Photo Exhibit Features Protected Farmland Farmers

This exhibit of images by photographer Rebecca Drobis captures the story of agriculture in the Genesee River watershed. In this beautiful farming valley, many farmers—like those depicted in the photo essay, are leaders in conservation practices that rebuild the soil and protect the environment.

Several of the farms in the exhibit have also taken steps to permanently protect their farmland using conservation easements held by Genesee Valley Conservancy. These easements ensure the land remains un-subdivided and undeveloped so agriculture, and the farmer’s soil rebuilding practices, continue to provide benefits to the community.

Conservancy protected farms featured in this exhibit include the protected Triple H Farm in Leicester and Geneseo and the Silver Meadows Farm in Castile and Perry. The exhibit also features farms where the Conservancy and landowners are just beginning permanent land protection projects, like Table Rock Farm in Castile.

The exhibit is part of the “Landowners and Farmers partnering for Clean Water in the Great Lakes” campaign supported by the Great Lakes Protection Fund to keep streams and rivers in the Great Lakes Basin clean. The project is also part of a national American Farmland Trust initiative to work with women landowners and farmers to develop new voices for conservation.

Women own a significant portion of farmland around the country and are key stakeholders in the future of US agriculture.

A shared land ethic unites farmers in the fertile Genesee River Valley of New York—conservation-minded farmers who aim to leave the land better off than they found it. Through this exhibit, American Farmland Trust and award-winning portrait photographer Rebecca Drobis tell the story of these farmers, many of them women, in a series of intimate images that capture the essence of agriculture in the Genesee Watershed.

“We know we are blessed and that we need to be responsible for what we have been given. We couldn’t ask for a better place to be,” says Meghan Hauser of Table Rock Farm in Castile, one of the forward-looking farmers depicted in the essay. “If we want to be farmers in the future, we must understand and take on our role with a sense of what it means to be trusted with these resources.”

By protecting the land base, the Conservancy is providing an opportunity for these farmers to develop new and innovative practices that maintain soil health, reduce environmental issues, and produce better food to support the community.