From the Blog
SILT Launches Circling Our Cities Campaign
This year, the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust launched its campaign to circle 10 Iowa cities with 10 permanent, sustainable table food farms in 10 years.
Iowa currently imports 90 percent of our food.
Circling Our Cities will make us a much more resilient state in the face of climate change and political upheaval across the globe.
Why permanent farms?
Land access is the number one obstacle for beginning farmers.
Iowa land costs 20 times more than it did 20 years ago!
When landowners attach to their deed a voluntary agreement that dedicates their land to nature-friendly food farming, the cost goes down by about 40 percent for the next buyer!
SILT is removing a tiny percentage of land from the market for housing development and conventional commodity crops and reserving it just for healthy food farming.
It's an elegant solution.
Every acre we protect represents an acre of local food security, cleaner water and air, higher surrounding land values and affordable land for the food farmers - it's a quadruple win!
“We're so pleased to announce New Pioneer Co-op was our first Partner to sign up under our relaunched Corporate Partners Program this year.”
Suzan Erem of SILT said.
“Supporting local food producers and local farmers is part of New Pioneer’s DNA.”
Amy Hospodarsky of New Pioneer said.
“The Work that SILT does to preserve and protect Iowa’s farmland is foundational in ensuring that we continue to have a strong local food Eco structure here in Central Iowa and across the state. Our shared values and vision are a perfect fit, and we are proud to support them in their work by becoming a corporate partner.”
“When institutions like New Pi partner with impact organizations like SILT,” Erem said, “we multiply the good work we both do.”
If you know a company that would like to partner with SILT, please have them contact SILT about their corporate partners program.
New Pioneer Food Co-op
New Pi is a food co-operative, owned by over 35,000 members, home-grown in Iowa. We welcome everyone to our store, regardless of membership, and focus on local and sustainable food solutions. New Pi has strong roots in Iowa City’s local food community, and continues to partner with local growers, food, and sustainability organizations to enrich Linn and Johnson County communities.