IN SPORTS | SECTION B Cyclones’ Missed late rally shots falls short doom in Big 12 Iowa vs. title game Gonzaga SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2020 | THE NEWS IOWA DEPENDS UPON | DESMOINESREGISTER.COM K1 PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK Des Moines Register - 12/20/2020 Page : A001 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 COVID-19 CLIMATE RACIAL INJUSTICE December 20, 2020 1:43 pm (GMT -6:00) SPORTS Powered by TECNAVIA POLITICS MOMENTS OF LEVITY and stories show how Iowans are shouldering difficulties and celebrating joys.h 2020 THE YEAR INSIDE IN PHOTOS Des Moines Register SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2020 SUBSCRIBER-EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL SECTION Through it all, Iowa Endures. 2020 The 8-PAGE SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE Year in Seth Harrison Rockland/Westchester Journal News USA TODAY NETWORK A woman joins protesters at New York City’s Union Photos Square May 30 to demand an end to police violence after the death of George As we enjoy this holiday season, we stop and appreciate those who make a difference in our lives. Thank you to our customers, employees and this wonderful community for over 75 years of business! Iowa State Bank...still really good at the things that count. Iowa Life follows Opinion pages Weather Volume 172 | Issue 153 Needled by the people: Warp Speed Home delivery pricing inside Today’s Iowa Life section is on pages High 38° | Low 30° Subscribe 877-424-0225 general takes blame for reduced vaccine 6-10OP, following the Opinion pages. Mostly sunny ©2020 $3.00 QEAJAB-15001v 3D allocations, explains to states. Today’s TV schedule is on Page 9OP. Forecast, 2C ABC Des Moines10A | RegisterSUNDAY, DECEMBER - 12/20/2020 20, 2020 | DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER Page : A010 Erem Continued from Page 1A 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 FA-LA-LA-LA- LA-LA-YOU- TO HEALTH, CAN-QUIT HAPPINESS AND AVAILABILITY. 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