Organic-food lovers cheered when the Wedge cooperative in Minneapolis announced plans over the weekend to buy the 97-acre Gardens of Eagan organic vegetable farm in Farmington, Minn., preserving the land from development.

But Minnesota officials were not applauding Monday. They’re asking if the proposed $1.5 million sale to the natural foods cooperative violates a 1973 anti-corporate farming law, intended to keep state farmland owned by families.

Like Cargill or General Mills, the Wedge, with its 13,000 Twin Cities members, is legally a corporation. And corporations are banned from owning farmland in Minnesota, said Doug Spanier, an assistant director at the state Department of Agriculture.

“Whether it’s big or small, if it’s a corporation, it’s subject to the law,” Spanier said.

That legal twist caught the Wedge by surprise Monday and clouded what had been a joyful moment for the local natural foods movement. The Gardens of Eagan, owned by pioneering organic growers Martin and Atina Diffley, is one of the state’s best-known farms. For a year and a half, the Diffleys have been looking for ways to keep their land in organic food production as the couple heads toward retirement… Full Story:

The sale was first revealed Saturday to cheering co-op members. It was shared publicly Monday.

“There’s incredible excitement and positive reaction,” Atina Diffley said. “People don’t have to worry about the Gardens of Eagan. They’ll always have it. It will be serving the Twin Cities community with organic food in 100 years.”

The Diffleys began farming in Eagan in 1973 and relocated to Farmington in 1991. It took three years for their new land to be certified organic, but ever since, they’ve been growing sweet corn, watermelon, cabbage and other larger vegetables for the booming Twin Cities organic market.

“It’s the closest organic farm near the Cities that we deal with,” said Lindy Bannister, general manager at the Wedge, among the nation’s largest natural foods coops. “We didn’t want to lose it to a development.”

The deal would blaze a trail in organics, by uniting elements of food production, distribution and retailing under one umbrella.

“This is really new and unique and something different,” said Faye Jones, executive director of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service, a pro-organic group. “There’s certainly not anything like this in the Midwest, so it’s an innovative approach.”

Wedge officials were unaware of the legal obstacles beforehand, but Monday they remained confident the deal can happen.

“In conversations I’ve been having today with the Department of Agriculture and some other folks, we’re discussing that – whether the hole is square, or round, and how we fit into that,” Bannister said. “It’s not insurmountable by any means, and we’re continuing the conversation.”

Still, the irony wasn’t lost on some observers: a natural foods co-op butting up against corporate farming laws.

“When Minnesota passed its anti-corporation farming law, they didn’t do so because they were scared of the Wedge,” said Lee Egerstrom, a rural policy specialist at the Minnesota 2020 think tank. Indeed, anti-corporate-farming laws “would seem to be close to the hearts of the Wedge and its members.”

Bill Oemichen, a former deputy commissioner of agriculture, said the first laws arose “because of concern back in the 1970s that you didn’t have insurance companies owning farmland after a foreclosure. They were really trying to prevent abuses of corporations taking over farmland for profit.”

Oemichen said that during his seven-year tenure enforcing the law, “we pretty regularly had to send out notices and do investigations, if it appeared that unauthorized entities had purchased farmland.” Some buyers eventually had to sell, and some deals were canceled, he said.

It’s too early to know if the Wedge will join that list, Spanier said, but officials were checking if it qualifies for an exemption. If not, the deal cannot go forward.

“It was well-intentioned when it was made, so insurance companies and some multimillion-dollar corporations couldn’t come in and take over the little guy,” said Bannister, the Wedge’s general manager. “The intention is to save the farm, and I don’t think anyone argues with that.”

Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press