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PEOPLE 1 TO WATCH SUZAN EREM
Suzan Erem is executive director of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust. Protecting Capturing how COVID-19 has changed our lives land for growing ‘table food’
Donnelle Eller Des Moines Register USA TODAY NETWORK
Suzan Erem imagines an Iowa where people can walk or bike a few blocks to their local farm to buy the lo- cally raised fruits, vegetables and meat they need to feed their families. Erem's group, Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, is working to make that idea a reality. The eastern Iowa nonprofit, called SILT, has outlined an ambitious plan to raise $3 million over the next three years to protect farm acreage around nearly a dozen Iowa cities and towns. The group will provide beginning farmers with low-cost land reserved exclusively for sustainable agriculture, where they can raise healthy food that KELSEY KREMER/THE REGISTER supplies the kitchens of local families, schools and restaurants. "We import nearly 90% of our food “OK, friends,” music teacher Jordan Leckban says at 9:45 a.m. Dec. 8, as he starts to Iowa," said Erem, who helped start to play his guitar and sing “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” to his virtual Windsor SILT five years ago and serves as its ex- ecutive director. But "just imagine our Elementary School students in Des Moines. Leckban has moved items around his cities being surrounded by these little room — including the upright piano — to make sure that everything he needs for h See EREM, Page 10A class is within arm’s reach of his desk. For nearly 24 hours that day, reporters and photographers roamed the state to chronicle the ways COVID-19 has changed life in Iowa. h From small deviations to completely upended days, these photos
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pockets of farms ... so that as they ex- pand and grow, we're feeding our- selves." Erem has been chosen as one of the Des Moines Register's 15 People To Watch in 2021. Stuart Valentine, a Fairfield invest- ment adviser who is SILT's board presi- dent, said protecting some Iowa farm- land for local growers adds to the state's "food resiliency." Experts say interest in community- supported agriculture, where families pay a fee to get fresh fruit, vegetables and meat from local growers and live- stock producers, has spiked after food supply disruptions tied to the coronavi- rus. Consumers shopping for every- thing from eggs to hamburger have run into empty shelves. It's helped families realize how vul- nerable the food supply chain is, Valen- tine said. "Taking a sliver of productive farmland and repositioning it for do- mestic food" production "makes a lot of sense," he said.
Cost of land a major issue for food Suzan Erem, executive director of the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, works at a farm near Morse in Johnson County on growers, especially beginners Tuesday. JOSEPH CRESS/IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN
Access to affordable land for people to grow food is a significant challenge in faces — so it's economically feasible for Farmers face having 'debt for life' Meet Suzan Erem Iowa, where three-fourths of the rough- local growers to raise produce and meat ly 30 million acres of farmland is used to for their neighbors. The conservation easements SILT AGE: 57 grow corn and soybeans. These row Iowa farmland is selling for an aver- uses to help landowners protect their LIVES: Rural Cedar County in eastern crops, often grown on ever-bigger farms age of $7,559 an acre this year, an Iowa land limit the use of the farms to grow- Iowa. to increase efficiency, feed cows, pigs, State University survey shows, but can ing "table food" sustainably, preventing chickens and other livestock and are easily fetch about $10,000. During a pe- it from being used for conventional row- EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in journalism turned into ethanol and biodiesel that riod of record corn and soybean prices cropping or being developed for com- and English, University of Iowa, 1985. fuel the nation's cars and trucks. in 2012, some Iowa farmland sold for mercial or residential use, Erem said. CAREER: Founder and executive The crops are processed into food $20,000 or more an acre. SILT can provide the protection re- director of the Sustainable Iowa Land and provide power for families across Already, SILT has protected about gardless of whether owners remain on Trust; managing editor and publisher of the nation and globe. But they don't end 1,100 acres, using conservation ease- the land, donate it to the group or decide Voices of Central Pennsylvania; opinion up directly in Iowans' fridges for dinner. ments and land donations to perma- to sell it, she said. The group checks an- page editor, Iowa City Press-Citizen; SILT and Erem's plan would expand nently ensure its use by farmers to raise nually to guarantee the land is farmed communications director, Service on the agrihoods that developers are be- healthy food for their neighbors. sustainably. Employees International Union, Local ginning to build in Iowa and across the Lyle Luzum and his wife, Sue, sold If the land is donated to SILT, the 73. U.S., pairing new housing with working their 170 acres between Calmar and group provides long-term discounted farms that supply food to the communi- Decorah to SILT for about 20% of its $1.1 leases to farmers who can pass them FAMILY: Married to Paul Durrenberger, ty and development's residents. million value. It's now under one of the onto their heirs to continue to grow food professor emeritus of anthropology at Earlier this year, Linn County chose easements, and is being operated by a sustainably. Growers go through a rigor- Penn State University and the Erem and SILT to manage a 45-acre family that raises pastured livestock. ous vetting process to qualify for the University of Iowa and founder of SILT; farm that's part of its planned $120 mil- "People who want to farm and grow leases. And if they decide to end the daughter, Ayshe Yeager, 27. lion residential, retail and commercial food for us to eat have no way to get in on leases, SILT returns to them any invest- development on 180 acres east of Cedar that land, unless we provide it," Luzum ments they have made in buildings. Rapids. said. So far, the organization has protected Key to Erem and SILT's work is driv- "Access to land is dependent upon 13 farms in Iowa, said Erem, who started ing down the cost of land — one of the whether you were born right. That's dis- biggest roadblocks any Iowa farmer turbing," he said. Continued on next page
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Continued from previous page the group after meeting six years ago with 25 people focused on local food de- velopment, soil and water health and rural revitalization. A land trust emerged as the best way to lower land costs, said Erem, who con- siders the group SILT's founders. Young farmers "don't want to pay a million dol- lars to walk onto a piece of land and go into debt for the rest of their lives, all so they can work 17-hour days to try to grow food for their customers," she said. "We're just trying to level the playing field a little bit, give them a chance to get access to the land," she said. It's an arrangement that's worked well for Adrian White and Will Lorent- zen, who operate Jupiter Ridge Farm near Garber, northwest of Dubuque, un- der a SILT lease. The couple grow doz- ens of vegetables, mushrooms and herbs. "We were thinking about buying a farm someday, but looking at the price of land, it was really steep," White said. The couple worked with the land- owner, Steve Beaumont, for a few years before he decided to donate his farm to SILT. Beaumont had built a house and a pole barn, infrastructure that helped re- duce the improvements the couple had Snow covers the ground outside a Sustainable Iowa Land Trust farm on Tuesday near Morse in Johnson County. to make. JOSEPH CRESS/IOWA CITY PRESS-CITIZEN They built space to clean, pack and store produce, some of the cost of which feeding operation — or rolled it into an look first to places like Iowa City, Cedar About ‘People to Watch’ Beaumont shared. ever-larger corn and soybean operation. Rapids, Waterloo and the Des Moines The couple sells produce at farmers' "We didn't want the farm to be swal- metro before moving into other parts of The Des Moines Register’s ”15 People to markets in Dubuque and elsewhere and lowed into a large aggregate that cares the state, she said. Watch in 2021” are movers and shakers, to restaurants and families through nothing about conservation," said Lu- A developer already has plans for an givers and doers. They were chosen by subscriptions across eastern Iowa. zum, whose father was among the area's agrihood south of Des Moines as part of newsroom staff from scores of reader "SILT has been a huge help for us," earliest adopters of conservation prac- a $260 million, 400-acre residential, and staff nominations. Their stories will White said. "Our first few years, we've tices, building terraces on the farm's commercial and retail development. appear in the Register through Jan. 3. been in the black. steep hills to stop erosion. And Erem said SILT also is talking with "It's been a little bit of luck, a lot of SILT "allowed us to give someone a some developers in Polk County about hard work and finding a good opportu- shot at living on a farm who otherwise the agrihood concept. onto bigger pieces of land. Erem sees it nity," like connecting with Beaumont wouldn't," he said. "You can’t wish that Erem said the group wants to protect as a little like a "business incubator for and SILT, she said, and not having into existence. You have to do some- patches of land on the edge of fast- farmers." mounds of debt while she and Lorent- thing." growing metro areas, where commercial Dave Swenson, an Iowa State Univer- zen get started has been critical. Luzum's daughter supported the and residential development drive up sity economist, said produce and live- sale. Some families want to know that prices. It's also the best place for local stock farms have the best shot at profit- Owners get option for 'ensuring "the legacy of the land will carry on in a growers to connect with residents. ability when they're located near heavi- the legacy of the land' responsible, environmentally friendly "The community can grow around it," ly populated areas. way that will help future generations," she said. "Then we have an opportunity "Three million dollars doesn't buy a Luzum said that as he and his wife Erem said. for more and more people to see what a lot of Iowa farmland, but it does perhaps got older, they had few options for his fresh tomato tastes like. And get that create the start of what could be a move- family's nearly 150-year-old farm. The Another possible twist: 'A nutritional value." ment of land preservation," said Swen- couple offered it to their daughter, who business incubator for farmers' Erem said SILT is weighing using the son, who was a SILT board member un- considered moving her family to the Cedar Rapids agrihood — and potential- til last year. farm but decided against it. Establishing the farms around Iowa ly other metro area farms — as a place Donnelle Eller covers agriculture, the And they didn't want to sell it to the cities and towns, a program SILT calls where several farmers can have access environment and energy for the Regis- highest bidder, who likely would have "Circle Our Cities," will likely take a dec- to low-cost land, equipment and build- ter. Reach her at deller@registerme- used it for a CAFO — confined animal ade, Erem said. The group expects to ings while they save so they can move dia.com or 515-284-8457.
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