Catskills Agrarian Alliance Works
With Local Farmers, Producers

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
HAMDEN

For a decade, a community of farmers in Delaware, Otsego, and Schoharie counties have been working out of necessity on an alternative production and distribution project (first the Lucky Dog Food Hub and then The 607 CSA) to ensure food-security for our foodshed by creating a collaborative resilient local food system. CAA is the culmination of that work. We think of our organization as a pilot project and template for resilient regional food systems nation-wide.” – CAA website

The Catskills Agrarian Alliance is a newly formed 501c3 organization based in Hamden. Identifying itself as a comprehensive food sovereignty project in a recent press release, the CAA provides food production, food distribution, land stewardship and mutual aid services in the Catskills, Hudson Valley, and New York City.

“We are an official New York State nonprofit organization as of May 2022,” said CAA Executive Director Tianna Kennedy, “but are still waiting for the IRS to review our 1023 form, so we are not yet listed in the IRS database as a 501c3 organization. The lawyers inform us that the IRS is very backed up at the moment because of the pandemic.”

At the heart of the CAA lies Star Route Farm. Located at 796 County Highway 40 in Charlotteville, this agroecology-centered farm—where food, jobs, and economic well-being go hand in hand with cultural, social, and environmental benefits—is also a site for farmer incubation, where the next generation of farmers is trained.

“We host farmers at Star Route while they get their legs under them,” Kennedy explained. “Last year, we hosted Iridescent Earth Collective, who this year will farm in Delancey, New York at their own property.”

Kennedy, hired as CAA executive director in August, has been running Star Route Farm and The 607 CSA since 2015. Her background is in the arts/non-profit sector; she holds a master’s degree in arts and sciences from New York University.

The 607 CSA, in collaboration with small-scale family farms, provides direct-to-consumer food to more than 700 households in the CAA service region. Somewhere in the vicinity of four tons of sustainably produced and nutritious food items, including local produce, dairy, eggs, meat, baked goods, grains, and legumes, plus value-added goods, are distributed weekly through The 607 CSA. According to Kennedy, the organization worked with 39 farmers and producers in 2022, including Middlefield Orchard and Worcester’s Family Farmstead Dairy from Otsego County.

The CAA also works to make farmland accessible for historically marginalized communities. Through a partnership with the American Farmland Trust and the Agrarian Trust, the organization is currently facilitating the creation of New York State’s first Agrarian Commons—alongside Francis Yu, Iridescent Earth Collective and Tommy Hutson—at River Haven farm, a fourth generation dairy farm in Delancey. Yu holds a master of science in urban planning degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Iridescent Earth Collective is a Queer, Black and Latinx led farm group from the Bronx growing food upstate for mutual aid in the Bronx. Hutson is a fourth generation dairy farmer, awarded “Steward of the Land” honors in 2006 by the American Farmland Trust.

“In short,” Kennedy explained, “an Agrarian Commons is a community land trust that is part of a national trust.

“The process of forming an Agrarian Commons involves starting a community management board, a 501c2, procuring land and working with Agrarian Trust to observe all protocols with their organization,” Kennedy continued.

To date, 300 acres of prime farmland is being preserved in Delaware County for the next generation.

Through its farm-to-institution programming, the CAA works with 27 Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES and Broome-Tioga BOCES K-12 school districts throughout the region, including Oneonta and Unatego according to Kennedy, as well as with Hartwick College and SUNY Delhi. More than 30,000 pounds of local food has been distributed to these schools already in the 2022-2023 school year, according to the CAA website.

The organization also provides connection and capacity-building services to further land access opportunities for Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who face systemic barriers in terms of accessing agricultural land.

Food justice and sovereignty is the impetus behind the CAA’s work with 22 mutual aid societies, each serving hundreds of families weekly. According to the press release, Star Route Farm alone has contributed more than 17,500 pounds of fresh produce donated to these organizations.

Looking ahead, Kennedy said her hopes for the organization in 2023 are to “continue developing our mutual aid, land access, and farm-to-institution work and to collaborate more with regional food hubs to expand our reach.”

The CAA is actively seeking funding to maintain current operations and support its donative work. For more information, visit catskillsagrarianalliance.org.