Kent Scheer, a friend of Renewing the Countryside and environmental advocate, recently put his thoughts on community-building, acceptance into words in the article below. He provides a strong shoutout to land access and Renewing the Countryside, as well as other colleagues in the field. Read Kent's full article:

During the 1970s and 80s, The Back-To-The-Land movement brought young outsiders to Wadena and this region in surprising numbers. They tended to be in their thirties, progressive, and free thinking. They came on a dream of independence combined with a desire to homestead, grow healthy food, and live self-sufficiently. They also came at a time our own young people were leaving in droves, never to return.

The first installment of this Pioneer Journal feature reviewed that history and its fortunate impact on our area. These new people made a difference. As they matured and became settled some reached out to help the area and to innovate exceptional projects like the Cultural Center, Wadena Beautification, and the Whiskey Creek Film Festival.

This is worth noting because there is a return to the dream of Back-To-The-Land today. The Twin Cities alone is rich with young people yearning and training to start a small homestead. That same desire to grow whole foods on a small landholding has come back in spades. And once again, it is arriving at an important time. American Farmland Trust predicts that 40% of American farmland must change hands in the next 20 years. And, that is a problem because the costs are now so huge. Yet, locally, it does not mean things are impossible. Just as it was in the 1970s farmland in northcentral Minnesota sells dirt cheap on the national scale. People are coming here because they can hardly believe the costs compared to Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Idaho, etc.

At least six new rural homesteaders have arrived in our region in the past couple years and more are coming. The problem is that farm holdings are now whoppingly large and more expense than they once were. They are much larger than the new breed of sustainable farmers need. Many plan to work just 5 to 40 acres by intensive methods such as: CSAs, winter greenhouses, aquaculture, agroforestry, mushrooms, goats, farm
stays, etc.

Here in Minnesota there are organizations devoted especially to helping these aspiring farmers to find their home and get prepared. Land Stewardship Project, Farmland Access Navigators, Renewing The Countryside, and the Minnesota Institute of Sustainable Agriculture are all working hard on this mission because it has grown so hugely important.

We locals can do our part starting by simply being aware this is happening. We can be ready to offer welcome and support. We should wrap newcomers into our area culture and our small community rather than leaving them outside to wonder. Also, watch for affordable farmland and notify the organizations listed above. Finally, farmers who love their land and its legacy could subdivide into 20s and 40s specifically for the sustainable farming newcomers searching to find their rural home.

Wadena is beginning to see this migration and it will again bring new thought and possibilities just as it did in the 1970s through 80s. One point remains to be made. That is climate migration. Part of this move to our area will be an act of escaping someplace else. That someplace grew too hot, or too dry, or too polluted, or too flooded. Climate migration has been expected for the past 20 years and it is now happening across the world. Minnesota is especially known as the water state, and water is the new gold for migration. Also, climate change is making us appear almost cool and comfortable as well.

ProPublica and other climate mappers predict that the last best American farmland will have been pushed to the upper half of Minnesota and No Dakota by 2050. That brings us a problem. It’s predicted that large water gulping businesses will vie to grab it first. Giant feedlots, huge power generation, irrigated industrial agriculture, and even bottled water plants go where there is flow. Our
township and county boards must be alert, prepared, and protective. And every regular citizen needs to finally understand this unique natural wealth that we all own together and together must protect.

And so, consider how much better it will be for us, the future, and our grandchildren if the newcomers here are a flood of homesteaders, sustainable farmers, and small folks following a dream…the ones once called Back-To-The-Landers.

Kent Scheer
Green Island
Wadena