Settlers from the Midwest arrived with cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, and by 1908 Lopez had a commercial creamery shipping 1,500 lbs of butter each month to the mainland. By the 1920s the islands reach a high in number of farms and farmland, with 566 farmers and over 68,000 acres in production, largely for homesteading and subsistence purposes . Important crops included fruit orchards, strawberries, peas, and beef cattle eventually taking over from dairy herds after the 1948 milk regulations. Homesteading and horticultural production continued through the mid to late 1900s; total farmland acreage fell to its lowest point in the 1970s and increased again up until 2007. Of concern for soil fertility, hay production has been a significant component of farmland increase, contributing to soil depletion over time. Despite its small population size and total agricultural acreage, San Juan County ranks in the top half of Washington counties for value of sales from hogs/pigs and sheep/goats .Development pressures building up in the 1990s and 2000s began to adversely impact farmland and housing access. In 1989, the Lopez Community Land Trust formed in response to a rapidly emerging affordable housing crisis on the island, as home prices rose 190% in one year. The Land Trust immediately focused energies on fundraising and building affordable housing communities, breaking ground on the first set of homes in 1990, and eventually completing the award-winning net zero Common Ground community in 2006, recognized for its innovative integration of straw bale construction, local materials, rainwater catchment system, solar hot water heating, and community solar array. The Land Trust adopted sustainable agriculture as core to its mission from the outset,vertical farming supplies recognizing the need to “provide permanently affordable access to land for such purposes as quality housing, sustainable agriculture and forestry, cottage industries and co-operatives by forever removing the land from the speculative market” . In 1996 LCLT collaborated to bring the nation’s first mobile meat processing unit to the islands to humanely slaughter animals, managed by the newly formed Island Grown Farmers Cooperative .
The mobile processing unit is USDA-inspected and greatly reduces costs from transporting animals off island for slaughter. LCLT helped establish the Lopez Island Farm Education program in 2006, as well as a sustainable agriculture internship program that has funded and placed over 65 interns on island farms to learn regenerative practices for farmer-educators. LCLT initiated the Lopez Island Farm Trust in 2018 to preserve parcels of farmland in perpetuity, starting with the purchase of the historic Stonecrest Farm property for $1,000,000. LCLT’s accomplishments are summarized in Figure 6. Today, farmers specialize in crops such as grass-fed meats, berries, tree fruits, diverse vegetables, grains, fiber, lavender and herbs, as well as value-added products including preserves, cheeses, ciders, and wines . Construction of greenhouses and hoop houses and commercial kitchens has enabled year-round production and preservation of the agricultural bounty. The average size of farms has decreased to 58 acres as the focus is more on small vegetable production than meat operations. Average market value of products sold per farm has decreased as well to just over $13,000, although once farm expenses are factored in, net farm income is -$6,293 . Small scale heritage grain production has re-emerged on several islands, which represents an exciting step towards relocalizing important food supply chains and reclaiming sovereignty that has been taken away from communities through consolidation of food “commodities” . Grains comprise the largest acreage of certified organic crop production in San Juan County at approximately 200 acres in production. Grains also represent new revenue stream for farmers taking advantage of growing interest in sourcing local grains among local bakeries and restaurants. A talk at the San Juan Agricultural summit in 2019 on farming history in the San Juan concluded with the statement that “it is a myth you can’t make a living farming in the islands, but the successful people have been those who have innovated and shown their savvy at investing in new varieties or types of crop and in contacting distant specialty markets” . Looking to the future, continued access to farmland remains a strong concern for the agricultural community, as the island faces heightening pressure for development serving the summer tourism and second home markets, and the ability of the Land Trust to purchase other pieces of island farmland is limited by fundraising capacity.
A 2011 report titled “Growing Our Future: An Agricultural Strategic Action Plan for San Juan County, WA” goes on to state that “appropriate state or local policies and regulations, as well as training, support, and resources are necessary to promote effective transfer, succession, and leasing of farmland for a new generation of farmers. Housing for these new farmers is a major issue as there are no code allowances for adding housing for succession farmers on existing farms, nor is there affordable housing available for new farming efforts on leased land.” Changes to code language are needed to allow for farmland transitions to occur that provide affordable housing options for new farmers. Additional incentives must be put in place to facilitate the active and regenerative farming, rather than degradation and neglect, of farmland parcels. When San Juan County farmland value is estimated at over $13,000 per acre , aging farmers are facing retirement decisions, and farms are operating a net loss financially, the continued economic viability of sustainable agriculture is called into question. Challenges of aging farmers, attracting new farmers with interest in regenerative practices, and affordability of land and farm worker housing are familiar to farming communities nationwide. Lopez has an advantage in facing such challenges through its support network at the island and county levels: LCLT, the County Agricultural Resource Committee, Ag Guild, and WSU San Juan County Extension are active proponents and providers of technical assistance, policy support, financial resources, and outreach geared towards supporting current farmers and attracting new skilled agriculturalists to the island community. Such supports are essential to confronting these and additional challenges related to building a resilient local food system on a chain of islands. When it comes to protecting farmland in the San Juans,vertical lettuce tower the strategic action planning process in 2011 came to the conclusion that “success in protecting farmland will ultimately be defined not only by the amount of farmland conserved, but also by the productive, profitable, and sustainable use of that farmland by local farmers, thereby contributing to a strong, diversified economy that benefits farmers and their community, while also building a viable and resilient local food system” . Supporting “productive, profitable, and sustainable use” of farmland will require action steps outlined as report recommendations, including: 1) Adopt and promote scale-appropriate state and local regulations in order to foster farm businesses and support a thriving local farm economy; 2) promote opportunities for new farmers to establish successful farms; 3) develop adequate access to infrastructure necessary to process and maintain diverse agricultural operations; and 4) expand local and regional marketing opportunities .
Members of the Ag Guild, ARC, and local agricultural stakeholders are working towards many of these goals, discussed further in the section below. Further partnerships are sought with conservation organizations to buy, conserve, and sell farmland parcels to those intending to farm the land regeneratively, meeting both conservation and food production objectives.The literature on agroecology and sustainable food systems highlights critical factors for success in the domain of farming or food production, starting with affordable access to good quality farmland. Other essential “success factors” for sustainable and regenerative agriculture include cultivating soil health, minimizing external inputs, educating farmers to perform knowledge intensive practices, and cultivating human resources to support agroecological transitions . Jules Pretty describes five forms of “capital” that are important to building sustainable agricultural systems: physical, natural, social, human and financial . Following his presentation of agricultural sustainability, each of these forms of capital is considered and analyzed in the case of the Lopez Island food system in the sub-sections below which evaluate land access, soil health, use of inputs, farmer education, and human resources present in the form of farmers practicing regenerative agriculture. The analysis of physical, natural, social and financial capital is based off of informal interviews and conversations with local agriculture organization leaders as well as participation in island agricultural education events. The aging farmer population and farmland transition dilemmas on Lopez are challenges mirrored in agricultural communities nationwide, encompassing both large industrial and smaller scale operations. Several of the island’s most successful farms are led by farmers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s, without a clear plan of who will take over as the current owner-operators seek to retire. The primary mechanisms for farm transfer and new farm establishment are through LCLT, the San Juan Islands Ag Guild, and the real estate market for island farmland. LCLT works towards three goals related to land access: affordable housing, sustainable communities, and farmland conservation. Their most recent initiative, the Lopez Island Farm Trust , was formed in 2018 to spearhead farmland conservation work. LIFT aims to strengthen the local food system and provide affordable access to land through a “comprehensive legal, ethical, and economically viable land lease system.” LIFT seeks to acquire, lease and manage new and historical farms; provide education for beginning farmers; foster business opportunities for regenerative agriculture operations; and encourage multi generational living on the land.
LCLT plans to use the affordable lease template as a model for securing and transitioning other farmland parcels, whether gifts or purchases, to the next generation of regenerative farmers. Ensuring the success of the newly leased Stonecrest Farm operation is essential to the continuation of this work, as facilitating a smooth transition to a new family operation is inherently challenging. It remains to be seen how replicable the Stonecrest Farm purchase is, or the degree to which it can serve as an affordable land access model, due to the difficulty for the land trust to raise large sums of money on a regular basis; “it was a big lift for us,” says LCLT Community Liaison Rhea Miller, of the fundraising effort to purchase Stonecrest. The Ag Guild recently received a three-year Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development grant from the USDA to research and improve access to farmland for new and beginning farmers. The grant collaboration included WSU SJC Extension, the Northwest Ag Business Center, Whidbey Island Conservation District, and the Organic Farm School farmer training program on Whidbey Island. As part of the grant activities, staff at the Ag Guild conduct outreach with beginning farmers interested in accessing farmland and establishing operations in the San Juan Islands, and posts opportunities for farmland access on its website’s “Farmers-to-Farmland” page . The outreach process includes connecting farmers to suitable farmland parcels and providing relevant information about available water sources, markets, local contacts, and housing options. Rather than seeing this as a failure, ensuring opportunity to opt out is an important part of the farmland succession process and ultimately setting up new farmers for success . Recognizing and overcoming challenges of a specific context is an essential part of farmland transitions, with some challenges more easily overcome than others . In most cases, the land tenure for new farmers would be through lease agreements, rather than ownership models, as much of the farmland available in the county is owned by the Land Bank, Preservation Trust, or private individuals open to leasing arrangements with aspiring farmers. There is a divide between the landowning and land leasing populations, with many young people not able to afford to buy into an ownership arrangement. Pathways to cooperative and collective ownership5 of farmland as a land access opportunity are largely absent in the Lopez case study and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Ag Guild staff are very open to the idea of supporting more farmers, both current and new, in establishing cooperative enterprises. Organic Farm School directors are similarly encouraging of this idea, arguing that many new farmers might not be ready to take over an 80-acre parcel of land and put it to productive use immediately, but it might be more appropriate for a group of five to divide up vegetable production, flower production, poultry production, grazing and value added products.