By Wren Almitra

If you haven’t had an opportunity to see in person the thought-provoking play, Map of My Kingdom, or want to view it again, you now have the opportunity to see it at home. Thanks to playwright Mary Swander and AgArts you can purchase and watch the production with family and friends on DVD or by download. Though I highly recommend finding a live show to attend (you can see upcoming shows here), I am excited that there is an opportunity to get the play more widely viewed, helping further inspire conversations about farmland transition.

You can purchase your own copy from Mary Swander (details below). Consider hosting a movie night with your family or community members who may be working through farm transition questions (be sure to have some Iowa-grown popcorn on hand for maximum viewing experience).

The play will undoubtedly generate many questions, including those surrounding how and where to get started with transitioning your family’s land. There are a number of resources and legal experts available to help answer these sometimes difficult questions and guide your conversations. See below for links to a few of these suggested resources.

                                                                                       Playwright Mary Swander and actress Elizabeth Thompson at the play premiere, Scattergood Friends School, 2014. Photo credit, Practical Farmers of Iowa. 

More about the play from a recent press release:

The play was originally commissioned by Practical Farmers of Iowa and the video made possible from a grant by the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust. The video stars Cora Vander Broek, a professional Los Angeles-based actor, giving a masterful performance before a live audience at Northwestern College in Orange City, IA.

In the play, character Angela Martin, a lawyer and mediator in land transition disputes, shares stories of how farmers and landowners have approached their land transitions. Some families struggled to resolve the sale or transfer of their land, dissolving relationships. Others found peacefully rational solutions that focused on keeping the land – and the family – together.

The USDA’s most recent survey of farmland ownership predicts more than 140 million acres of farmland in the United states will transition in the next four years. Fifty-six percent of Iowa farmland is owned by people over the age of 65, according to a report by retired Iowa State University economist Mike Duffy, “Farmland Ownership and Tenure Report in Iowa 2012”. Thoughtful transition will not only help keep farmers on the land but enhance long-range social and ecological benefits, from support of the fabric of small towns and schools, to wildlife habitat, flood control, and carbon sequestration.

The Map of my Kingdom DVD can be purchased or downloaded from Mary Swander’s website:  http://www.maryswander.com. To book a live performance, contact: swanderplays@gmail.com.

More information about Practical Farmers of Iowa and farmland transition, including suggested Iowa based mediator’s, can be found at: http://www.practicalfarmers.org/farmtransfer.

For additional estate planning resources, viewers may want to contact the Iowa Bar Association.

The Land Stewardship Project has a toolkit for farmland transition. More at http://landstewardshipproject.org/morefarmers/farmtransitiontools/farmtransitionstoolkit.

More information about AgArts, a non-profit designed to image and promote healthy food systems through the arts can be found at: http://www.agarts.org.

By Wren Almitra

2016 has been chock-full of great Women, Land & Legacy Learning Sessions (educational and networking events) across the state. The year kicked-off with our southwest WLL team providing a culinary gathering at Sauced in Red Oak, IA where participants got to learn about farm-to-table and using home-grown produce and herbs in their cooking. The Des Moines/Louisa team sponsored the highly rated play, Map of My Kingdom, which explores the dynamic and often difficult conversations Iowa families face in making decisions about farm transition. Meanwhile, the Iowa Co. and the Buena Vista/Pocahontas teams each brought speakers in to discuss grain marketing.

The spring saw programming on edible landscaping in Jackson Co., a Women, Land & Legacy webinar hosted by Iowa Learning Farms, a pollinators meeting in Cerro Gordo Co., and a soil health meeting in Mitchell Co., which was a collaboration of the Mitchell Co. WLL team and the Women, Food & Ag. Network’s Women Caring for the Land program.

Summer was ripe with WLL programming, with an all-day conference on legacy planning in Iowa Co., a tour of Red Earth gardens as well as workshops on farm safety and cover crops in Tama Co., and healthcare finances in Winnebego/Worth counties, among many others. The season wrapped-up with the 2^nd annual Johnson Co. WLL Farm Crawl.

Finally, three new teams, Calhoun/Sac counties, Madison Co. and Dubuque Co., formally joined WLL with their first event, a Listening Session, while Palo Alto and Emmet counties formed their local team and are making plans for their Listening Session for winter 2017.

In short, 2016 has been a busy year for Women, Land & Legacy, with our local teams reaching over 1,000 participants through 30 state-wide events! In addition to the information learned at these events, women were able to network with other women in their communities, connect with agencies that can provide assistance and resources for their farm decisions, and engage in a huge effort to empower women involved in agriculture and land stewardship. There are still several opportunities in 2016 to participate in a local event near you. Check our events calendar and please stay tuned for another year of great women-powered outreach across Iowa in 2017!

If you haven’t seen it yet, please read our August edition of the Women, Land & Legacy quarterly newsletter, Rural Legacy. In it you can meet members of the WLL State Team, read about how to become a Soil and Water Commissioner, learn about the Women, Food & Ag. Network’s upcoming annual conference, and see what’s going on with WLL state-wide. Enjoy!

Archived newsletters can be found at: https://womenlandandlegacy.wordpress.com/newsletters/.

On April 20^th Iowa Learning Farms hosted a Women, Land & Legacy (WLL) webinar. WLL State Team members Tanya Meyer-Diderikson and Wren Almitra covered the history, state and local level roles and efforts, and how to get involved with the program. To view the presentation, click here. To learn more about getting involved with Women, Land & Legacy e-mail Wren Almitra, WLL Coordinator.

Iowa Learning Farms hosts monthly webinars on a range of topics from soil health to nutrient management to agricultural economics among many other topics. To watch archived webinars from the past several years, click here.

Cerro Gordo County Extension, along with Cerro Gordo County NRCS, FSA, Soil & Water Conservation District, and Farm Bureau, held a Women, Land & Legacy‌ Discussion Meeting on Thursday, March 31, 2016. Free supper and registration was from 5:30-6 pm followed by the program from 6-8 pm. The program about her book, “Like a Haystack,” was presented by Margaret Grguric Smolik. Margaret writes and presents on surviving life in mid-twentieth-century Europe. The program was free and open to all women involved with farming. 31 people were in attendance.

More about Margaret and her work can be found at: http://roots.traces.org/margaret-grguric-smolik

Two programs – Women, Land & Legacy and Women Caring for the land – are different in origin and focus, but identical in their goal: empowering women to become decision-makers about their farms.

Here are some of the main similarities and differences between these two successful programs.

Women, Land and Legacy:

• created in 2004, Women, Land & Legacy is a USDA program                             coordinated through the Women, Food & Ag. Network since 2014.
• uses a “listening and learning sessions” model designed by the WLL State Team, giving agricultural women in Iowa the opportunity to inform agencies of their needs, network with other local women, and learn about farm-related topics.
• led, funded, and driven at the county level by “local team” leaders who develop learning sessions based on input from local women.
• currently includes 18 local teams in 24 Iowa counties, each providing continuous programming with 1 to 4 events every year.
• supported by a state team, including a project coordinator who has been managed and paid through WFAN since 2014. The state team supports new and existing teams with guidance and resources and promotes the program.
• Produces Rural Legacy, a quarterly newsletter highlighting WLL and other agricultural news statewide.

Women Caring for the Land:

• created in 2007 by the Women, Food & Ag. Network to provide conservation information to female non-operator landowners.
• based on a peer-to-peer “learning circles” model designed by WFAN staff and Dr. Jean Eells of E Resources Group.
• brings together groups of women landowners with female resource professionals to share information and support on conservation topics.
• field-tested in Iowa, now operating in 8 upper Midwest states and soon Kentucky (beginning in 2016).
• funded through grants and presented in partnership with local hosts such as the USDA NRCS, local soil and water districts, and state departments of agriculture and natural resources.
• usually includes one meeting in each community.
• publishes Patchwork newsletter twice a year, offering information and profiles for women landowners about conservation topics.

Note that these programs are not exclusive of one another. Women Caring for the Land meetings have occurred in active Women, Land & Legacy counties and Women, Land & Legacy teams have formed after a Women Caring for the Land meeting.

For more information about both programs, visit http://www.wfan.org/our-programs/women-landowner-outreach or womenlandandlegacy.org.

By email, contact stateteam@womenlandandlegacy.org (WLL), or info@wfan.org (WCL).

 

Enjoy the latest edition of Rural Legacy, the quarterly newsletter of Women, Land & Legacy, filled with all things WLL and more!

Hint: on pg. 1, click on any of the article titles in the “In this Issue” box to be taken directly to that article.

Archived newsletters can be found at: https://womenlandandlegacy.wordpress.com/newsletters/.

Thanks for reading!

Welcome to Wren Almitra, our new Women, Land and Legacy Coordinator! WFAN is thrilled to have Wren on our staff to help strengthen and grow Women, Land and Legacy.

Prior to working with WFAN, Wren worked with the Johnson County Soil and Water Conservation District in Iowa as the Rapid Creek Watershed Coordinator. While in that position she served on the Johnson County Women, Land and Legacy team for two years. As the WLL State Coordinator, Wren will work with county-based teams who provide educational and networking meetings and events for women landowners and farmers. Meetings range from financial planning, on-farm conservation, and tool use and maintenance, among many others.

Women, Land and Legacy is a USDA program coordinated through WFAN, and it was established in 2004 to help fill a void of information on farm management available to women landowners and farmers. The program helps agricultural women come together to converse, listen and become empowered to act on their landscape and in their community. Through small group dialogue and focused conversation processes, Iowa agricultural women are given the opportunity to inform agencies and organizations of their strengths and needs and what specific outreach strategies would serve them best.

For questions or comments about Women, Land and Legacy please contact Wren Almitra, wren@wfan.org. For questions about WFAN and its programs please contact Bridget Holcomb, info@wfan.org.

The Rural Legacy newsletter is now available. Just click on the newsletter tab above. We have exciting news to share! Plus it is full of news from around the state from over the last quarter plus events coming up.

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving!