Vision Statement: Our business vision is to build sustainable entities that can permanently retain ownership of farms and continually renew farm leases to multi-generational family farmers.
Impact Investing: Our focus on organic agriculture positively impacts the health and sustainability of our food system and environment. We also work to conserve wetlands and wildlife by setting aside lands better suited for conservation purposes. Additionally, we support sustainable family farms and are helping to transition the next generation of organic farmers and investors.
Sustainability Policy:
Sustainable Mission:
The business mission of our company is to advise capital and employ labor to forward sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and conservation development. The key impacts include:
- Economic viability of the organic farm — profitability
- Long term tenancy– leases for a minimum of five years and renewable with a next generation goal
- Diversified farm income – including local foods, energy and ecological farming
- Organic certification and compliance – more organic farmland acres
- The health of our food system – no pesticides, herbicides, GMO seeds, synthetic fertilizers, etc.
- Renewable capital – expanding the longevity and diversity of investment capital while building liquidity to enable the next generation of farmland owners.
Sustainable Capital:
As our soils are renewed, so likewise is the ownership as new member capital replaces founders “seed” capital through a revolving and growing field of younger investors. By encouraging broad ownership, the corporate ventures avoid selling the farm as an exit strategy. A base of patient capital allows farm leases to be renewed — generating economies from farmer continuity — and greater stability of income. Improving upon this sustainable cycle is perhaps our most important impact.
Sustainable Compliance:
To ensure sustainable land use practices, we require the maintenance and/or transition of the farmland to organic certification. This is embodied in the lease that each farmer executes as a condition of tenancy as well as in the membership operating agreements . Additionally, a Board of Directors has been established in the larger “growth oriented” ventures to continually review business practices and maintain mission focus.
In summary, sustainability is our health. It is the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. By improving the quality of our soil and natural resources, we sustain life on our planet.
“A nation that destroys it’s soils, destroys itself” —- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
