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This story was produced as part of Next City’s joint Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship for Rural-Urban Issues with Kentucky’s CivicLex.
Near the eastern edge of Fayette County, Kentucky, sits the Coleman Crest Farm in the rural Black hamlet of Uttingertown. That’s where Jim Coleman works the land his great-grandfather tilled as an enslaved person — until he secured his freedom by fighting in the Civil War and returning to purchase the farm more than 130 years ago.
Now, Coleman is continuing his family’s farming legacy, but not because it’s easy work.
“Yesterday, I was pulling up mulch,” Coleman says, in between administrative calls. “I had harvested hard the day before. Did a little bit of harvesting [yesterday], invoiced it, packaged it, put it in the case, put it in my truck, drove to my customer, and delivered.”
Coleman’s 13-acre plot is one of few in the county – and in Kentucky – that’s still Black- owned and operated. And among all farmers, the sheer volume of farmland has fallen, statewide and nationwide.
“The average age of farmers is 58 years old. They’re burnt out. They’re debt-ridden. Their kids don’t want it,” Coleman says. “And you got a developer knocking on your door saying, ‘Listen, I’ve got $50,000 an acre.’”
He explains the first thing such a farmer might think: “$50,000? I could sell this thing, or maybe a portion of it. Pay off my debts and get a life.”
The Coleman-Crest Farm is Kentucky’s first Black-owned, USDA-certified organic farm.
USDA programs intended to level the playing field have been slashed under the current administration. That includes the ‘socially disadvantaged’ designation in the 1990 Farm Bill, which directed resources to farmers that historically faced lending discrimination. The decision ruled that the consequences of racial discrimination had been “sufficiently addressed.”
Meanwhile, Black farm ownership in Kentucky has shrunk dramatically in the last century – about 650 owners compared to some hundred-thousand white farm owners, according to the most recent USDA Agricultural Census. That proportion lies far below the national average of 1.4%. The total number of Black producers nationally also decreased by 4% between 2017 and 2022.
Facing the threat of urban development and losses of federal support, how can Black producers’ farms and legacies survive and grow in Kentucky?
Local regulations, such as Lexington-Fayette County’s Purchase of Development Rights program, have the opportunity to help, but some Black leaders say this support is not yet reaching those who need it most. In the meantime, Black-led organizations like Black Soil are serving as a resource and partner to Kentucky’s Black farmers.
Purchasing development rights
Like many states, Kentucky has developed government programs to help offer farmers financial benefit while preserving their land’s farmland status, though the Commonwealth’s are less robust than its neighbors.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture preserves about 200 farms through the Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement Corporation, which only accepts donated land. And nonprofits like the Bluegrass Land Conservancy, also based in Lexington, provide tax deductions for landowners willing to enter their network.
Lexington-Fayette is one of a few municipalities nationwide that offers an alternative: direct purchase of these development rights.
What are easements and development rights?
Development rights are the legal ability for a landowner to develop their land for a different purpose, like from a farm to a housing project or factory.
In conservation, an easement allows a landowner to surrender their development rights so it stays farmland indefinitely.
The city-county government adopted its Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program 25 years ago, modeled off other easement programs like the Bluegrass Land Conservancy. Only tracts of land 20 acres or larger have been eligible until this year, when the office kickstarted its Small Farm Conservation program. The new subset of PDR allows 10- to 19- acre farms to enter easements.
“We thought, ‘Oh, maybe we’ll get five or 10 applications.’ And we got 37,” says Beth Overman, the director of Lexington’s PDR office. That was after spreading news about the small farm program through word of mouth as a test run.
The city and office then process and score those applications. As of late 2025, more than 33,000 acres of land are under PDR easements, nearing their 50,000 acre goal. Their next application period opens later in the year, and officials plan to get the word out through council members and mail advertisements.
The new rules open up an opportunity. Black farmers, nationwide, tend to own smaller acreage farms and see lower revenue. They now have the option to sell the development rights of their 10-plus acre farms. They receive that value in cash, useful for purchasing new equipment or staying afloat while keeping ownership of their farm. Developers then can’t buy it out for industrialization, helping the farmland stay in their families and communities.
“With a small farm program, once word is out and people know it’s there, then that minority farmer who maybe has five acres or zero acres – knowing that they could put the farm into the small farm program and get a little cash back, may help them think, ‘I could maybe take this jump and … try to start my own farm,’” Overman says.
Lexington’s PDR program is a one-person office, and Overman says the lack of manpower and resources affects what they’re able to do.
“Maybe that’s a place we could get to someday – it could help people take the plunge to buy a farm if they knew,” Overman added.
The pieces are all there, ready to be put together. On paper, it works.
In reality, the founder of Lexington-based nonprofit agribusiness Black Soil says this potential has gone unrealized for the region’s most vulnerable producers: farmers in Black rural hamlets.
“[The PDR program] needs to do a lot more outreach in educating folks in the rural hamlets – technical assistance, as well as the outreach to let people know,” says Ashley C. Smith, who came to agriculture as an adult and launched Black Soil in 2017. Her organization supports Kentucky Black farmers and runs fresh food markets in Lexington, connecting food-insecure residents to produce and meat from Black farmers at below-market rates.
What is Black Soil?
Founded in 2017, Black Soil is a nonprofit agricultural business that invests in Kentucky’s Black farmers. It focuses on food access by targeting both ends of the food production chain, supporting these farmers and bringing their produce to Lexington’s food deserts through neighborhood markets. Read more about the organization and its work combatting urban food insecurity.
In her time running the organization, she has worked extensively with urban Black farmers in the city’s denser neighborhoods, as well as rural growers in areas like Utteringtown and beyond state lines.
Smith argues that information about local agricultural programs like PDR isn’t disseminated effectively, a consequence of systemic racism throughout the industry.
“Black Soil acts as a mirror. If we are able to find this many Black farmers in our region — farmers, culinary artists, industry professionals —[then] there’s an active choice to not see people.”
Ashley C. Smith is Black Soil’s executive director. (Photo courtesy Smith)
Coleman sits on the Rural Land Management Board, which oversees the PDR program. That means his own farm is ineligible. But he agrees the program isn’t reaching those who need it most.
“No one in that room knows about the PDR program,” Coleman says. “PDRs are very transformative, and I think the right way to go. [It can’t help] if you don’t know.”
Support from Black Soil
The Cleav Family Market isn’t eligible for Purchase of Development Rights, either, because it’s not in Fayette County. The family farm straddles the Central Timezone border in rural Bonnieville, about an hour south of metropolitan Louisville and just under two hours from Lexington.
“What I want y’all to get from this is you can start today,” farmer Travis Cleaver says, motioning to the chicken coop behind him.
The sun beat down on dozens of professional and aspiring growers as his fellow farm employees explained how each broiler chicken needs one more square foot every week they grow.
“These are scrap materials we found around the barn and scraped together. As you get better, you buy better.”
The Cleav Family Market was one of multiple destinations in the State of the Soil conference, hosted by Black Soil. Guests traveled from states away to hear from industry professionals, tour farms across central Kentucky and network with agriculturalists of all walks. Local Black growers and chefs produced most of the food, too.
