Agrarian Trust

Land Gifting Gets a Head Start in Iowa

The Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT), just out of the gates is revolutionizing the was Iowans look at the land.

From SILT:

You may not know which neighbor has been thinking about the transfer of their land to the next generation, but help us hold social gatherings or speak at a scheduled event and see who turns up. You could end up with a beautiful, diverse food farm closer to home than you could imagine and protected in perpetuity from development and commodity crops.

Here are the most recent land offers we’re exploring, many of which came out of (SILT) meetings:

  • 14 acres in Central Iowa woven through a small development. Could easily accommodate a local food farmer less than an hour’s drive from Des Moines,
  • 15 acres near Decorah, a city with a long tradition of local food love.
  • 20 acres near Adel – part timber and part tillable – a great location for market farming.
  • 9 acres in West Des Moines with a house. Could we be so lucky? This one is a wait-and-see.
  • 30 acres near Council Bluffs/Omaha are already set up for rotational grazing and offering free rent and living quarters, a new tractor and great outbuildings for the price of doing some much-needed maintenance on the house. Interested? Contact us and we’ll see about getting you connected!

For landowners: If you or a family member have land you’d like to see in permanent, healthy food production, please take a look at SILT’s Landowners Page. You can remain on your land as long as you choose while enjoying significant tax benefits, if they apply, and the peace of mind that comes with having such important decisions settled.

So what’s bursting exactly?
Our enthusiasm, our passion…and our capacity! This overwhelming response is, well, overwhelming. So if you know generous people with deep pockets and a passion for healthy food or foundations (and grant writers) that support what we’re doing here, please connect us. Of course, we welcome donations of any size. We’ve got many ways to make it easy to make a tax deductible donation and every dollar counts.