A farmer harvests corn late into the night last month north of Ainsworth. Photo by Sally Y. Hart

The president of a group working to preserve Iowa’s farmland met with people in Washington Thursday. Suzan Erem is the president of Sustainable Iowa Land Trust, or SILT. She shares the group’s mission is to protect land to grow healthy food. The non-profit was established earlier this year in January. The group is looking at land ownership and land use, by either the non-profit receiving donations of land or having landowners place easements on land to go with the deed – all with the goal of the land always being used to grow healthy food.

The land donated to SILT will then be farmed with lifelong leases available to young farmers, who will own the business on top of the land, but won’t have the debt associated with buying the land.

Thursday, Erem met with Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District staff and the Washington Rotary Club.