‘This is a forever farm’: Conservation Fund helps Kane County farmer grow business while preserving farmland

Between 2017 and 2022, 16% of the farmland in Kane County disappeared.

It was part of a decline that started at the end of World War II, as the suburbs spread west and large swaths of prime crop-growing land were covered by housing and businesses.

That will not happen to the headquarters of the former Cloonlara Farm near Elburn.

If all goes according to plan, 24 acres on the northwest corner of Hughes and Bunker roads will remain farmland forever, with a permanent conservation easement, thanks to the Conservation Fund’s Working Farms Fund and local farmers Marc and Luis Bernard.

“This is a forever farm,” Marc Bernard said, showing it off two weeks ago.

The fund buys land at market value, then puts conservation easements on them. After the easement is placed, the fund sells the land to farmers at a farmland rate, which is lower than that typically paid when a site is going to be developed into other uses.

“There is just a big need for a bridge (funding),” said Emy Brawley, vice president and regional director of conservation acquisition for the fund.

The Working Farms Fund ‒ which is in the process of changing its name to just Farms Fund ‒ paid almost $2.1 million for the site, including two houses, several barns, shelters and a grain silo, in December.

The Bernards will lease the land for up to five years. Part of their rent payments will go toward a down payment. The purchase price will be determined by an appraisal close to the end of the lease.

The Bernards have been looking for several years to buy land close to their Rustic Road Farm, to stop having to rent land here and there to grow the vegetables they sell. They wanted to start raising cattle, and open a small dairy where they could make cheese and yogurt from the milk of goats they raise.

But the price of land thwarted them, because much was being sold at prices meant for development, not agricultural use.

The Conservation Fund is a Virginia-based not-for-profit organization founded in 1985. The Working Farms Fund is just one of its programs; it also invests in aquaculture programs, conservation of forests and other lands (including former Civil War battlefields).

The fund estimates that 81% of the vegetables and melons grown in the United States, 55% of eggs and poultry, and 66% of dairy are on farmland in the path of development.

The Bernards’ farm is one of four in the Chicago area in which the fund has invested; the others are Chicago Urban Farmers Solution on the South Side of Chicago, Garlic eScape in Woodstock, and Kakadoodle Farm in Matteson.

Brawley said in Illinois, for every four farmers over the age of 65, there is only one under the age of 35. “We just don’t have people coming into the sector,” she said.

Those who are entering often are first-generation farmers, without access to enough capital to buy land.

People applying to the fund also tend to want to farm differently, using environmentally sustainable practices, Brawley said. And the applicants are more diverse, with more women and people of color.

“Finding affordable acres to farm is our big challenge for our next generation of farmers,” Brawley said.

The Bernards use organic practices. Rustic Road was founded 12 years ago as a community-supported agriculture operation. It sells produce, eggs, meat and poultry, plus prepared foods such as soups, baked goods and entrees, at its farm and at several farmers markets.

The fund learned about Rustic Road Farm from Janice Hill, who runs Kane County’s farmland protection and local foods program.

Large impact investors have supplied the money for the Farm Fund.

The Bernards have moved lambs and some of the dairy goats into the new place. They have been busy fixing up a house to rent out, repairing other buildings and cleaning a swine barn.

And about two dozen Waygu cattle have moved in. They soon will start grazing on protein-rich sorghum Sudan planted this spring. The sorghum also will help rejuvenate the soil, Marc Bernard said.

Bernard envisions using one of the buildings as a packing shed; the former Lettuce Entertain You chef also is thinking about hosting private dinners, maybe putting in a wood-fired pizza oven.

And they love preserving the county’s rural heritage.

“What is Kane County going to look like as you spread west? We’ve got to save this land,” Marc Bernard said.