The Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) is cultivating a network of producers of all kinds to build resilient farms and communities.
Working across the state of Iowa, PFI supports farmer-led research and education, offers personalized assistance to help farmers reach their goals, and conducts communication and outreach.
Through this work, PFI aims to broaden their big tent, with an emphasis on diversifying the state’s agriculture system. “We are an ag state: 72 percent of our land is in farmland. Yet we import more than 90 percent of the food that we eat ourselves,” Sally Worley, Executive Director of PFI tells Food Tank.
Worley explains that they have seen a lack of research and investment in farmers interested in growing cover crops, small grains, and “fruit and vegetable table food.”
“Over the years, as the focus was on efficiency, our landscape in Iowa has really gotten away from diversity [and moved] more toward just a couple of staple crops,” Worley tells Food Tank. “So we’re working really hard to diversify our landscape.”
Worley says that incorporating new crops can help farmers decrease the inputs needed to control weeds and pests or boost fertility. And, she adds, “having more market diversity for a farmer helps create more resilience for their income streams. So if they have a failed corn crop or soybean crop…the less total failure is likely.”
PFI is also looking to support young and beginning farmers by focusing on issues of land access. According to a survey from the National Young Farmers Coalition, the majority of young farmers report that it is very or extremely challenging to find affordable land.
“Land access and land transfer are really big deals, really across the country but definitely in Iowa where we have an aging landowner population and more than half of our ground that is farmed is owned by non-operators,” Worley says.
To encourage land transfer, PFI engages with non-operators—people who own the land, but do not farm it themselves—to educate them on “the power” they have as well as “the opportunities that they have to do good with the influence that they have.”
Listen to the full conversation with Sally Worley on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg,” to learn more about ways PFI is helping farmers diversify their farms and increase market access, the organization’s hopes for the upcoming Farm Bill, and their vision for growth to support Iowa’s producers.
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Photo courtesy of Jonas Weckschmied, Unsplash
