Farms Forever
Angelic Organics Association (AOA)
Community Land Trust & Land Commons
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Our community
holds, governs, and protects land in perpetuity
for organic-biodynamic agriculture,
farming education, and land conservation
Please give to the Farms Forever Fund!
We aim to raise $20,000
to protect the land commons
and transition to a new generation
of farmer stewards.
Read our appeal letter here.
Due to the generosity of hundreds of community members and collaborating farmers and educators, AOA Community Land Trust was incorporated formally in 2013 as an Illinois non-profit corporation named Angelic Organics Association.
AOA trustees are grateful to have fiscal sponsorship from Agrarian Trust, a national 501(c)(3) land trust. Agrarian Trust works with communities to permanently remove farmland from speculative markets, giving next-generation farmers secure, affordable land access.
Several organizations share the Angelic Organics name, and it causes real confusion. We are the volunteer nonprofit land trust that protects the land commons in perpetuity. See Who We Are.
Why remove land from the speculative marketplace and move it into a commons?
To explore the roots of our answer, see the BD Journal issue on "Who Owns the Land? And Why Does it Matter?" and description of our Farms Forever Initiative and launch of the AOA community land trust in the article "Worth Protecting" (pages 17-21). To read, click above on underlined 'BD Journal'.
AOA began with the aim to protect the nearly 200 acres of land labeled on this aerial map as "AOA North and South Campus". To see which parcels today are protected in full or in part, go to the tab "Wins in Commons"
Photo credits: 1. kite flight with a cow on grass with storm approaching: Neddy Astudillo. 2. top banner of Scottish Highland cows in Kinnikinnick Fields on 'AOA north campus': Thomas Spaulding.
Current Land Stewards on the AOA Land Commons
The land commons of AOA's Farms Forever Initiative host these land stewards:
Farmers Rising (formerly Angelic Organics Learning Center) is an Illinois nonprofit that builds sustainable local food and farm systems through experiential education and training programs in partnership with rural and urban people. Farmers Rising ensures everyone has access to a sustainable, food-secure future by feeding our communities, strengthening the local food economy, educating the public about the importance of regenerative agriculture, and training the next generation of farmers. Farmers Rising operates from its lodge and facilities on the grounds on the 'north campus' of the commons.
The Richardson brothers are young farmers from the local area, and they raise organic corn and soy on 39 acres of the 'south campus'. They are sole proprietors and sub-lessors from John Peterson under his lease from AO North LLC (AOA holds the majority of shares in this LLC with an aim to protect the land in perpetuity).
John Peterson, as a sole proprietor, currently holds a lease from AOA on 11.5 acres of the land commons. His farm business Angelic Organics closed in 2024. In 2016, John and a partner sold the 23-acre farmstead to AOA community land trust on the promise AOA would protect it in perpetuity and lease it to John as long as he wanted to farm. As agreed, John has the right to sell his buildings and AOA provides the new farmer steward with a long-term lease for the right to farm the protected land commons.
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