Legacy Letters

We asked farmers from around the province to share with us their vision for the future of their land and farms in the form of Legacy Letters. Read excerpts below and click to read each farmer’s full letter to future generations.

At the end of this section, you’ll find links to download the Legacy Letter tool. Take some time to reflect and draft your own Legacy Letter. This letter can be something you keep for yourself or something you share with your family and others involved in your transition. If you would like to share your letter with us, we would love to publish your letter so others can get inspired by your farm journey! 

“Thirty years from now, I want people to remember that my farm was a beautiful productive healthy place to find and learn about producing good food. My number one goal for my farmland is that it continues to produce great food for my community. This is important to me because eating local, organic, largely plant-based food is the most important step we can take to affect climate change – and also this food tastes so good and is good for our health.” –  Mary Alice Johnson, ALM Farm, Sooke BC.

“I can only hope that whoever takes over this farm will love and protect the natural beauty of this place – both the cultivated part as well as the natural forest that keeps this land and its inhabitants (human and otherwise) healthy. This little 10 acres has since 1952 been home to many families and produced tons of food and over a million bedding plants to feed people from all over the valley. I would like to express my sincere thanks for the amazing gift it has been to live on and steward this little piece of heaven. May all who come after me be so blessed!”  – Pete Amyoony, Dunster, BC

“We need to treat our agricultural land as a gift to be shared with the community for our lifetime and then moved on to the next generation for them to grow their food, teach themselves to farm and their children to farm, try out new farming methods and celebrate locally produced food with people in their neighbourhood.” – Lorne & Barbara Ebell, Nanoose Edibles Farm, Nanoose Bay BC

“My highest priority for the farm is to continue to be an organic vegetable, berry, fruit and nut farm that feeds the local community. We have been successful for the last 29 years selling healthy food locally despite the challenges of farming, and have strong connections in the community. There is no greater joy than seeing the delight on children’s and their parents’ faces as they eat a field-ripened strawberry or munch a fresh carrot.” – Rob Hettler, Pilgrims’ Produce Farm, Armstrong BC

“Our goal for our farm is that it should remain a farm that feeds and nurtures all its inhabitants—human, animal, insect, microbial—and that it continues to produce nutrient dense products for a local market. Thirty years from now we would like people to know that this farm was loved and cared for in the best way we knew how. For a livable future we need more farms that are loved and nurtured by their farmers. We need to build human communities that will care for the land and for each other.” – Linda and Tim Ewert, Wildwood Farm, Pouce Coupe BC

Download the Legacy Letter Template:

This growing collection of Legacy Letters was inspired by the Practical Farmers of Iowa and adapted for the YA Transition Toolkit with gratitude. Practical Farmers of Iowa has helped more than 50 members write these letters. In the fall 2017, the University of Iowa Press published more than 25 of them in The Future of Family Farms: Practical Farmers’ Legacy Letter Project.