“This Felt Really Hard” – Obstacles to Perennial Adoption for Non-Operating Landowners

It is estimated that between a third and a half of the farmland in the Midwest is owned by people who don’t do the farming themselves, who are commonly known as non-operating landowners.

Nonoperating landowners often have a very different mindset or perspective than farmers. They have different motivations and concerns. They may not live near their farmland, and may only see it a few times of year. The land may be owned collectively by a large group of people, who have to make decisions together and may not always get along with each other. They may not even be aware that they have alternative options when it comes to how their land is managed.

But ultimately, non-operating landowners control huge amounts of farmland in the Midwest, and understanding their motivations and concerns will be key to increasing the adoption of perennial agriculture on the landscape. 

For a while now, I’ve been trying to find a way to dig into this issue on the Perennial AF podcast. And I found it, thanks to my friend Alex. I’ve known Alex for a long time, and I’ve even visited her family’s farmland south of Madison, Wisconsin, which has been rented for many years to a row-crop farmer. The farm is managed as a C corporation, with 30-some family members as the separate shareholders. 

For the past few years, Alex’s family has been trying to shift their farm in a more perennial direction, and in the latest episode of the Perennial AF podcast, we hear about the many hurdles and road blocks they’ve faced.