AASHE Campus Sustainability Hub

Emory University has partnering with the national non-profit The Conservation Fund (TCF) to support a diverse new generation of farmers in rural Georgia and help build the local food supply across metro Atlanta with a first-of-its-kind sustainable solution to food production needs. Through the Working Farms Fund, TCF permanently protects farmland within a 100-mile radius of Atlanta through conservation easements and leases the land to young, underrepresented, or minority farmers with a 5- or 10-year path to ownership. Emory, the largest employer in Atlanta with enormous purchasing power, has committed to purchasing the sustainably raised food from farmers entering the program. Farmers are able to use this food purchase agreement from Emory to secure traditional bank financing and a reliable customer for the food produced. The results are elimination of food waste on the fields through coordinated growing and buying between farmers and Emory, shortened transport of food for lower carbon emissions, protection of acres of greenspace permanently, and farm livelihoods to rural Georgians who have historically been denied access to land and financing. Emory benefits by having a more secure and resilient food supply with increased local food production as an adaptation measure in the face of climate change. The Emory-TCF partnership is the first of its kind in the US but is now being replicated in Chicago and potentially other metropolitan areas in the US. By focusing on underrepresented farmers, who face significant barriers to accessing affordable farmland and financing, the Working Farms Fund is designed to support next-generation farmers while boosting the supply of local, sustainable food in metro Atlanta including for Emory University and Emory Healthcare.

Climate change will bring disruptions to food supply chains, and there is growing demand for local sustainable food across the country to increase climate resilience, including at Emory University and Emory Healthcare (Emory). Despite the increasing demand, many small- to mid-sized farms surrounding metropolitan areas are at risk of being lost to development and are unaffordable to next-generation farmers. Communities in the U.S. are losing 40 acres of farmland every hour. Atlanta, like so many metropolitan areas, has populations with dire food insecurity, while losing 25% of its farmland to development in the past ten years. Meanwhile the average age of a farmer in the US is 58 and climbing, with much farmland changing hands in the next decade. With an aging farmer population, it is increasingly important to build opportunities for young farmers to enter the agriculture sector. A major barrier to entry is the high cost of farmland near metropolitan areas, driven by development prices, and many young and minority farmers lack the startup and scaling capital necessary for a successful farm business. Emory has set a goal that 75% of its food purchases will be locally and/or sustainably grown by 2025 to support local food production and local farmers, while reducing carbon emissions associated with its food procurement and building a more resilient food supply chain in the face of climate change. Currently, about 40% of food served in Emory dining halls is sourced locally and/or sustainably. Additional supplies of local sustainable food are needed to meet this 75% procurement goal, so Emory continues to seek out new local food producers to help achieve its ambitious sustainable purchasing goals. Recognizing these challenges, Emory has partnered with the national non-profit, The Conservation Fund (TCF), to develop a model program to support next generation farmers by providing capital and resources to help farmers access affordable farmland through the Working Farms Fund (WFF) and markets along with traditional financing through Food Purchase Agreements with Emory. The Working Farms Fund purchases and places a conservation easement on land around metro-Atlanta that is at-risk of development to permanently protect it as agricultural land and leases the land to farmers with a 5 to 10-year path to ownership, targeting farmers from historically underrepresented groups. The WFF provides land to underrepresented farmers, and Emory plays a integral part in ensuring the Working Farms Fund’s success by entering Food Purchase Agreements. By agreeing to purchase food from WFF farmers if grown to sustainability standards, Emory moves closer to achieving its sustainable food purchasing goals, creates a more resilient local food supply for metro-Atlanta, while simultaneously supporting next-generation farmers and land conservation in rural areas.

• Permanently protect farmland around metro Atlanta area from urban sprawl • Support sustainable farming practices for better land, water, and public health protection • Mitigate carbon emissions by building a thriving local sustainable food system with robust conservation and purchasing practices • Adapt to global climate change by ensuring a secure and resilient local food supply with next-generation farmers supported for success.
• Provide a replicable model for the rest of the country with the program already replicated in Chicago. • Support the expansion of next-generation farmers and farm businesses by securing affordable land access • Address historic discrimination and systemic racism in land, market and financing access by creating opportunities for young and historically underrepresented farmers to have reliable land access and markets for their food through long-term advance Food Purchase Agreements with Emory • Provide access to traditional financing by creating Food Purchase Agreements that can serve as collateral for bank financing for greenhouses, barns, tractors, and other large start-up capital expenses • Provide opportunities for Emory faculty and students to conduct innovative, impactful research on Work Farms Fund farms • Help Emory University meet its sustainable food goal of 75% local or sustainable food procurement by 2025

The Conservation Fund’s staff member Stacy Funderburke is spearheading the Working Farms Fund land acquisition and TCF staff member Krisztian Varsa recruits and trains farmers to support next-generation farmers while increasing the supply of local, sustainable food and protecting land from development. The Working Farms Fund is purchasing agriculturally significant land within a 100-mile radius of metro Atlanta – particularly farms that are at risk of being sold, fragmented, or redeveloped – and placing them under conservation easements to permanently protect them as farmland. The Conservation Fund selects farmers for the Working Farms Fund program based on the viability of their business, including criteria such as farming experience, markets, and business plans. The farmers are then matched with individual farm sites. Young farmers are partnered with more experienced farmers or groups of refugee farmers are brought together to cooperatively farm the WFF site. The Conservation Fund leases the land to farmers for five to ten years, after which they can purchase the land at a lower cost due to the limited market value of land that is restricted from development. The Turner Environmental Law Clinic of Emory Law School has been providing legal counsel to The Conservation Fund Ciannat Howett, AVP for Sustainability, Resilience and Economic Inclusion, in Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives developed the Food Purchase Agreement model after seeing a presentation by The Conservation Fund. She recognized an opportunity to benefit farmers in the Working Farms Fund program by having Emory enter Food Purchase Agreements with WFF farmers. The Food Purchase Agreement can serve as collateral for a traditional bank loan for farm supplies and other upfront capital costs that are essential to starting a successful farm business, such as tractors, combines, barns and greenhouses By entering into Food Purchase Agreements with Emory, the farmers are also provided a reliable market for the food they produce, reducing a great deal of the uncertainty and risk from farming. Emory, in return, ensures a future local and resilient food supply chain for its patients, students, and visitors, which is a pressing institutional risk in this time of pandemic and climate change. Emory food vendor, Bon Apetit, Emory Dining, the Turner Environmental Law Clinic, and the Office of Sustainability initiatives worked together to develop a collaboration with farmers that matches the institution’s needs. The agreement will move Emory closer to meeting its sustainable food purchasing goal of 75% local or sustainable procurement by 2025, create a more resilient food supply chain to address climate change impacts, and provide a nationally significant model for other institutions around the country and world.

• April 2018: Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives approached The Conservation Fund (TCF) about developing an Emory partnership with Working Farms Fund and hired Mindy Goldstein of Turner Environmental Law Clinic as Sustainability Faculty Fellow to draft the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with TCF and the Food Purchase Agreements. • May 2018: Ciannat Howett, then Director of Sustainability Initiatives (later AVP) at Emory, writes memo to Chris Augostini, EVP for Business Administration at Emory, recommending Food Purchase Agreements with farmers to improve resilience of local food supply. • Summer and Fall 2018: Turner Clinic researches concept of partnership. • February 2019: Turner Clinic completes draft Memorandum of Agreement between The Conservation Fund, Bon Apetit, and Emory. • Summer 2019: Ciannat Howett briefs Emory senior leadership and Memorandum of Understanding finalized. • August 2019: Emory senior leadership approves MOU with The Conservation Fund for partnership on Working Farms Fund. • November 2019: Memorandum of Understanding between Emory and The Conservation Fund publicly announced, in which Emory committed to buying the farmers’ sustainably raised crops and livestock through advance purchase agreements. • December 2018 to present: The Conservation Fund recruits farmers and continues land acquisition for conservation easements • Fall 2019: Emory and The Conservation Fund met with bank representatives to develop program for enrolled farmers to gain traditional financing for large capital expenditures needed for farming using Emory’s Food Purchase Agreements as collateral for loans. • Fall 2020: Ciannat Howett presents to Emy Brawley, TCF Chicago, and Chartwells, food supplier for anchor institutions like University of Chicago and healthcare systems in Chicago. • 2021: Chicago TNC launches its first WFF program to replicate successful program with TCF and Emory in Georgia. • October 2022: Ciannat Howett and TCF staff present to higher education anchor institution in Charlotte, NC about expanding WFF model to Charlotte, NC Future Plans: Emory and TCF hope to expand the program to support more local farms and farmers. Results to date have already exceeded expectations.

The Working Farms Fund is a social impact fund that raises money from private donors to acquire and permanently protect farmland through conservation easements. The Working Farms Fund is raising $11.4 million to acquire farmland within 100 miles of Atlanta. It is a self-sustaining model that allows dollars to revolve into future farm acquisitions and leverages public funding for long-term conservation outcomes. Anchor partners like Emory are critical to the success of the program. Emory’s commitment to purchase the sustainably raised food provides reliable long-term markets for farmers in the program and can also serve as collateral for farmers to secure loans and financing, allowing them to continue expanding their operations and scaling the local food system.

The Working Farms Fund is a new and innovative way to support and grow local food systems. The partnership between Emory, The Conservation Fund, and farmers provides a mutually beneficial model that has been replicated in Chicago and can be further replicated in other parts of the country. The Conservation Fund is actively purchasing land and putting it under conservation easements as well as recruiting a pipeline of new farmers. In addition, Emory and Conservation Fund have begun meeting with local banks to use Emory’s Food Purchase Agreements as collateral for loans for Working Farms Fund participants. Results to date include: • Over 700 acres of at-risk farmland has been acquired and permanently protected • Over 30 farm families are on the pathway to land ownership and are being supported in their farming businesses • 75% of WFF farmers are from historically underrepresented groups including BIPOC, women, refugee, or other minority farmers. • $5.9 million dollars worth of farmland is being protected and passed into the hands of a new generation of farmers, most of whom had been prevented from land ownership due to discriminatory historic practices.

Three primary lessons stand out: (1) The importance of securing funding for a project manager to develop the program: Emory’s Office of Sustainability Initiatives was able to raise funds from the Ray C. Anderson Foundation to hire a part-time Sustainability Faculty Fellow who was able to spend the necessary time to move the idea forward; (2) The program requires specific skills regarding acquisition, conservation easements, and other legal skills. Therefore, it is critical to have a strong partner like a local land trust or national non-profit focused on land conservation; (3) To gain internal buy-in to the program, it is important to frame it as one of the University’s resilience planning and risk management measures. The global pandemic has shown the vulnerability of food supply chains, and this program can help an institution secure a local food supply during times of uncertainty with climate change and other threats. Even if your leadership is not interested in sustainability or local food for environmental reasons, these resilience and risk management arguments may be successful.

• Ciannat Howett - Associate Vice President | Emory University

• Link: Emory Inspired
• Link: Working Farms Fund
• Link: Georgia Farms to Emory's Table
• Link: Working Farms Fund Emory and TCF Partnership Video
• File: Working Farms Fund Poster