Nathan Anderson

Nathan lives in the same house his grandparents lived in, and he farms some of the same land that Andersons have farmed outside Aurelia for generations. Nate takes pride in this lineage, but he also believes that what qualifies someone to farm isn’t their heritage. “I always struggle with saying ‘I’m a fourth or fifth generation’ or whatever. Farming a certain way for a couple of generations doesn’t justify that method any more than what the next generation does.”

When Nate began operating in 2010, he quickly became interested in the economic benefits of cover crops due to research from ILF and Practical Farmers of Iowa. But regardless of his initial economic motivations, the profound benefits to ecology and human community have solidified the intrinsic value of soil and water conservation.

For Nate, the conservation of natural resources is founded on the intrinsic value of preserving healthy towns and ecosystems in Iowa. Regarding the importance of healthy, resilient communities, Nate states this: “There’s a lot of talk about preserving independent family farms. But there was never such a thing. There were interdependent farms. We’re trying to make it independent, and we shouldn’t.”

Building a Culture of Conservation:

 “’Conservation’ is the label that gets put on what we do, appropriately so, and sometimes I use that label, too. But our farm’s mission is to ‘honor God, family and community by caring for the resources we’ve been entrusted with and doing so to build a resilient farm and family.’ It’s a long mission, but I couldn’t figure out how to shorten it.”

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Nathan was featured on the Conservation Chat Podcast series. Hear how this young Iowa farmer is making waves and creating a name for himself and his family farm.

Contact Information

Nathan Anderson
Cherokee Co.
515-708-5199
n8andy@gmail.com