- News
- Taihu pig - These Chinese pigs are able to eat a high proportion of forage food and produce litters of up to 16 piglets (compared to 10 piglets for most Western breeds).
- Fayoumi chicken - These Egyptian chickens can withstand high temperatures and are resistant to many poultry diseases.
- N’Dama cattle - While less productive than modern industrial breeds, these cattle are resistant to a fatal disease transmitted by the tsetse fly.
- Reggina cattle - These rare Italian cattle are renowned for their milk, which is used to produce exceptional Parmesan cheese.
- Yakut cattle - Native to Northern Siberia, these cattle are able to withstand extreme temperature changes
- Gulf Coast Native sheep - This breed is resistant to parasites and well-adapted to high heat and humidity.
- American Mammoth Jackstock - Native to North America, this ass breed is known for its fertility, regularly producing many mules.
Did You Know?
Non-commercial animal breeds currently in danger of extinction:
Land Donation
When farmers retire or pass away, sometimes the land is donated to a church or college, and it continues to be farmed chemically. More often it is sold to the highest bidder, typically a developer or an absentee landlord with no connection to the community and no feel for the value of the land as farmland. Through our Family Farm Preservation program, The John and Elizabeth Veenstra Foundation provides owners and inheritors of farmland with individualized options, including the opportunity to put an agricultural easement on the property to guarantee that it remains as productive farmland for future generations, to make the land available for sale or lease to new or existing organic farmers, or to make a tax-deductible farmland donation to our organization.
We conduct a full appraisal of the land, to determine the agricultural value and the full development value. The owner may then donate the land to us at full development value or donate the development rights to us. In either case, The John and Elizabeth Veenstra Foundation impresses an agricultural easement on the property to ensure that it will remain farmland in the future. For land we have acquired, we then make it available for purchase at the lower, agricultural value. The farmer who acquires the land can then economically produce healthy food for generations to come.
When we have the financial capacity to do so, we will purchase land that is not available for donation. We then apply the same appraisal and easement impression process.
Proceeds from land sales that The John and Elizabeth Veenstra Foundation receives are placed into a revolving fund, to acquire additional land and support our ongoing mission.