From Smallholder to Shareholder

Since local farmers are the back-bone of I/O’s organization, the project is actively recruiting farmers who have  Land Trusts to join our co-creative and distributed research park. Interested local farmers who don’t have a Land Trust are also encouraged to join. Our methodology is simple. In partnership with I/O, local farmers lend their field to us for a period of two triennial growing seasons and three consecutive winter seasons. We provide the seed, and local farmers grow the oats. The oats are winter-killed with a cover crop of red clover in the first winter season, then grown to harvest the following spring. A second planting can occur in the fall, field permitting. I/O provides the market for the oats through our own branding via FarmLead. Local farmers are compensated for any lost or unsaleable crop. The current corn/soy rotation is still permissible in the following two seasons. Farmers are asked to record and submit data on these growing seasons as well. During the oat growing seasons, I/O monitors the field conditions remotely in order effectively to retrieve data about in situ climatic variations and growing irregularities. Local farmers, if they desire, contribute to the I/O’s work throughout the enterprise: at the Danforth Plant Science in genetic sequencing workshops and job training, through product development, and in the development of management strategies. We want the farmers of today, and future farmers, equipped to handle the crops and climate of tomorrow.


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