Corner Farm village
Across the world, valuable farmland is rapidly being converted to other uses, especially housing. In the United States alone, an estimated average of 2,000 acres of farmland a day were lost or degraded from 2001-2016.
Prime farmland has unique soils that are excellent for growing the food we all need to survive. It’s also typically flat and well-drained, making it highly desirable for development. Yet, we can have houses without sprawling across the countryside and paving over these finite, irreplaceable resources. There are alternatives.
On a 10-acre property, Corner Farm Village demonstrates one alternative to business-as-usual by protecting valuable farmland, by nurturing a new generation of farmers to care for the land, and by providing climate-smart homes for the community.
We are working with the land’s assets and constraints on property located near Missoula, Montana.
Our goals are to:
- Strengthen the resilience of our local and regional food system.
- Partner with a community land trust, using the conservation tool for the first time to protect ag land in Montana.
- Permanently protect an eight-acre farm that has prime ag soils and provides healthy food for our community.
- Provide a young farmer with an affordable, long-term, ground lease.
- Enhance farm viability with a farm stand and café featuring local food.
- Cluster homes and farm-related buildings on the poorer quality land at the edge of the farm.
- Build 12 homes, organized as a housing cooperative.
- Design buildings for the 21st century with climate change and sustainability in mind.
- Care for the land without synthetic chemicals and promote ecological diversity.
- Conserve the riparian area and protect water resources.
- Provide natural flood control.
- Respect the path the Séliš-Ql̓ispé have always shown us in caring for the land and waters.
Learn more about Us
![](https://cornerfarmvillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/corner-farm-village-stills-21.jpg)
farmland
Corner Farm Village is working to permanently protect this agricultural and riparian land in the Orchard Homes area of Missoula.
![](https://cornerfarmvillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/corner-farm-village-stills-08-1000.jpg)
Village
Corner Farm Village crafted a site design that will place buildings on two acres of poor soil, leaving the adjacent high-quality farmland and riparian area intact.
![](https://cornerfarmvillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/corner-farm-village-radishes.jpeg)
history
Corner Farm Village sits in the aboriginal territories of the Séliš-Ql̓ispé people, near the Clark Fork River and just upstream from its confluence with the Bitterroot River.
![](https://cornerfarmvillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/corner-farm-village-site-plan-october-2023.jpeg)
plan
Corner Farm Village was originally on two, five-acre parcels and part of “Dinsmore’s Orchard Homes” in Missoula County.