New Website Facilitates Exchange of Land from one Generation to the Next

Posted on April 19, 2011 by in Beginning Farmers, Finding Land // 0 Comments

NEWS RELEASE: Find-A-Farmer website facilitates the exchange of land from one generation to the next; Contact: Sally Worley, Practical Farmers of Iowa, 515.232.5661 sally@practicalfarmers.org
Luke Gran, 515.232.5661 luke@practicalfarmers.org

Nationwide—Landowners and beginning farmers now have a new way to get connected. Practical Farmers of Iowa has launched a NEW land-matching website www.practicalfarmers.org/findafarmer. This site provides a platform for landowners to post land opportunities for beginners and for beginning farmers to post their land needs in order to farm.

Registrants fill out 10 simple questions about the location, farm type, enterprises desired, buildings or features of the farm, and production practices (organic, deep-bedded, conventional, and more). Landowner Linda Long of Cresco, IA, says, “The Find-A-Farmer website puts me in touch with a lot of people who have the same values I do, more people than I would ever be able to reach otherwise.”

In the next five years, an estimated 42% of Iowa families will retire, according to the 2009 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll. What happens to that land could change forever the future of Iowa’s landscape, environment and food production.

To add your land opportunity or land need, register for free at www.practicalfarmers.org/findafarmer. Funding for this website is provided by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDADA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843 and Wallace Genetic Foundation.

Founded in 1985, Practical Farmers of Iowa is an open, supportive and diverse organization of farmers and friends of farmers, advancing profitable, ecologically sound and community-enhancing approaches to agriculture through farmer-to-farmer networking, farmer-led investigation and information sharing. Farmers in our network produce corn, soybeans, beef cattle, hay, fruits and vegetables, and more. For additional information, call 515.232.5661 or visit www.practicalfarmers.org.