Table 12. Iroquois Valley Farms
Company Description: Iroquois Valley Farms LLC is a food and farmland company making impact investments in local and organic agriculture following triple bottom line principles. Formed in 2007, Iroquois Valley Farms was the first socially responsible farmland company in the United States focused on supporting sustainable food production and the mid-size family farmer. Iroquois Valley Farms is committed to preserving farmland, facilitating organic land management practices, supporting local food markets, providing land access opportunities to family farmers and creating values-based agriculture investment opportunities. Offering a uniquely corporate and indefinitely scalable opportunity to benefit from the production of healthy and nutritious foods, the Company has purchased over 2,100 acres of farmland, all of which is certified organic or in transition to organic production. The owned farmland is leased through long term tenancies to farmers that are independently operating their own family farm business. Corporate revenues and profitability are directly connected to the growing businesses of these farmers.
Iroquois Valley Farms has adopted corporate ownership as the most generationally focused, indefinitely scalable and democratically governed structure suitable to its vision of permanently impacting sustainable agriculture. Embodied in this vision are the following seven guiding principles:
• Enable the next generation of young farmers to positively impact the world.
• Farm with healthy, humane and organic practices without GMOs, toxic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, synthetic fertilizers or other harmful chemicals.
• Keep the farmers on the land by indefinitely renewing their leases and preferentially selling to the farm tenant. Members trade “stock”, not land.
• Grow a grass roots capital base, reaching thousands of like-minded investors concerned about the health of people, the planet and financial stability.
• Transition traditional investment capital from conventional trading and extractive practices to renewable and regenerative uses.
• Maintain a democratically governed enterprise enabling both members and farmers to enjoy a stable and profitable return on their farming investment.
• Protect farmland.
Investor: Kevin Egolf