Welcome to the webpage of
Written by Randolph attorney Annette Higby and several other professionals, the Guide is made possible with funding from the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. It consists of nine chapters addressing: the legal structure of the farm business; farm transfer and estate planning; farmland tenure and leasing; and regulation of agriculture and land use, farm labor, organic agriculture, and on-farm food processing and marketing.
The Guide got its roots from The Legal Terrain section of "Tilling the Soil of Opportunity," a business planning course for farmers. Questions posed by Tilling participants informed an initial outline prepared by Attorney Higby and eventually formed the core of the guide's contents. Despite its roots in a business planning class for farmers, the Guide is primarily intended for use by Vermont farm service providers; Extension, land trust, farm agency personnel, attorneys, and others who work directly with farmers on farm start-up, farm viability, or farm transfer issues. It is a reference tool that can be used by service providers to develop case specific checklists and to identify areas that need additional research or technical assistance.
We hope that farmers and "Tilling the Soil" participants will find the guide useful too. However, farmers should not use this guide as a substitute for legal advice. Instead, it is a useful resource when developing a list of questions for an attorney, accountant, or farm service provider. Farmers may also use it to identify and address issues that need to be included in the farm's business plan or to become better informed consumers of legal or farm viability services.
The guide is provided in a PDF format; you will need to use the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download, to view the publication.
Legal Guide by Chapter: