{"id":11264,"date":"2021-09-02t20:12:59","date_gmt":"2021-09-02t20:12:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dpetrov.2create.studio\/planet\/wordpress\/recipes-for-food-security-town-molds-community-driven-model-for-new-farmers-to-buy-land\/"},"modified":"2021-09-02t20:12:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02t20:12:59","slug":"town-molds-community-driven-model-for-new-farmers-to-buy-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.getitdoneaz.com\/story\/town-molds-community-driven-model-for-new-farmers-to-buy-land\/","title":{"rendered":"recipes for food security | town molds community-driven model for new farmers to buy land"},"content":{"rendered":"
decorah, iowa \u2014 the farmland under hannah breckbill\u2019s feet could make her lots of money, but she\u2019s not going to let it.<\/p>\n
breckbill is the majority shareholder of humble hands harvest in decorah, a town in the northeast corner of iowa. everything about her and her farm are atypical for the state, which churns out 18% of the u.s.’s soybean and corn crops every year, according to the iowa official register<\/u><\/a>. breckbill, 34, is a first-generation, queer, organic vegetable farmer on a 22 acre worker-owned farm.<\/p>\n when she retires, she said, she\u2019ll sell her shares at the price she bought them, regardless of how much the price of the land increases. so, the only money she\u2019ll be making over her career is from what food she grows and sells. the point of the farm, breckbill said, is to serve the community and protect the land.<\/p>\n \u201cthe reason we\u2019re running this business is to grow food for people and to steward the land well,\u201d she said. \u201cthe whole wealth-building element of agriculture is not part of our purpose.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cbut, it happens anyway,\u201d she said. \u201cland accrues in value.\u201d<\/p>\n wide lens <\/strong>globally, 10% of rural populations account for 60 percent of agricultural land value, according to the land equality initiative report.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n she\u2019ll be giving up plenty of money by refusing to hike up the price of the shares once she sells, since the price of farm real estate in the corn belt is valued at $6,110 per acre, almost twice the national average, according to a 2020 report<\/u><\/a> from the united states department of agriculture, which records farmland value rising steadily since 1993. <\/p>\n that\u2019s precisely the problem, breckbill said. the traditional model of land acquisition in farming means that young farmers need to buy or be given land owned by their families, or have enough capital to compete with big businesses. that\u2019s a heavy barrier of entry for first-generation farmers like her. <\/p>\n \u201ci definitely could not have done it as an individual person,\u201d breckbill said. but humble hands harvest didn\u2019t face the usual start-up costs of a young farm.<\/p>\n wide lens <\/strong>only 1% of farms operate more than 70 percent of the world\u2019s farmland, according to a 2020 report from the land equality initiative<\/a>, while the large majority, 80%, of farms around the world are less than 5 acres.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cnot in my backyard\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n when the 22 acres at the end of hidden falls road went up for auction, the neighbors made a mad dash to buy the land at asking price \u2014 $5,500 an acre. <\/p>\n if an industrial farm moved in, \u201cit would definitely ruin the neighborhood as well as the air and water around here,\u201d said steve mccargar, who lives five minutes down the gravelly lane in a solar grid-tied home he built using recycled timber from crumbling farmhouses. <\/p>\n wide lens <\/strong>agriculture is the main degrader of inland and coastal waters in high-income and emerging economies, according to a 2017 united nations food and agriculture organization report<\/a>: \u201cfarms discharge large quantities of agrochemicals, organic matter, drug residues, sediments and saline drainage into water bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n mccargar and his partner heidi swets moved to decorah in the \u201980s from ann arbor, michigan, in search of a place to live environmentally responsibly, a calling stoked by years of environmental activism and observance of the writing of back-to-the-land gurus helen and scott nearing. <\/p>\n several of the neighbors on hidden falls road made the same pilgrimage, partly from \u201cserendipity and accident,\u201d partly to join the growing community of alternative thinkers. with a robust food co-op, the northeast iowa peace & justice center, luther college, and self-proclaimed \u201chippies\u201d like mccargar roaming around, this town of 7,500 in the heart of corn country is a stew of progressivism and traditional ag in the heart of corn country.<\/p>\n\n
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