Benton County farmer aims to drive big agriculture changes through small-scale farming

KEYSTONE — When Nick Wallace was diagnosed with cancer at 19, he and his family started looking for answers.

Two years later, a good friend he grew up with, who was about the same age, was diagnosed with the same type of tumor in the same location under the right arm. Wallace underwent exploratory surgery that removed his spleen, and six months of grueling chemotherapy.

“We were convinced that a 20-year-old, healthy athlete diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes is an environmental issue,” said Wallace, now 46. “So we changed the way we fed ourselves. We started to transition this farm back to chemical-free type organic farming.”

With time, the family farm formerly used for traditional row cropping with pesticides became an all-organic model growing grass-fed beef that could produce nutrient-dense food on the same land. For years, Wallace Farms grew by changing one acre and one customer’s mindset at a time, eventually growing its meat delivery service to a couple thousand customers across Iowa and Chicago.

Now, Wallace Farms’ successor, called 99 Counties, is hoping to help Iowans across the state change the way they eat and bring farmers together for more sustainable, regenerative agriculture.

“We need to make people healthy again. We’ve ignored so much of that, we’ve added so many layers in between a person and their food,” Wallace explained. “99 Counties is trying to bring transparency and connection from that original farmer … and connect them to the customer.”

The service that started last year looks a little bit like Amazon Prime. A $199 annual membership fee gives shoppers access to free, weekly deliveries and discounts in their broad meat catalog.

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But unlike the giant Amazon warehouses that dot the country, the expansive cuts are all locally raised by 26 farmers and processed through seven small meat processors. Together, all of them have banded together for a collective market that makes small-scale farming more viable.

“The long-term vision is to foster a network of farmers working together, like it was back in the 1950s and ‘60s, thriving together,” said Wallace. “We’re trying to romance the old and bring it back with the new technology to create change so people don’t have to spend all their money at Hy-Vee or Fareway.”

Producing high-quality food that in turn fosters healthy people and a healthy environment starts with revitalizing the soil, he said — a grassroots effort from the ground up.

Getting buy-in

With about 1,000 members in their service area, which covers an approximate 100-mile radius around Keystone in Benton County plus the Chicagoland area, 99 Counties is aiming to grow enough to take on a life of its own. Over the next few years, it hopes to triple its membership.

The first step in growing the farm-to-consumer supply chain is educating meat eaters on a system that most are far removed from. The pandemic’s effects on big meatpacking plants helped make them more apparent.

“If we keep depending on the three giant meat processors and something goes wrong, you’ve got a problem,” said Doug Stonebreaker, director of supply chain management for 99 Counties. “People did start to (realize) that for food security, it’s better if we have a decentralized model where you can buy our food. I tell customers you’ll always have food security as long as you know a farmer.”

Stonebreaker, a California native, bought into the vision and moved to Iowa after spending 25 years building an integrated meat business focused on regenerative farming in the San Francisco Bay Area. With customer buy-in and the ability to bring more farmers into the fold, he hopes to help Iowa rethink how it can use much of its land.

Iowa has a lot of corn, soybeans and hog confinements, but not a lot of other crop diversity — forcing it to import up to 90 percent of its food from out of state, according to Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

“We can use the land base to really feed people in a healthy way that creates a healthy water cycle without chemicals,” Stonebreaker said. “Having fewer corporations owning more and more land isn’t going to bode well for the future of Iowa communities.”

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Earlier this year, 99 Counties started hosting a sit-down dinner series featuring the bounty of small farmers who raise a diversity of crops and grass-fed meat amid fields dominated by cornfields often used for ethanol. By bringing the bounty to the table, it is forming small educational opportunities with the potential for ripple effects.

With each dinner also comes an attempt to rebuild a sense of community.

“We’ve become a society that’s disconnected. One of our goals is to teach children. Kids have no clue where their food comes from,” Wallace said. “So why not let your kids run around with their shoes off, be barefoot and see the chickens and cattle? Then carry that through and tell the kids, ‘here’s where your salad and meat comes from.’ ”

Wallace isn’t saying Iowa can get its food import rate down to 0 percent. But by first focusing on the animal protein farmers know they can raise well here, he sees a path for significant improvement for consumers, farmers and the land they all live on.

He estimates that transforming one county’s farming habits alone could become a massive business. ButcherBox, a company started in 2015 to deliver grass-fed beef nationwide, brought in over $600 million in revenue last year — and that’s using Australian meat shipped from across the world.

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With stiff competition from bigger national brands, Stonebreaker said 99 Counties contends with a “lot of greenwashing” from companies trying to capitalize on the demand for environmentally sound products.

“I’ve always felt like Iowa is this big domino in agriculture,” said Stonebreaker. “If we can make change here and bring back small farms, rebuild the soil and create clean water, healthy agriculture, healthy food and healthy people, we can make change anywhere.”

With success, 99 Counties could replicate its model with farmers in neighboring states.

Growing trends in Iowa

While a majority of farms in Iowa are still family owned, just under one-third of them are smaller than 50 acres, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent 2017 census.

“The harsh reality of our system as a whole is that … we’ve become so efficient over time that it really does require more land and capital to pull a profit out of that field every year,” said Christa Hartsook, small farms program manager for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “We’ve seen a lot of producers exit the business knowing they’re not at that level.”

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Most small producers today are raising what is called true food products — something intended for direct purchase and consumption by consumers. Models like 99 Counties are able to survive through aggregation.

“For one farmer to have a quantity of tomatoes they’d need, for example, isn’t always realistic for them since they grow a multitude of crops,” Hartsook explained. “The aggregation model allows them to collectively meet the needs of institutions and local purchasers, but is a win-win for everybody.”

The model isn’t anything new. But as consumers look to get more in touch with what they eat and use the conveniences they’ve come to expect — such as online shopping — aggregation models offer great potential for growth.

Customers rethinking their groceries have rekindled direct relationships with farmers through farmers markets and other direct contact. That gives a sense of security and comfort to consumers knowing how their food is raised, plus a sense of appreciation for farmers who take pride in their work.

“They like supporting an agriculture system they find value in,” said Hartsook. “(They) know how the food is produced, how the farmer is raising it, and can readily access it for (their) families.”

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