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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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An introduction to SILT - Sustainable Iowa Land Trust
In November 2017, John Wittrig and his family in Washington County made Iowa history. They created the state’s first agricultural conservation easement that permanently protects 130 acres of their farm for sustainable food production. They did it with the help of an innovative Iowa land trust organization – the Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT).
Why “SILT?” Because the land trust’s founders knew that when Iowa’s rich, fertile topsoil stays where it belongs, on farms that are managed with truly sustainable farming practices, it grows great food. It’s only when Iowa’s great soils are allowed to wash and blow away that it becomes the muck at the bottom of our rivers and lakes.
SILT grew out of a meeting that was held in December 2014. Some of the best minds in Iowa’s sustainable agriculture community gathered in Perry, IA to solve a problem: How to protect our farms so that beginning farmers and family farmers could grow healthy food today, and for future generations.
The group developed a short list of core objectives:
- Provide access to land for beginning farmers
- Support local food production, especially in the face of a changing climate
- Building and enhancing Iowa’ most precious resource: our soil
- Ensure the future of the family farm
- Protect and enhance the health of rural communities
- Create the best outcome for the current massive transition happening in agricultural land ownership
- Ensure food security for our growing communities
- Reverse the trend of expanding cities eating up prime farmland
Iowa imports nearly 90 percent of its food while exporting nearly everything we grow, leaving us stuck with a lot of waste. Hog manure, poor soil fertility, limited and polluted water supplies, and rancid air harm urban and rural communities alike. SILT works to promote economic independence among the Iowa farm workforce while protecting the land and environment that feeds us.
SILT’s Mission is to secure, preserve and steward threatened farmland, ensuring that future generations of farmers have access to Iowa land and can produce healthy food for the long term, in the most sustainable ways possible. SILT aims for an Iowa that is sustained by wholesome food grown on community-based farms.
What does SILT farming look like?
- SILT farmers spend their profits in their local communities.
- SILT farmers grow healthy, nutritious food to feed us locally and regionally.
- SILT farmers treat our land like the public resource it is.
- SILT farms contribute to cleaner water and less polluted air, to healthier soils that stay in place, and to chemical-free vegetables and grains, promoting regenerative sustainable agriculture.
SILT’s approach takes land speculation and mortgage interest out of the equation for future healthy food farmers. SILT’s work includes providing affordable land access to farms near markets for fruit and vegetable farmers. Through donations, land grants, reserved life estates, and more, SILT is actively protecting Iowa farmland and the families who care for it. This brings all of us closer to a secure, healthy food production system for the future, providing more fresh food in our communities, clean water, fresh air, and healthy soils.
