Published Jul 16, 2025

Diversity Is Key to Resilience
By Sally Worley

In farming, diversity is key to resilience. Many PFI members work to create diverse farms to better manage the boons and busts that come with farming, from markets and weather to pest pressure and more. They openly share their efforts with others to spread a more resilient model across Iowa and the Midwest.

Diversity makes things more complicated and often comes with extra work, but it pays back in stability. It also inspires curiosity, as diverse experiences foster creativity and innovation. Here are two examples from the PFI archives:

  • Winter 2011 Issue of the Practical Farmer: Eric and Ann Franzenburg of Pheasant Run Farm near Van Horn, Iowa, keep busy with several crops. At the time of the article, the Franzenburgs raised corn, soybeans, finish pigs, medicinal herbs, tomatoes, ginger, greens, flowers, blueberries and laying hens. They’ve since added enterprises, including their legendary Sunflower Experience. Their son Calvin now farms with them as well. In the 2011, article Eric said: “In my mind, diversification is very important. You can have good years in some areas, maybe down years in others, but overall it averages out, and you tend to have a good year every year. I like to avoid the ‘ups and downs’ of business.”Ann and Eric Franzenburg with Buddy in 2011
  • 2020 Blog, “Paving the Way for Diversity”: Dan and Lorna Wilson, of Paullina, Iowa, farm multi-generationally with their children. For them, diversity is a key reason they have been able to bring the next generation back. Here is an excerpt from the blog: The Wilsons . . . challenge farmers to work toward diversity. Lorna invokes an old adage to explain the philosophy: “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Having multiple enterprises and plans is key to being able to continue to farm, and to bring family members back.” That’s not to say it’s easy. “There are days where your brain is tired from keeping it all afloat,” Dan says, “but diversity works.”

Funding-Stream Diversity

Having diverse funding sources for mission-based groups like Practical Farmers is also important. Putting too many eggs in one basket creates risk. We’ve successfully diversified our fundraising – currently we have about 75 active grants. Applying for and managing grants is a lot of work, but we do so to create a strong fiscal landscape.

Early this year, an entire class of funds – our federal funds that we have secured – were under review. Some were frozen as the granting agencies started a review of our projects to ensure they are in line with priorities of the administration. This affects about 25 awards, roughly 22% of our annual budget. At your request, we’ve grown in recent years. We’ve fueled this growth through multiple funding sources, including new federal programs aimed at increasing the vitality of our farms – and thus, our communities. We knew this funding would not always be available, and we were working to find replacement revenue streams for when the grants end.

However, we were not prepared to replace the funding before the grant completion dates. We did end up losing our largest federal grant, and some remain under review. Fortunately, due to extra donations from our supporters, and long-standing relationships with funders, we have been able to pivot funding sources. Our work to equip farmers to build resilient farms and communities continues.

With the federal funding landscape in question, we expect that many of you, our members, are doing the same as you look forward. You’re cutting costs, pivoting marketing, adding diversity and more.

This adaptive work at the organizational level and at the farmgate isn’t easy, but it’s important. I don’t know what the verdict will be on federal funding to PFI, our partners and farmers. But I do know we’ll still be here, working together to farm, live and eat better in our Midwestern communities, where soils are rich, people support each other, and our landscapes are sources of natural wonder and joy.

Cheers to the effort, the complexity and the shared mission of building resilient farms and communities.

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