Follow The Food

This real-world approach is the underlying principle of sustainable ag.

The idea: Rather than growing acres of fuel-fed mono-crops (even "organic" mono-crops), these labor-intensive farms are diversified-and local. 

There are several methods. Biodynamic farming-often called "beyond organic"-is a closed-loop system where everything on the farm stays there. Animals produce the fertilizer. There are no chemicals. And harvest cycles are attuned to the moon. Bio-intensive farming, which combines biodynamic practices with the French intensive method developed in Paris centuries ago, maximizes yields from minimal spaces while restoring the land. Permaculture yields remarkable abundance by incorporating a design method that mimics nature. Ultimately, it requires less work than traditional farming. 

Because of innovations like these, there has been a cultural awakening with respect to the quality of our food and its impact on our health. This, in turn, has catalyzed an interest by investors in supporting farms and soil. Although different models are emerging, they all recognize one salient fact: Many farmers cannot afford to buy land. This article focuses on innovative ways to make farmland affordable for farmers, and future stories will cover other sustainable ag topics. 

One tool that can help is a conservation easement. According to Peter Stein, managing director of Lyme Timber Co., in Hanover, N.H., there has been a sea change in the use of easements, the legal removal of a right of use. Conservation easements generally protect wildlife habitat, open spaces, recreational land, etc., by eliminating development rights. Until the l990s, most conservation easements were "forever wild," meaning all economic use of the land was strictly prohibited. Until then, most easements were bequests donated by families for tax deductions, and were fairly small. 

Today, it's not uncommon to create some sort of agricultural conservation easement that allows private landowners to keep the land working. Although there are still gifts and bequests, buyers often include land trusts or state or federal governments.

When Emma Ford's husband died after the couple ran a 100-acre dairy farm for 45 years near Seattle, she did not want the property to be developed. She contacted the Seattle-based PCC Farmland Trust, whose mission is to save organic farmland forever. The trust found three farmers to split the property, and with state and county funding, purchased an agricultural conservation easement for about $1.2 million-roughly half the unrestricted market value. This cut the price of the property in half, so the three farmers could buy it at agricultural value. 

"Even with the easement, the mortgage payments are more expensive than a lease," says Melissa Campbell, conservation director at the PCC Farmland Trust. "But they [can] invest in infrastructure. And that's what we know to be true of farmers: They want to own their land."