A popular attraction was our mobile hen houses for Vitality Farms certified organic, pastured eggs.

About 50 folks got on a school bus to tour two of our farms.  Shown here is Chris Hansen of Mosaic Farms with his Bershire hogs on our pasture at Fern Rd Farm.

Also at Fern Rd Mac Stewart explained our grazing practices which integrate dairy calves and sheep.

The sheep were a bit more shy than the cattle, so Mac and his dog Tigg brought them in for closer inspection.

Our Seed Cleaning Facility was a unique experience for most visitors.  Cleaned seeds fill a one-ton tote, ready to head to market.  Oregon is a world-class center for seed production and processing.

Dinner in our new egg cleaning and food handling facility was delicious. Thanks to John Neumeister of Cattail Creek Lamb for a skilled job on the BBQ and New Morning Bakery of Corvallis for the side dishes.

Almost done with the day and ready for the next one. 

At the same time a pastured laying hen business was Certified Organic at A2R Farm.  Congratulations to Karen and Neal Wells for reaching this milestone.  Oregon Tilth also approved our plan for handling the Organic livestock of others.  Vitality Farms Livestock Manager Mac Stewart is now caring for Organic dairy calves for an Organic Valley Coop farm at our Fern Rd location.

Our approved Organic System Plans enables us to produce and sell as Organic various crops, including small grains and forage seeds, hay, and certain classes of livestock and livestock products.  The inspection process was very thorough, and I can attest that Oregon Tilth is rigorous and thoughtful in carrying out their duty to verify compliance with the National Organic Program law.  I  also recommend COG Pro as an on-line tool for organizing and storing records needed for the certification process.  This allowed me to quickly pull up records that directly responded to the inspector’s questions.  Apparently this enabled him to go into more detail with me than is typically possible!

Having a strong, independent certification system is important for maintaining the integrity of a healthy, sustainable food system, and becoming Certified Organic is one way we can support a system of values and practices we believe in.

From left to right:  Neal Wells, Karen Wells and myself.  It was a cold, rainy day so photography was done in a barn.  Lots of livestock available as props.   Not shown is shepherd Mac Stewart who saw me with a lamb over my shoulders (also published with the article) and texted:  “I don’t pose with baby lambs.”  I know Mac, I know.  Photo by Eric Näslund.

 Here’s a nice paragraph:

Instead of the typical U.S. model, in which larger acreages are passed on through family inheritance or owned by corporations, Farmland is two managers using investor funds to purchase conventional mid-size farms in both Oregon (around 1,000 acres thus far) and California (5,300 acres). Once converted to certified organic acreage, Farmland’s holdings are put into a newfangled land-management system that is actually based on a more old-fashioned rotation of plots between growing pasture, grazing livestock and cultivating different crops in order to boost soil fertility without chemical fertilizers. And unlike the one-man-one-tractor model of agriculture, in which a few farmers work vast swathes of land in monocrops, or the sustainable farm ideal in which a farmer takes a small patch of ground and coaxes multiple foods from it, Farmland’s model is novel. Different farming experts will ply their trades on the same plots of ground as these pieces of land are moved through rotation.

The reporter did a lot of research beyond just talking to us, and the article includes quotes from others commenting on our business model, including our investors:

Portland-based non-profit Ecotrust is one of these, having followed Farmland LP from its inception. Richard Hervey, Corvallis city council president, is another.

“I really like the model,” Hervey says. “I wanted to move some of our money out of the stock market. Farm land is a fundamentally stable investment and Farmland LP is also a local investment.”

A key thread is the opportunity provided to young and beginning farmers and it was nice to hear the perspective of farmers we work with, as well as reactions and experiences of those involved in start-up farms.  I want to thank April Streeter and Oregon Business for such a thorough analysis.

And for those of you who aren’t investors or farmers, you can benefit from the food coming from our farms.  Here in Oregon look for pork from Mosaic Farms, lamb from Cattail Creek, and eggs from Vitality Farms when shopping or dining. Not only are the land and animals treated well, but these farmers are great at what they do and care about your health and your enjoyment of the food they grow.

California, Brentwood Creek Farm

Representatives from BN Ranch, Swanson’s Lamb, Vitality Farms, PGG Seeds and Farmland LP talk about pasture and grazing.  The field we are standing on was sown last fall and has been grazed once so far this season.

Heavy feeder lambs owned by Superior Farms being finished on new pastures. 

Alfalfa ready for cutting to make hay.  The field has been managed organically for two years now and is in its seventh season.

John Snider of PGG Seeds pulls up some forage and expresses his approval to Beth and Pete Swanson.

California, Burns Farm

First alfalfa harvest of the season in progress.

Oregon, Fern Rd Farm

Organic dairy heifers from an Organic Valley member are gentle and curious.  They weigh about 600 lbs upon arrival and will gain enough to be bred later in the year. 

Oregon, A2R Farm

Pastured laying hens outside their new, custom built house enjoy fresh grass and afternoon sunshine.

A lily beneath oak trees along the banks of Muddy Creek.

Oregon, Wattenpaugh Farm

Newborn twins finding their mother’s milk.

SAN FRANCISCO — Farmland LP, the only U.S. investment fund for Organic, sustainable farmland, is pleased to report that B Corp has honored Farmland LP with their “Best For The World” award.

Of the 737 certified B Corps in 26 countries, Farmland LP is one of 67 honored today, with one of the highest “B scores” given of 151 out of 200.  B Corps are companies that agree to B Corps principles and meet B Lab’s standards in the areas of Governance, Workers, Community and Environment.

In an article released today by Bloomberg Business Week, B Corp co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert addressed the question of what it takes to be part of this elite list:

In order to be that high a performer, you’re going to have to be operating well on all cylinders. They’re typically not only excelling in one area, just employee practices or environmental practices. They’re bringing that same intention to create shared value for all of their stakeholders.

“This award reflects our personal passions for making the world a better place, while delivering solid financial returns for our investors,” said Craig Wichner, co-founder and Managing Partner of Farmland LP. “We, like other B Corps, believe that investors shouldn’t have to choose between their financial future or creating a world we’re proud to leave to our children.”

About Farmland LP

Farmland LP acquires conventional farmland and converts it to Organic, sustainable farmland, in a structure similar to a private farmland REIT. Farmland LP’s investors benefit from owning farmland – an appreciating, inflation-hedging asset. Farmland LP adds value to farmland by converting it to certified Organic, thus increasing the cash flow by capturing the 50% to 200% price premiums for Organic. In addition, the sustainable agriculture best practices employed improve soil productivity and reduce input costs, and thus increase profitability for farmers and our investors.  Farmland LP owns 6,300 acres of farmland (about 10 square miles), with 673 acres already certified Organic.

In February of 2009 Craig and I and a couple of other friends took a week-long road trip to Oregon’s Willamette Valley to look at buying farmland. We saw a wonderful opportunity to convert conventional farmland to organic and sustainable farmland, but it also became perfectly clear to us that to really make a difference would require more capital and more brilliant people than we could fit in our car.

Sustainable agriculture is a team sport, requiring financing, sufficient farmland, agronomists, livestock and crop farmers, real estate management, fund management, and much more. And on the drive home from that road trip we crafted Farmland LP, almost exactly in the form it is today, and began working full time on our passion.

I moved my family to Corvallis on Labor Day weekend 2009.  By February 2010 the fund had purchased 154 acres near Corvallis.  It took until April of 2011 to add another 112 acres a few miles from our first property.

In 2012 we purchased the 1,114 acre Brentwood Creek Farm in California in February, another property near Corvallis at 692 acres in March, and finally the 4,200 acre Burns Farm near Tracy, CA in late December…a very nice way to end the year.

Chris Hansen of Mosaic Farms was one of the first to lease land from us and he still does today.  Here he is pictured with some of his prize winning pastured hogs at Fern Rd Farm in the summer of 2010.  

This has been a lot of work, but also a wonderful personal experience for both of us.  We have met so many exceptional people, such as our 75 investors who put their trust in us, the sellers of the land, the dedicated farmers and ranchers we work with, the wise people who buy our farmers’ products while appreciating great food and the long-term stewardship of the land, and finally those that just cheer us on. Thank you.

Our first fund will close soon with 6300 acres and over $43 million in assets. We think of this as a great start in transforming our agricultural system into one that is both economically and environmentally sustainable, while producing abundant food for all humanity. We are looking forward to continuing doing this for many years to come.

• Seeing how Farmland LP helps young farmers get started by providing access to high quality land they don’t have the capital to buy themselves.
• Appreciating the integration of livestock and crop rotation, which begins with a Joel Salatin-like livestock model then adds organic vegetables and grains to the mix as the soil fertility allows.
• The potential to scale this agronomic model over significant area, simultaneously benefiting multiple stakeholders–investors, farmers and eaters–and the environment.

Mark Bittman in the New York Times called this report “the most important agricultural study this year,” saying, “It’s becoming clear that we can grow all the food we need, and profitably, with far fewer chemicals.”  In addition, the report has been covered by Wired, Grist, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.  We summarized the work leading to this publication over two years ago, including how it relates to Farmland LP.  The Union of Concerned Scientists blog has a good overview (copied portion below):

• More complex systems enhanced yields and profits. Over the course of the experiment, average corn yields were 4 percent higher, and average soybean yields 9 percent higher, in the longer rotations compared to the conventional system. Furthermore, the researchers found that the longer rotations were just as profitable as corn-soy alone.
• Conventional corn-soy rotations require more chemical fertilizer and energy inputs. Fertilizer use was higher in the 2-year rotation than in the more complex systems. And this difference increased over the course of the experiment, with the 3- and 4-year rotations requiring even less of these inputs in the later years, probably due to cumulative improvements in soil quality over time.
• Diversification controls weeds while slashing herbicide applications. The longer rotations reduced herbicide use by a whopping 88 percent compared with the conventional system, with little difference in weediness. Furthermore, the ecotoxicity of the systems (as measured by the freshwater toxicity of the herbicides used) was 200 times less in the longer rotations. Given everything we know about weed resistance and rising herbicide use on U.S. farms (including this new estimate), strategies that help farmers control weeds with less herbicide are critically needed.
• Longer rotations substitute labor for other inputs. Some people will no doubt see this as a strike against crop diversification. But with energy costs on the rise and unemployment stuck just under 8 percent, that’s starting to seem like seriously fuzzy logic.

Relevance to Farmland LP

At Farmland LP we describe what we do as converting conventional farmland to Organic, sustainably-managed farmland.  While getting the land certified Organic is helpful for marketing, the broader benefits are in our land-use rotation practices.  Since our full cycle crop rotation can easily span 10 years—five to seven years in pasture or perennial forage crops followed by three to five years in vegetables and grains—it makes it a challenge to scientifically benchmark our soil-biology-driven practices vs. current chemistry-driven practices.

The irony is that our rotation style was the norm for centuries.  Farmers rotated by necessity for thousands of years to maintain soil fertility and lower disease risk.  Agronomy advanced by increasing the number of crops in a rotation, such as the innovation in the 16^th century of adding legumes to European crop rotations.  In the mid-20^th century U.S. farms averaged five commodities per farm, including crops and livestock.  Only in the past 60 years have farmers had the tools (i.e., synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to deal with the problems of reduced diversity) not to rotate, and now farms are highly specialized with low diversity of about 1.2 commodities per farm (see graph below).  Some see this as modern progress, but at Farmland LP we view this multi-decade chemical binge as an abandonment of centuries of wisdom that is causing both ecological and economic damage.

From defenders of the status quo I can hear the following argument:  “Yields of today are so high that adopting historic practices will put farms out of business and not feed the world.”  To those who understand the research study, this argument is silly.  Current yields are not a result of simplification and won’t be undone by diversification.  We can still use modern crop breeds and modern equipment while adopting soil practices that dramatically lower external inputs and avoid the externalization of costs, such as pollution.  A more diverse system will be a net benefit for the farmer while making the food production system more resilient and environmentally positive.  This has been the position of Farmland LP since our inception, and was a strong impetus for our business.  Our goal is to be a successful model of more diversified, sustainable farming practices that re-integrate crop and livestock production.

A single chart from the paper (shown below) does an excellent job of telling the whole story.  It shows that key production metrics that farmers care about, including profits, yields and weed pressures, are the same or better than conventional in longer rotations, while the longer rotations prevent most pollution and lower the need for synthetic inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides.  Labor costs are higher in more complex rotations, which we view as providing opportunities for meaningful work. Profitability is the same due to reduced expenses for synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and fuel. That’s a good trade that will get better as inputs costs keep increasing.

 One of my favorite paragraphs from the paper is:

Reintegration of crop and livestock production, as represented by the forage legumes and manure applications present in the more diverse systems, is not simply another aspect of cropping system diversification. Instead, it embodies an important principle in sustainable agriculture: system boundaries should be drawn to minimize externalities. Animal manure is produced regardless of whether feed grains are shipped to centralized concentrated animal feeding operations, or produced within integrated crop-livestock farming operations. In the former case, the manure may become a waste product and water pollutant if quantities exceed available land area for field application [33], whereas in the latter case, it contributes directly to crop nutrient requirements, improves soil quality, and reduces fossil fuel subsidies associated with grain transport and external N fertilizer inputs [14].

How Farmland LP’s Rotations Improve On The Research

While the research design and conclusions here are very relevant to what we do at Farmland LP, there are some differences.  Here are a few points of how our systems further improve upon the system presented in the research paper:

• Certified Organic Price Premiums.  Some synthetic fertilizers and pesticides were used in all rotations, but they were just not needed much in the longer ones.  Taking it just a little bit further would have enabled them to get the Organic price premium in the 4^th year and beyond. Even with the potentially higher costs of Organic versions of external inputs when available, the net returns would be higher in a Certified Organic system.

• Livestock Grazing on Cropland.  The forage crops were mechanically harvested, not grazed.  Farmland LP puts a lot of our land in diverse pasture and  grazes livestock intensively, whereas the research system harvested alfalfa as hay which was then transported to livestock.  The manure of livestock was then brought back to the research plot for fertilizer.  So we differ by having even more plant diversity than the study (better for the soil) and by getting the benefits of direct grazing, such as further reductions in fuel use.

• More Complex, Longer Rotations.  The study was made feasible by its relatively short rotations of 2, 3 and 4 years.  Our rotations are more complex and reflect more natural economic and biological rotations and durations.  For example, an alfalfa-orchard grass stand should last five years or longer, same as pasture.  Many crop options were not included in the study, such as vegetables.  With our program the environmental benefits should be even greater than shown in the study, including significant carbon sequestration.

We applaud the scientists who carried out the work and the USDA for lending support too.  We certainly hope it leads to more sophisticated discussions among stakeholders in the food system, whether policy-makers, farmers, and eaters of food.  And we thank those who’ve supported us at Farmland LP for your role in fostering much needed change.

Jason has done a tremendous amount of work over the past three years to gain this certification.  The minimum requirements for certifying farmland include (modified from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_certification):

• Organic inputs only – avoid synthetic chemical inputs not on the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (e.g. fertilizer, pesticides, antibiotics, food additives, etc.), genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and the use of sewage sludge;
• 3 Years clean – farmland has been free from prohibited synthetic chemicals for three years;
• Documentation — extensive paperwork is required, detailing farm history and current set-up, and usually including results of soil and water tests.
• Planning — a written annual production plan must be submitted, detailing everything from seed to sale: seed sources, field and crop locations, fertilization and pest control activities, harvest methods, storage locations, etc.
• Inspection — annual on-farm inspections are required, with a physical tour, examination of records, and an oral interview. In addition, short-notice or surprise inspections can be made, and specific tests (e.g. soil, water, plant tissue) may be requested.
• Fee — an annual inspection/certification fee (currently starting at $400–$2,000/year, depending on the certifying agency and the size of the operation).
• Record-keeping — written, day-to-day farming and marketing records, covering all activities, must be available for inspection at any time.

With Certified Organic farmland, we can now produce and sell Certified Organic crops, as well as produce livestock and eggs from chickens that were “Raised on Certified Organic Farmland”.  The price premiums are worth the work, but the certification is also just a measure of our broader commitment to sustainable and regenerative agriculture.

Images below show the certified fields for the 526 acres at A2R Farm, and the 147 acres at Fern Road Farm respectively.  These are significant additions to the Organic acreage in the Willamette Valley with 665 of these acres being cropland and 386 irrigated.

Special thanks to the inspectors and review staff at Oregon Tilth, one of the original certifying agencies that pre-date the national standards.  We are very pleased to have successfully completed this process with them.

This is a major milestone, but is also only a step along our journey as we continue our work to get all our 2,000 acres certified organic (…with more farmland on the way).

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