About Us

The International Farming Foundation exists to solve a problem most people sense but few institutions address directly: modern systems extract more from farms than they protect.

Across the United States and globally, family farms are disappearing not because farmers lack skill or discipline, but because legal, financial, and institutional pressures compound faster than families can adapt. When farms fail, land fragments, communities weaken, and food systems become more brittle.

The Foundation was built to intervene without financializing agriculture.

We do not buy land.
We do not control farms.
We do not promise returns.

Instead, we operate as a stewardship institution; Supporting agricultural continuity through education, legal resilience, and long-term governance structures that keep farmers in control.

The International Farming Foundation is an Illinois not-for-profit corporation, intentionally structured outside traditional investment and ownership models.

We operate on three core principles:

1. Farmers retain ownership, control, and economic upside
    
2. Stewards support agriculture without extracting value
    
3. Governance replaces speculation as the organizing force
    

Funds flow into mission-aligned programs; Not into assets, not into yield, and not back to contributors. Contribution is recognized through stewardship instruments that confer education, transparency, and acknowledgment, never ownership or profit.

This structure allows farms to receive support without becoming financial products, and allows stewards to engage without creating pressure or control.

Justin Mahwikizi is a systems builder focused on how legal, economic, and institutional frameworks shape outcomes for families and communities.

His work has centered on understanding; From the inside how complex systems fail ordinary people, particularly in housing, small business, and agriculture. Rather than studying these systems from a distance, Justin has spent years engaging them directly: working within them, documenting their incentives, and designing alternative structures that prioritize durability over extraction.

Justin founded the International Farming Foundation to apply this systems-first approach to agriculture; Building a model that supports farms without reproducing the same financial pressures that have destabilized other sectors.

His work emphasizes governance, clarity, and long-term continuity over growth narratives or financial engineering.

Jonathan Persenaire brings a practical, operations-driven perspective to agricultural stewardship and institutional design.  With experience working alongside farming and land-based operations, Jonathan has seen firsthand how misaligned incentives ; Rather than poor farming, are often responsible for farm instability. His focus has been on building support structures that respect farmer autonomy while still providing meaningful resilience against legal, logistical, and generational challenges.

Jonathan helps shape the Foundation’s on-the-ground engagement with agricultural operations, ensuring that programs remain supportive rather than directive, and that stewardship never becomes control.

The International Farming Foundation was created to answer a simple question:

How do you protect farms without owning them?

Most existing solutions rely on acquisition, consolidation, or financial return. Those approaches often stabilize balance sheets while destabilizing families.  

We chose a different path.

By separating support from ownership and education from extraction, the Foundation provides a durable alternative; One that respects farmers, satisfies stewards, and remains legible to regulators and the public.

• Farms are not financial instruments
   
• Families should not have to sell control to survive
   
• Transparency should educate, not pressure
   
• Stewardship should not come with strings
   

The International Farming Foundation continues to expand its stewardship programs, educational initiatives, and continuity support; Always guided by the same constraint:

If a structure would pressure a farmer or promise a steward a return, we do not use it.
 

That discipline is not a limitation.

It is the point.