LINKED TO THE LAND The Story of BALT
	September 2005

by Kathryn Lyddan
Photos by Russell Byrne

Most people work for land trusts because of environmental interests, but my main interest is in food and farming. I’m the Executive Director for the BALT (Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust). BALT’s mission is, “to protect productive agricultural land and to promote the economic viability of agriculture in East Contra Costa County.”

Our Own U-Grow
During the years when I was staying at home with my young daughters, I discovered a small CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, called Moraga Gardens, not far from my home in Moraga. I joined the little community and, in exchange for working four hours a week, I received a discount on a five-pound box of fresh, seasonal produce picked weekly from that farm.

As my daughters and I went together every week to work at the farm, we found ourselves belonging to a community of people that formed around the shared labor of growing food. We made new friends, exchanged recipes and shared meals together at the farm. I was astonished to see how the experience transformed my girls’ attitude towards food and nutrition, their community and the place they lived. I watched as they became increasingly aware of the source of their food and annual rhythms of planting and harvest. Before my eyes, as they pulled weeds and harvested tomatoes, they began to understand and appreciate the labor and love required to grow food and they developed a relationship with that piece of earth that, through their efforts, provided them with food.

The garden showed me how a community of neighbors can be created when people come together in the simple activities of producing and sharing food. I began to meet other people around the Bay Area who were excited about connecting people with fresh, local food. As my daughters grew older and I decided to return to work, I thought about how I could use my own skills to share my excitement and passion about creating local food connections with others.

Upon reflection, I realized that my education and experience gave me a good background to work with an agricultural land trust to preserve the farms where our local food is grown. I had spent ten years practicing law at a large private L.A. law firm before my daughters were born. As a public finance and land use lawyer, I worked with property owners and local governments to finance projects that benefited the public, such as roads, schools, and parks. It seemed to me that my professional experience should provide a good background for working with farmers to preserve agricultural land through an agricultural land trust.

A Worthy Preservation Effort
I found the perfect outlet for my skills at the Brentwood Agricultural Land Trust. The City of Brentwood joined forces with agricultural, business and environmental interests in 2000 to address the loss of our area’s agricultural resources. In 2002, BALT was formed, and in June 2003, I was hired as BALT’s first employee. We started from scratch as a new nonprofit land trust with a telephone, a computer, a copy of the City’s agricultural mitigation ordinance and a hardworking, dedicated Board of Directors.

Farmland in East Contra Costa County is particularly worth preserving because the extraordinary soil, easily accessible Delta water, and year-round growing season provide a perfect environment for growing food. East County farming is valuable to all of us, not only because of the important role local agriculture plays in our economy, but also as a source of our history, our sense of place, and our community’s unique character.

Many of us agree that our area’s agriculture is so extraordinary that our prime farmland should be preserved for agricultural purposes. People who have moved to Brentwood in the past few years may be astonished to learn that in 1990 Brentwood was a small farm community of 7,500 people. Much of Brentwood’s growth has occurred on prime farmland. In 2001, the City of Brentwood addressed the challenge facing a growing city in a valuable farming region by enacting its agricultural mitigation program. Now whenever agricultural lands in the City of Brentwood are converted to urban uses, the developer of the land must pay fees into a City fund that can be used to preserve other agricultural lands as farms forever. While BALT is an independent 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation not directly affiliated with the City, the County or with any other governmental entity, BALT works with the City to implement Brentwood’s agricultural mitigation program.

At BALT we believe that we should all share in the cost of preserving our farms and local food source. We believe that farmers should be fairly compensated for all benefits that local agriculture provides to our community, including fresh food, economic contribution, jobs, and open space. Through purchasing conservation easements on agricultural land, BALT provides farmers with immediate compensation for giving up their right to subdivide and develop their property in the future. Easements are agreements between BALT and a farmer in which the farmer agrees to never sub-divide the property. The farmer continues to own the land and is free to farm it in any way he or she sees fit.

The value of the easements are determined through a three-step process:

1. Secure an appraisal of the land at its current fair market value without the easement.
2. Determine the land’s value with the easement.
3. Pay the farmer the difference in the two figures.

The landowner essentially receives compensation for selling the right to develop the land in the future to BALT. As a nonprofit land trust, BALT promises to never exercise that right. Farmers may also receive some significant tax benefits for conserving their land through an easement. BALT’s land conservation program is completely voluntary. Neither the City nor BALT can require a farmer to enter into a conservation easement, but for farmers who want to keep their land as farmland for future generations, conservation easements are a great tool.

Providing for Sustainable Agriculture-based Business
Preserving agricultural land is one part of our two-fold mission. The second, more basic part, is finding ways to help local farmers to make a profit. To some extent, we put the cart before the horse when we begin with land conservation itself. The best way to preserve local agriculture is to make farming an economically viable land use. We must help farmers make money on land that is closed to development. There’s no advantage in conserving farmland that simply creates acres of weeds, so we are working hard to promote the economic vitality of agriculture in East County.

BALT is different than any other land trust organization that I know of because we’re working on agriculture economic development at a grass-roots level. We’ve conducted a series of meetings to ask farmers what they think BALT could do to help their businesses. Many of these folks are members of farm families that have been putting food on our tables for generations. It is essential that we respect and utilize the wisdom they have gained through generations of experience in farming the land in this area.

BALT’s Agricultural Enterprise Committee has 15 members, and we meet once a month. Our membership includes farmers that represent the great diversity of East Contra Costa agriculture — farmers growing hundreds of acres of corn, folks doing organic farming on ten acres of land, and growers selling through roadside stands and u-pick operations. The diversity of the group is important because we believe that a vibrant, economically strong agricultural community requires participation from farmers ranging from large agricultural producers to small family farms.

We asked the farmers in the early Agricultural Enterprise Committee meetings the central question: “What do you want us to do?” We got three answers in response:

1) Get a farmers’ market going in Brentwood.
2) Represent agricultural interests before Contra Costa County government.
3) Create an agricultural regional marketing program to promote local products.

Helping the farmers achieve the first goal was a wonderfully satisfying experience. We worked with local citizen groups, the City, the Chamber of Commerce and Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association to get the Thursday Brentwood Farmer’s Market going last year. The market is doing a great job bringing residents and local farmers together in a sociable, downtown venue.

Making progress with County government is a slower process. The County has zoned the area to the east and south of Brentwood as the “County Agricultural Core.” to preserve prime agricultural land. However, because no activities are allowed in the County Agricultural Core except farming, the zoning prevents farmers from making and selling jams, pies, soaps and other products that “add value” to their crops or operating roadside stands large enough to serve the demands of our new suburban population. This really puts the brakes on farmers trying to make a living on small, family farms. There’s a lot of research and real-world examples showing that activities like creating value added products, direct marketing to consumers and agricultural tourism provide an essential means for small farmers to make a living.

In general, farmers are not a group of folks who wanted to spend a lot of time in meetings, and one of my functions as BALT Executive Director is to be an advocate for farmers with local governments. I’m a member of a sub-committee of the County Agricultural Advisory Task Force that has drafted a proposal to amend the County’s general plan to permit expanded roadside stands, commercial kitchens, and value-added processing and sales. In July the Board of Supervisors referred our proposal to the County Community Development Department to draft the proposed amended zoning. We’re hoping the zoning will be changed by the next growing season.

We have wonderful examples from neighboring counties of how county governments can support local agriculture. I believe with all my heart that we can do what they have done. So while the process is slow, I’m not discouraged. I’m an optimist about the future of East Contra Costa County’s rich, productive agricultural region. We’re going to keep working with the County government to make the changes necessary to support local farmers.

“Grown in Brentwood”
BALT is also working with farmers to increase the recognition and demand for East County agricultural products locally and in the surrounding Bay Area. We’re finding new ways to market local products that reflect changing demands of urban and suburban consumers. BALT recently received $35,000 from the Columbia Foundation to develop a regional agricultural marketing program for Brentwood. Our first step is to work with folks in the agriculture community, the City and local businesses to build a community consensus around an image for East County agriculture. We’ll create a distinctive brand for our region’s agriculture products and begin a concerted effort to market the unique and premium quality food grown here in East Contra Costa County to the six million people living in the Bay Area.

We’re asking two primary questions in our marketing effort: “What is special and unique about East Contra Costa County agriculture that we want to tell the consumers?” and “What do our customers want to buy?” We know that a lot of consumers nowadays are looking for really fresh, local products. They also want to support family farming and regain a connection to the source of their food. The desire of Bay Area consumers to obtain local, seasonal food from neighboring farmers opens the door to a potentially profitable marketing niche. Food products travel an average of 2,100 miles from the fields where they were grown to our dinner tables. How fresh or local is that? By creating an easily recognizable brand to help us market our local corn, cherries, peaches, olive oil, etc. we’ll be able to let consumers know where their food has been grown – East Contra Costa County!

My position as Executive Director of BALT is a lot more than just a job to me. It’s an opportunity to put my time, my energy and my passion into a project that I really believe in — creating direct connections between people and their food in a way that supports local farmers. As I look back, I am amazed at how my education, professional experience, and personal beliefs have all lead me to this extraordinary place. I feel very fortunate to be part of something so positive as building community around the growing and sharing of local food.