South Chicago Farmland Permanently Protected

A Model Built for Farmers Who Need a Path to Ownership  

The Conservation Fund’s Farms Fund program is built to solve this specific problem: skilled farmers who need land, and at-risk farmland that needs a future. The model works in stages, buying farmland before it’s lost to development, connecting it with a farm business ready to work it, permanently protecting it for agriculture, and creating a patient pathway to ownership. 

The Farms Fund launched in Atlanta and has since expanded to Chicago, Charlotte, and Northwest Arkansas. In Chicago alone, the program has now secured seven farms across the metro area for the region’s food system. 

From Leased Lots to a Permanent Farm 

In 2024, The Conservation Fund purchased Z Farm through its Chicago Metro Farms Fund, giving Urban Growers Collective immediate access to the land under a flexible lease. That access changed what was possible. Over the past two years, Urban Growers Collective scaled its operations on the property and grew a record 31,800 pounds of food in 2025 alone. 

Now that Z Farm is permanently protected and fully theirs, Urban Growers Collective plans to keep scaling production toward a goal of 400,000 pounds of crops grown annually. That’s food that will reach families across the South and West Sides through the organization’s existing distribution network. 

Protecting Farmland Protects More Than Food 

Z Farm’s permanent protection reaches beyond crop rows. The property connects to the Deer Creek Corridor, strengthening a larger, more connected greenway network in the region. Urban Growers Collective also plans to build habitat for native pollinators and beekeeping on the site. In a metro area losing green space to development on multiple fronts, a permanently protected farm does double duty: growing food today and holding ground for the ecosystems and communities that depend on it tomorrow.