{"id":5657,"date":"2015-11-12T10:37:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T14:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=5657"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:48:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:48:05","slug":"when-landowners-invest-in-sustainability-everyone-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2015\/11\/12\/when-landowners-invest-in-sustainability-everyone-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"When landowners invest in sustainability, everyone wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"19007_Aerial<\/a>Forty percent of the U.S. is taken up by farmland. Yet only half of these acres are actually owned by active farmers. In the Corn Belt, 70 percent of growers rent some portion of their land from a non-farming landlord. And the biggest growth in non-farming landowners is coming from investors that see farmland ownership as a good business opportunity.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the problem: non-farming landlords aren\u2019t always informed on the best ways to care for the farm, which can present environmental and economic challenges for tenants and the owners themselves.<\/p>\n

As more non-farmers buy up cropland, government agencies, organizations, and even the private sector will need to ramp up efforts to educate landowners on the importance of soil health, fertilizer efficiency, and other conservation measures in protecting their farm\u2019s value and making the land more resilient to extreme weather events.<\/p>\n

Non-farming landowners can be a powerful partner in reducing agriculture\u2019s environmental footprint at scale and ensuring food productivity in the future. Plus, when landowners invest in sustainability and collaborate with those farming their lands, everyone wins \u2013 growers, landowners, consumers, and the planet.<\/p>\n

Who owns the land?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non-farming landowners might be corporations, investment firms or individuals \u2013 with the biggest growth coming from investors. The Oakland Institute estimated that up to $10 billion in institutional capital is looking at farmland. In a survey of fund managers, farmland was the second most popular investment category<\/a>. The retirement asset firm TIAA-CREF, for example, owns over 1 million farm acres.<\/p>\n

Despite increased investor interest, the most common non-farming landowner is still an individual, and oftentimes a retired or widowed woman. In Iowa, a woman 75 years or older owns one\u00a0in 10 acres of farmland.<\/p>\n

Ramping up educational efforts<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"19009_Field<\/a>There are several resources and successful\u00a0models that can be replicated at scale in order to engage landowners in conservation efforts, in collaboration with those farming the land.<\/p>\n

Women Caring for the Land<\/a>, a group that supports female non-farming landowners interested\u00a0in conservation, \u00a0says landowners are crucial for conservation efforts in the Midwest. To spread the word on conservation, they hold\u00a0forums on basic soil and water management, government-sponsored conservation programs, succession planning, and critical farm management skills. So far, nearly 1,000 women have participated in these forums, and more than half have taken action to improve soil and water conservation on their farmland.<\/p>\n

Other great resources include Land for Good\u2019s Toolbox for Leasing Farmland<\/a>, which is focused on New England but has implications for landowners across the country. There\u2019s also the Farmland Information Center (FIC), a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the American Farmland Trust. The FIC offers a variety of resources about stewardship for non-farming landowners such as the Landowner\u2019s Guide to Sustainable Farm Leasing.<\/a><\/p>\n

Replication <\/strong><\/p>\n

By making investments in conservation and encouraging their renters to use sustainable practices, landowners can be important partners in conservation. But these landowners also have a responsibility to utilize existing resources and educate themselves on how best to care for the land. Doing so is\u00a0good for the farm\u2019s property value \u2013 and for future generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forty percent of the U.S. is taken up by farmland. Yet only half of these acres are actually owned by active farmers. In the Corn Belt, 70 percent of growers rent some portion of their land from a non-farming landlord. And the biggest growth in non-farming landowners is coming from investors that see farmland ownership …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3619,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[234,56,75641,42756,71687,63845,40298,40288,897,71637,84712,84714,61056,413,84713],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture-tag","tag-conservation","tag-cropland","tag-farmers","tag-farmland","tag-food-production","tag-investment","tag-iowa","tag-landowners","tag-nutrient-efficiency","tag-oakland-institute","tag-property-value","tag-soil-health","tag-sustainability","tag-tenants"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3619"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15559,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5657\/revisions\/15559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5657"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}