Our company works with organized groups of landowners, farmers, and investors in the Omaha area to make small farms profitable.
Effective Economic Development
The first step toward consistent small farm profits is to combine nearby farms – without selling land or taking on more farm-level debt. Farm consolidation is essential because 90 percent of U.S. farms earn only 35 percent of our nation’s gross farm income. These small farms and gardens cannot support modern processing required to supply successful farmer-owned food brands. Further, small farms cannot attract serious private-sector money.
Production Units
Managing land in commercial-scale blocks is essential to building efficient local farm-to-fork food chains. To organize commercial-scale farms and gardens, we are inviting experienced landowners to form landowner-controlled “production units.”
As used here, production units are groups of contiguous and nearby farms managed together as if they were single diversified farms. These units offer a simple legal structure that allows smaller landowners to work together to scale up – again, without buying or selling land. The farm owners will serve as directors for their local units.
After writing preliminary business plans, my business partners and I will help identify qualified operators and assist production unit boards in negotiating leases with these operators. Leases will run from five to seven years. Operators and landowners will be asked to negotiate purchase options with farmland succession plans.
Planning and Market Research
Supplying profitable farmer-owned retail food brands starts by working with farm commodity buyers and local fresh produce wholesalers. Although our goal is a strong retail showing, wholesale markets will always be essential to production unit cashflows, particularly in the early going.
On the retail side, consumers want to know where their food comes from and how it is raised and processed. Local brands must also compete on price with imported (non-local) specialty and organic brands. Production units combined with solid market research can meet both needs.
Planning for commodity contracts and consumer product and market research is underway in the Omaha area. This research will identify high-value crops and livestock for wholesale and retail markets. Farmer-owned retail food brands will feature foods from regenerative and organic farms that pay living wages to local farmhands and food workers.
Successful farmer-owned brands will keep millions of dollars in our regional economy. I estimate that consumers in a seven-county area that includes Omaha, Council Bluffs, and Lincoln spend about $8 billion every year on imported (non-local) foods while area farmers make less than $3 billion.
Experience
Our company is uniquely qualified to organize sustainable local and regional food systems. I have a lifetime of experience in sustainable and organic agriculture along with over 20 years in operations, planning, and marketing with non-profit and for-profit companies. My business partners are trained professionals with years of direct experience in crop and livestock production, marketing, banking, and farm law.
Page 2 explains planning. Pages 3 and 4 are on finance and marketing. Our qualifications are shown on page 5.
I would appreciate an opportunity to explain our business model and services.
Thank you.
Jim Steffen, President
Massena Corporation
402-317-2639
jim@massenafarms.com
Posted: 11-08-2026