When farmland owners die without a will, their heirs are often faced with an unequal division of property. Under current law, a single heir, or a speculator who buys out the interest of just one heir, can file a partition action in court and force a sale of the entire property, even against the wishes of all other co-owners.

This is called “heirs’ property.” The antiquated law forces aberrant outcomes — heirs get cheated, the price they get is often pennies on the dollar — while the speculator can profit from the sale by removing the land from production, subdividing it, and building houses.

Massachusetts should not allow this to happen. First, it is a miscarriage of justice. Second, it disproportionately affects disadvantaged property owners who do not have access to legal advice. Third, taking this valuable food-growing land out of production hurts everyone in our state. And last, the outcome drives up the price of farmland, which will make it difficult for next-generation farmers to access land and continue to provide Massachusetts-grown products for our communities.

A bill that ensures the just transfer of land and housing, supports the future of farming and sees heirs receive a fair distribution of property wealth is currently up for consideration by the Massachusetts Legislature. The Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, also known as the UPHPA, will right future wrongs by facilitating the orderly and equitable transfer of land for heirs without prompting public auction sales.

Comparable legislation has been passed by more than 20 other states in the country.

There are many pressures on farmland, farming, and farmers. Let me name a few that are relevant.

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, 52% of producers in Massachusetts reported that they have not participated in any decisions related to succession or estate planning.

Farmland in the state has become unaffordable to the vast majority of young farmers. Massachusetts continues to have some of the most expensive farmland in the nation, with the average price of a farmland acre being $15,300, according to the National Agricultural Statistic Services 2023 Land Values Survey, compared to the national average of $4,080 per acre.

Even within an emerging young farmer sector, the average age of a producer in Massachusetts continues to be around 60 years old.

With an increasing rate of climate disasters that are displacing many farmers in the Valley, the looming development pressures that continue to drive up the costs of farmland, young farmers carrying high student loan debts, and a continued lack of affordable housing within our agricultural communities, the cards remain stacked against farmers wishing to purchase farmland.

Our state’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) remain at an even greater disadvantage in accessing land for farming. This is a direct result of centuries of land and agricultural policies (including partition and tenancy in common law), town and city planning practices such as redlining, and other forms of systemic racism that have prioritized white producers. In fact, the United States Department of Agriculture recognizes heirs’ property as the leading cause of involuntary Black land loss.

We can’t afford to keep laws on the books that further disadvantage those who feed us.

Heirs’ property does not just affect BIPOC farmers — people of all racial backgrounds have struggled with secure land tenure and housing because of inadequacies in partition law. Working-class and low-income families without the financial capacity to create legally valid wills and estate plans have been subject to dispossession through partition leading to economic, agricultural, and social harms, not to mention the emotional trauma of losing family land.

The American Farmland Trust has been working with Boston College Law School in support of UPHPA since 2022. It was mentioned favorably in the recent Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Farmland Action Plan, and it already has the support of state Reps. Patricia Duffy and Natalie Blais, and state Sen. Jo Comerford, among others. Furthermore, states that pass the UPHPA create greater options for heirs’ property owners to access grants and loans through the USDA.

I would also like to urge all other western Mass. legislators to sign onto House Bill 1744 and Senate Bill 2560, An Act Relative to the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property. Let’s join the many other states, including our Connecticut neighbors, and pass this important bill this session.

Chelsea Gazillo of Holyoke is New England policy manager at American Farmland Trust.