In this episode of Hands in the Soil, we’re joined by four guests – Ian and Kristina, co-founders and co-executive directors of The Farmers Land Trust, and Julian and Alita, the visionaries behind the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons in Bangor, Michigan – to talk about a hopeful and replicable model in food systems work happening right now.
The conversation that unfolds in this episode is a story about what becomes possible when land is decommodified, when ownership is reimagined as stewardship, and when the right people find each other at the right moment. Julian donated his 19.9-acre Bangor farm, built over 14 years of food forests, medicinal plants, and regenerative land practices, into the Farmers Land Trust, where it became the founding property of the Earthen Heart Farmland Commons. Alita Kelly, founder of Jade Rabbit and steward of community food work across West Michigan, received a 99-year lease on that land and a seat in the ownership structure. This conversation is part origin story, part how-it-works, and part invitation to anyone sitting on land, working with land, or dreaming of a different relationship to it.
