Most farm families that we impact want more land. They are selling all production and planning to grow their business. Consequently, a large percentage of our purchases are repeat business with existing Iroquois Valley relationships (see chart). This means that we have been reinvesting a 2nd/3rd/4th and 5th time for our farm families. We could not be more pleased.

Typically, we purchase conventional land that must be transitioned. New capital directly funds a family transitioning more acres to healthy and organic food production, effectively bringing chemically-farmed dead soils back to life. This is a regenerative process that will encompass many phases, perhaps over generations, and include multiple purchases, especially for our young farmers.

Our staff and Board are positively challenged to keep up with the demand for new land by mostly millennial farmers. In the last month, we contracted to purchase three farms in one week. Each purchase was unique, and was differentiated in process through auction, a brokerage negotiation, and a direct sale from a land owner. All were repeat acquisitions for existing relationships. What follows is an insight into each. 

Over the last four years, Iroquois Valley attended no less than three prior auctions with unsuccessful outcomes for our team of Livingston County farmers. In most cases, we were outbid; in another, Iroquois Valley was the highest bidder, but the selling entity negated the sale. Our long term commitment to helping these farmers grow their business resulted, this time, in the successful purchase of a 267 acre parcel. It will be farmed collectively by an extended family of farmers, Scott Friedman, Adam Roberts, and Logan Spenard.

The Iroquois Valley Board approves all acquisitions and is happy to announce the purchase of an additional 960 acres for Doug and Anna Jones-Crabtree of Vilicus Farms. Our first purchase for Doug and Anna was in 2016 for 320 acres. The new acreage will be transitioned over two years by implementing their seven year, conservation oriented, crop rotation. Vilicus Farms developed five and seven year crop rotations that allow their dryland farming techniques to thrive. Crops include black beluga lentils and durum wheat.

Occasionally we read or hear of a story about how farm families are disappearing from the land. We do not see that with our organic farmers. Regarding this topic, our Board Member and Conservation Innovation Grant Project Director, Teresa Opheim, wrote an article for the September/October issue of Green Money Journal. 

Her article,  Farmer by Farmer, Investor by Investor, Regenerating America's Farmland, discusses Iroquois Valley Farms' decentralized approach to working with farmers and investors growing organic agriculture in the United States.

Read the article  here .