Preserving Farmland for Biodynamic and Organic Cultivation

Yggdrasil Land Foundation--A Land Trust--and its Associates

 

 

Yggdrasil Land Foundation, together  with its associates, the Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association (BDA), the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI), and RSF Social Finance (RSF), work to develop and preserve organic farmland.

 

Loss of Prime Agricultural Land

 

In the U.S., from the 1980's to the late 1990's, the rate at which prime agricultural land was taken over for commercial development increased by 51%.  By 2007, the U.S. was losing 1.2 million acres each year.

 

Farms Across the Country

 

Yggdrasil, with headquarters in San Francisco,  now is helping preserve farms across the country, from the East Coast (New Hampshire), the Mid-West (Wisconsin), to the West (California). 

 

Yggdrasil partners with the Michael Fields Institute of East Troy, Michigan, that both conducts agricultural research and education in sustainable farming, and with RSF Social Finance, that, as its name implies, helps fund sustainable farming ventures.

 

Michael Fields Institute holds about 25 workshops a year attracting hundred of farmers, as well as urban residents interested in sustainable farming practices.

 

Example of a Gift of Farmland

 

Recently, as reported by the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, October 29, 2013, a 92-year-old woman, Betty Phelps Refior, has donated her 226 acre farm to the Michael Fields Institute.  The prime acreage located in the heart of Indiana's corn and soybean country, about 10 miles from Peru, Indiana, has been in her family since 1887.

 

 

The Dying of Bees Convinced Her

 

 

In 2010,Refior heard about bees dying.  Her land had been cultivated in conventional ways but she decided that she wanted her land to be a place where farmers and urban people could come to learn about the environment and how to protect the land for future generations.

 

Although it will take three years to convert the farm to a point where it can become certified as organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Institute plans for the 226 acres to become a model to show how farmers can transition to organic agriculture.

 

May this triumvirate:

 

The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening  Association

The Michael Fields Agricultural Institute

and

RSF Social Finance

 

Continue to Foster and Prosper

 

Farmlands in America!

 

 

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Preserving Land for Organic Farming in Perpetuity

The Yggdrasil Land Foundation

 

 

The Yggdrasil Land Foundation is a non-profit organization, based in San Francisco, California, dedicated to preserving biodynamic and organic farmland.  Yggdrasil works with landowners who desire to sell or donate their property to offer long-term farming opportunities to families and community groups.

 

Today, Yggdrasil, incorporated in 2000 as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization,  owns over 400 acres, managed by organic and biodynamic farmers in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and California.

 

Preserving Farmland for the Future

 

Yggdrasil works to counteract the trend of prime agricultural land being converted to commercial development.  From the early 1980s to the late 1990s, this conversion rate increased by 51%.  As of 2007, the U.S. was losing 1.2 million acres every year.

 

Details Provided

 

The Yggdrasil website describes in detail the legal and commercial details a seller or donor may encounter.  For example:

 

Yggdrasil aims to preserve farmland through acquisition and donation of land and easement as well as provide educational resources and workshops on preservation methods.

 

Yggdrasil utilizes diverse Preservation Methods to protect sustainable agricultural lands.  If you are interested in having Yggdrasil own and steward your land in perpetuity you can choose to sell outright or donate, and we will locate a long-term farm steward to care for the land. 

 

 If you would like to keep the land in private ownership, but preserve its conservation values you can choose to sell or donate a conservation easement.  Funding for purchasing or conservation easements must be cultivated and raised to provide fair market value compensation.  Landowners can assist this process by making outright or partial donations of land or conservation easements.

 

 

May this model lead the way

 

 

toward land preservation

 

 

for organic farming

 

 

throughout the nation!

 

 

 

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