Joelle Faulkner: Area One Farms Helping Canadian Farmers Expand by Buying, Improving, and Operating Additional Land

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Joelle Faulkner

We help Canadian farmers expand by buying, improving, and operating additional land with them. We work with 40 farmers across Canada, and in each case, we have helped them expand their land base and often helped improve the land itself (tiling, irrigation, etc.). Our goal is to capitalize farm families so that they can double or triple in size and accommodate the return of their kids to the farm.

Tell us about yourself?

I am from a farm in Ontario, and I was great at school and not so great at milking. I wanted to run my own business.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

A year or two ago, I actually would not have changed much. If I could go back a decade, I would let myself know that it will work in the end, so don’t worry as much.

What problem does your business solve?

Capitalizing farm expansion so that farmers can build the farm that they want to own in 10 years but build it now so that their kids have a place to come home to if they want to join the operation.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

The issue is that many farmers have the management capacity to farm a larger farm but do not have enough cash to fund the growth. They don’t want to take on too much debt, so they need equity. We are equity for those farms.

What is your magic sauce?

We really respect farmers and how they manage the very difficult and risky business that they are in.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

We want to work with more farmers. We also want to bring more land that fell into disuse back into agricultural production in Canada.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

We have run into all the issues! Over time, we have learned how to partner with farmers in very different situations – from those that are losing their farms to those that are extremely successful. It takes a lot of practice to find the right fit for all the different situations that show up at our door.

How can people get involved?

Farmers can contact us at partnerships@areaonefarms.ca.