Farmland LP, a U.S. private equity fund, was created to deliver superior returns for its investors by acquiring conventional farmland and converting it to high-value organic farmland using sustainable agriculture best-practices. Sales of organic goods in the U.S. have grown 20% per year since 1990, and now exceed $24 billion growing at nearly $5 billion per year. And although many organic foods receive a price premium of 50% to 200%, the limit to market growth is supply.

Only 0.5% of U.S. farmland is certified organic, increasing at 8.5% per year. Farmers face barriers of cost, knowledge, time, and effort in converting from conventional to organic, including the three-year organic transition and certification process. Farmland LP provides its investors with the security of owning low-risk farmland while benefiting from the value added by converting to organic farmland.

Good Natured Family Farms (GNFF), an alliance of more than 100 family farms, some are 3rd or 4th generation, raise animals humanely and care for the earth in a sustainable fashion. GNFF has banded together to bring its foods to Hen House Markets and Balls Price Chopper Supermarkets , and the Community Mercantile in Lawrence, Kansas. When you purchase Good Natured Family Farms’ products, you support the local family farms around the Kansas City area. These farms protect Kansas City’s natural resources by producing food with no pesticides, no growth hormones and no sub therapeutic antibiotics. It’s food that is good for us and good for the earth. And best of all it tastes so good.

See Good Natured Family Farms YouTube channel

Farm Power recycles local farm and food waste into renewable electricity. The company received a $500,000 USDA Renewable Energy Grant in 2008, and has a purchase agreement with Puget Sound Energy.

Farm Power is a Skagit County, Washington company operating at the intersection of sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. Its facilities are designed around a proven, commercialized technology called an anaerobic manure digester that harvests methane gas from manure. Methane is burned to create electricity for sale, while sending the processed manure back to partner farmers as an organic fertilizer now free of pathogens and odor. In the process, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by thousands of tons per year. Farm Power has one digester facility under construction and planning efforts underway in five counties.

Tod is a rural farmer, but that’s not why he’s considered a local hero. Tod also operates the Farmer’s Diner in Quechee Gorge, Vermont. It’s a local eatery which specializes in using meat and produce from local farmers (within a 70 mile radious) to satisfy an ever growing number of customers. Tod’s completely sustainable restaurant concept is backed by an experienced hedge fund investor.  The Farmer’s Diner intends to build more diners, first in Vermont and then regionally, to continue the good work of reviving strong rural communities. Tod will discuss the challenges of sustainability as well as his experiences raising institutional capital to fund a sustainable agriculture business.

Yankee Magazine: (Tod) Murphy’s Law: Buy Local, Eat Local, and Prosper (Vermont’s Farmers Diner may just change how America eats)