Chesapeake Farmland Commons, Maryland
July 8, 2025
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July 8, 2025Earthen Heart Farmland Commons, Michigan
Latest News
The Farmers Land Trust is working with the Earthen Heart community in southwestern Michigan to establish the 501(c)(25) Earthen Heart Farmland Commons. Together, we are creating a new model for shared farmland ownership and stewardship, one that secures land for community-based food production, supports multiple generations of farmers and land stewards, and ensures long-term affordability through an equitable deed-holding structure.
Core Values of the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons
-
Ecological & Social Realignment
We are reimagining how people live with the land by aligning our daily practices with ecological health, social equity, and collective resilience -
Community-Based Food Production
Together we grow and share high-value, nutrient-dense foods for year-round nourishment, partnering with others to ensure food security across generations -
Creative & Cultural Expression
Art, music, and cultural events rooted in the land nurture joy, creativity, and deeper connections within our community -
Land-Based Living & Learning
We commit to regenerative, place-based lifestyles that sustain both people and ecosystems, while fostering hands-on education for all ages -
Social Enterprise & Local Economies
We cultivate enterprises that strengthen local economies, empower youth, and demonstrate how production, stewardship, and community wealth can go hand in hand
A Transformative Legacy For the Future
The Earthen Heart Farmland Commons 501(c)(25) is being created to facilitate and hold:
- Farm transitions from private ownership to community nonprofit commons holding
- Lease conveyance and management plan agreements to support access, use, management and stewardship of land, natural, and human ecosystems of community
- The coming together and collaboration of people and organizations to create and steward the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons in Southwestern Michigan
- An on-the-ground example of commons held land for regenerative agriculture, eco-social enterprise economics, affordable housing, and a deepening respect for all life. The Earthen Heart Farmland Commons will also serve as a prototypical model to replicate and expand onto other properties in the region and beyond
An Amazing Gift of Land
In Michigan, in the town of Bangor, is a home and outbuildings on a 19.9 acres of perennial permaculture stewarded land that has been made available as a secure, affordable and equitable opportunity for a next generation farm steward.
A place to sow, harvest and live in accordance with values and ideals.
This converted single family rural home has been transformed into eco-habitats of permaculture, food trails, gardens, eco-cabins and wilderness used for hunting, camping, recreation and connection to Mother Earth and reverence to all creation.
This is a place to collectively reclaim skills and ways of being, to learn about the medicinal and nutritional value of Yarrow, Mullein, Dandelion, Nettles, Amaranth and Plantain with plentiful Blueberry in August and pruning in late February-mid March.
A voluntary land tax payment of $50 per month is made by The Farmers Land Trust to Indigenous peoples for this land.
A Heritage Worth Honoring
The land that is now becoming the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons carries a powerful, often untold story. Located in Bangor, Michigan located just down the road from Covert, is a town that was once heralded for its early Black-led governance and racial integration. This land was home to generations of African American farmers, including the Parker family, direct relatives of Emmett Till. Elbert Parker raised hogs and blueberries here while raising a large family, working at the local piano factory, and building a legacy of resilience and self-reliance.
This land is more than soil and trees—it is a living archive of agrarian life in the Midwest. By bringing it into the Farmland Commons, we honor its heritage and ensure it remains a site of nourishment, belonging, and connection for future generations. We begin to write a new chapter of collective care, rooted in justice.
The Steward Who Has Gained Long-term, Equitable Land Security
The land is now held by The Farmers Land Trust and is conveyed through a 99-year lease to Alita Kelly, a Black woman farmer who is the founder of Jade Rabbit and a leader of the West Michigan Young Farmers Chapter. This lease creates immediate, secure access and tenure to land without the burden of debt.
The lease terms are intentionally equity-centered and transformational, allowing Alita to envision and create her livelihood, deepen her relationship with the land, and invest in stewardship rather than survival. The Lease frames expectations, agreements, rights and responsibilities between The Farmers Land Trust and Jade Rabbit in ways that are both practical and aspirational and all holding a multi-generational perspective.
A Life in Service to Land
and Community
A visionary leader, Julian Lauzzana has gifted the Bangor farm and donated to the establishment of a farm reserve endowment fund to seed and sustain the future.
With a professional background as a chef, many years working in the entertainment business, experience as an organizational consultant, graduate research related to farm to schools, a year living and working in an urban design community and over 12 years raising children, Lauzzana now focuses most of his energy on Community Homesteading and the Earthen Heart initiative, which offers a comprehensive lifestyle change for rural Americans that is affordable and sustainable. His passion is co-creating and co-managing land in easily replicable ways that preserves rural integrity, health and resiliency.
>>>Read more about Julian Lauzzana and how he came to start the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons here!
This seed of generosity needs community support
Please support this Bangor, Michigan farm opportunity and the future of land stewardship, food cultivation, and agrarian self-sufficiency.
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Join the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons mailing list!
Regional Data
- 4,500 residents
- median age 45.3
- 92% White
- 4% Black
- $56,800 median HH
- 13.7% poverty
- MI avg $4,150/acre
- Van Buren Co. $4 000/acre
- $31, 200 per capita
- Seasonal-worker poverty ~18%
- 12.1% residents; 17.8% children experience food insecurity
- Blueberries & cherries
- Tourism
- Light manufacturing
- Cherry Festival heritage
- Lakeshore agritourism
- CSAs
- Kalamazoo Battle Creek metro sources within 75 mi
- South Haven Lighthouse has guided ships since 1864
