieces has been that the majority of the most active project team members have been farmers,” Wright said. “The project has started with individual farmers saying that they have a need or have a resource … The key piece is that this project has been designed to serve as many farmers as it can”.

With the help of organizations like the Pace University Law Clinic and the Watershed Agricultural Council, West Branch provides an innovative tenure model to support beginning farmers throughout the farming process, allowing farmers to focus on sustainable, fulfilling, and community-oriented production.

Listen to the full story to hear more about the beginnings of West Branch Commons. Tune in for Episode 3, which dives deeper into West Branch with founders Tianna Kennedy and Francis Yu.