Who’s Buying Nebraska? Philly organic farm is 2nd-biggest buyer of Nebraska farmland

ADAMS COUNTY — At first glance,the sight of this south-central Nebraska farm is not much different from its counterparts in the corn belt. But the corn here grows on a natural diet of animal manure. No synthetic fertilizer. No pesticides, either. The crop stands alongside alfalfa and trees in the corners of the fields.

Here, farm employees grow both field corn and popcorn. They find the location a good fit for hard red winter wheat that’s made into organic bread. The land, all 9,000 acres of it, is farmed organically by a Philadelphia-based, multi-state company called Belltown Farms.

Belltown now owns about half of the land it farms near Holstein, a small town outside Hastings. That purchase and four others in southwest Nebraska — at a price tag of $41 million — made the out-of-state corporate farm the second-largest buyer of Nebraska’s increasingly expensive farmland by money spent between 2018 and 2022. 

Belltown’s total Nebraska farmland portfolio now stands at nearly 19,000 acres, about two thirds of the total farmland the company operates across the country, with other locations in Illinois, Michigan, Texas and New York.

Belltown is, in one way, very much like other recent top buyers of Nebraska farmland. 

Those buyers were mostly corporate farms, multinational corporations and out-of-state investors, as detailed in the Flatwater Free Press series “Who’s Buying Nebraska?” 

Flatwater analyzed land sales made in the open market between 2018 and 2022 from data originally gathered by a University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Journalism and Mass Communications data journalism class.

The analysis found seven of the top 10 buyers of ag land by money spent during that period were organizations headquartered outside Nebraska, including a North Carolina investment firm, the Silicon Valley social media giant Facebook and the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. (View the full list here.)

But Belltown stands out for its differences, too. While other big farmland investment companies sometimes lease out their land, Belltown directly operates its farms. And Belltown raises organic crops only, while proving false the stereotype that organic farmers are small, quirky and unable to turn a profit. 

“We are not interested in using land that’s going to be turned into fuel. We want to raise food for people or for animals,” said Brian Halweil, Head of Impact and Sales at Belltown Farms.

Belltown bought the Holstein-area farm from the Granstrom family, who operated an organic farm until Johnny Granstrom retired. The farm has been organic since the 1990s.

Before that, Belltown had begun converting its four other farms in Nebraska into organic. All but one of Belltown’s Nebraska locations are certified organic, with that one, in Wauneta, expected to be certified later this year.

A relative newcomer, Belltown now makes up a significant portion of the state’s organic sector. It’s one of the biggest organic grain producers in the state, according to the USDA Organic Integrity Database.

Nebraska reported a little over 113,000 acres of organic cropland in 2021, according to the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture survey. 

And the value of the Belltown land is pricey — and still rising. That land and related infrastructure is now worth $46 million, according to a Flatwater Free Press analysis of data provided by the Nebraska Department of Revenue.

Dave Hutchinson, owner of a 5,000-acre grass-fed buffalo and beef ranch in the Sandhills, describes Belltown’s organic operation with one word: huge.

“If you have (19,000) acres, you just lost a lot of individual farmers and ranchers,” said Hutchinson.

While lamenting the loss of family farms and the more tailored approach to managing, Hutchinson said he’s glad to see organic operations reducing chemicals in agricultural production.

Halweil doesn’t think the company is competing with average farm families in pursuing Nebraska farmland. The company came against mostly bidders who were already of significant size and looking to expand, Halweil said. 

Before buying its first farm, Belltown studied states from the Pacific Northwest, through the Great Plains, all the way down to Texas, Halweil said. 

Between farmland that’s very fertile and expensive and less fertile but more affordable, the company found a sweet spot for productivity and price in Nebraska. 

“We’re not going to bid on a farm or pay for a farm that’s well above that price. We’ve got a fairly narrow range,” said Halweil. 

Belltown’s founders used to run wind and solar energy companies in both Europe and the US. When they pivoted to agriculture, they say they modeled the farming operation after the energy business, built on sustainable infrastructure and supply chain. In 2019, the company made its initial purchase, a 2,500-acre farm in Michigan.

A Belltown farm typically starts at that size. And its size, Halweil said, does matter.

Organic farming can be management-intensive. But growing row crops allows Belltown to use machines instead of relying on farm labor.

The 9,000-acre Holstein operation employs roughly a dozen workers, he said, mostly Nebraskans and a few seasonal workers from South Africa.

The company sells about half of its products as livestock feed, Halweil said, and the other half for food production — ready to be milled into flour or tortilla chips, turned into oat milk or brewed for beer. 

In frequent rotation, the company produces corn, soybeans and wheat as well as minor crops such as barley, peas, alfalfa and sorghum that’s turned into gluten-free flour.

Belltown’s enterprise is “quite an accomplishment,” says Kim Mosel, a seed dealer in Page and administrator with the state chapter of the Organic Crop Improvement Association, which mentors young farmers.

Farming anything more than 1,000 organic acres involves managing significant amounts of inputs, equipment and labor, she said.

“Most people never come close to that size,” she said. “You would have to have a good banker, or someone that’s banking or backing you to be able to manage that.”

Just like conventional growers, organic producers are sizing up on average, said Charles Shapiro, a retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor. Organic farming techniques have gotten more efficient. Supply chains have expanded on both producers’ and consumers’ ends. And food manufacturers typically prefer to buy from large suppliers.

“The sea has risen so that it’s easier to be on a bigger scale and have big equipment,” Shapiro said.

Nebraska seemed like a reasonable choice to invest in since the infrastructure and market for organic grains are already in place, Halweil said. The company has found buyers of their organic products within 100 miles of their farms, including local mills or manufacturers like General Mills. 

Another draw: the Ogallala Aquifer. 

The land Belltown owns in Nebraska is irrigated. “We found that Nebraska had more secure water rights for farmers and more ample water resources than a number of other states that we’ve looked at, like neighboring Colorado for instance,” said Halweil.

Belltown is mindful of its water use and trying to be a good steward of the environment, he added. The company is tracking fuel use, carbon emissions and sequestration on all its farms.

Belltown’s approach to improving soil health and increasing sustainability seems sound, said Dave Vetter, founder of Grain Place Foods, which produces and processes organic grains. Vetter’s family farm became organic in the 1950s. He helped the Granstrom farm transition to organic in the ‘90s.

“They have their resources to do some things better than I can do here, because I don’t have enough cash behind me,” he said. 

Belltown is now planning to expand in Nebraska, turning more farmland into organic farmland. 

That’s because the organic industry is growing, Halweil says.

“The opportunities to have a job working on an organic farm, or managing an organic farm, or transitioning your own land to organic are also growing,” said Halweil. 

Caleb Ayers manages several Belltown locations, including the Deep Water Ranch near Wallace in southwest Nebraska.

Originally from Oregon, the farm manager helped open organic farms elsewhere before moving his family to Nebraska four years ago. 

Ayers, who grew up farming, never envisioned himself working for a corporate farm. But he felt drawn to the company’s official regenerative goals, which include “improve long-term soil health,” “develop sustainable food systems,” “have positive environmental impact” and “reduce carbon emissions.” 

Some Belltown employees have used what they learned at Belltown to turn their own family farms organic, Halweil said. 

“Those people are viewing it as a growing economic opportunity, whereas a lot of their conventional neighbors might be struggling more,” Halweil said.