The Conservation Fund is working to revive and sustain Chicago metropolitan area farms through its Farms Fund program. This is the first in a series spotlighting its work with farmers in the south suburbs.
Deshawn Willingham began farming vegetables on one-eighth of an acre of land in the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest farm business incubator program in 2019. There he trained and apprenticed to become a farmer.
Since then, his Chicago Urban Farm Solutions business has expanded to a 20-acre site in Lynwood that he expects to own next year and where he grows pesticide free vegetables and uses sustainable farming practices. He is a participant in the Farms Fund, a lease-to-own program of the nonprofit Virginia-based environmental group the Conservation Fund. The fund acquires land for farmers who lease the property and then purchase the land at agriculture value in three to five years.
Since the program launched in Chicago in 2022, it has secured five farms, totaling more than 220 acres, which are serving more than two dozen farmers, said Kelly Larsen, the fund’s Chicago Metro farms fund manager. The farm businesses produce vegetables, leafy greens, herbs, garlic, turmeric, ginger, pasture-raised eggs, chickens, pork and goat-dairy, and are more than 70% owned by Black, indigenous and people of color.
The biggest challenge to the upcoming generation of farmers using sustainable practices is having access to affordable and secure farmland, Larsen said. The program connects farmers to financial resources and technical expertise and assistance with farm infrastructure improvements.
The program’s goal is to help create and sustain a vibrant local food system by securing land where farmers can provide pesticide free healthier foods through their own successful farm businesses.
“We want our farmers to be able to run successful farm businesses that support their families and reach new markets that haven’t been served by local foods in the region,” she said.
The program targets farmers who have been farming in a leadership role for a minimum of three years, have at least two years of financial records and are committed to growing food for people using sustainable practices.
“We have an aging farmer population that will be selling their farmland,” said Emy Brawley, vice president, Great Lakes region with the Conservation Fund. “We have a growing young farmer population that needs land. There is really a big barrier around access to farmland and equitably access to farmland. Our program is really the bridge. We have the ability to do a much better job of feeding ourselves.”
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Willingham said to purchase the Lynwood farm site without the help of the Farms Fund program would have cost him about $840,000 including the 18 acres of farmland and structures on the site. Through the program, he will be able to purchase it next year for roughly half that, he said.
“If you talk to any farmer the biggest impediment to farming or to scaling up is land acquisition especially in or around metropolitan areas like Chicago,” he said.
Willingham grows a variety of specialty crops including lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash. He distributes his products in part through a wholesaler, Midwest Foods in Chicago, which distributes to grocery stores, airport vendors and the University of Chicago.
“We have a relationship with Esperanza Health Centers, where we package 400 boxes per week for them with a variety of produce and they distribute that at four different sites,” he said.
He also supplies food to the Greater Chicago Food Depository and Black Oaks Center in Pembroke Township, Illinois. Black Oaks Center brings affordable, high-quality, nutritious and culturally acceptable foods to communities in Chicago and the Southland.
“Organizations that we supply, we do an extra 30% in donations on top of that,” Willingham said. “That’s something that’s really important to me. I always want to be able to give back.”
Willingham, 51, who grew up in Bronzeville and who also leases 10 acres of farmland in Pembroke, said prior to connecting with the Chicago Botanic Garden’s urban agricultural program, he had no background in farming. He worked in a mail room and for a window manufacturer. But he has found pleasure and profit in helping supply communities with nutritious food.
“It feels great,” he said. “I’m doing urban farming with sustainable practices just on a larger scale. “This is a model, and we are trying to prove the model. If we can do that, we’ll be able to bring more people into larger scale sustainable farming.”
Willingham, who enjoys giving presentations to up-and-coming and potential farmers, said his business had a roughly $176,000 profit last year. He said he shares his financials in his presentations and people are often surprised.
“They’ve been told that there’s no money in farming,” he said. “I’ve proven that that’s not the case. You have to be smart about it. You have to choose who you work with carefully. You have to structure contracts in a way where it’s profitable to you.”
He said it’s important the program is committed to helping Black farmers, who have been systematically discriminated against and disenfranchised. Indeed, only 1.4% of the country’s 3.4 million producers are Black, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“There has been a lot of damage in our community,” he said. “Black people, as far as farming is concerned, have been dispossessed of the land. It’s important for organizations to try to prioritize people who have traditionally been overlooked.”
Francine Knowles is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.