Echollective Farm grows a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers on 51 acres in Eastern Iowa. The farm started in 2000 as a small garden aiming to grow food for The Red Avocado, a former Iowa City restaurant. Since 2000, Echollective has expanded and now grows food for a number of area outlets including: local restaurants, New Pioneer Coop, Iowa City Farmers Market, CSA (veggie subscription), and a local food hub selling to institutions including the Iowa City Schools.
We also grow flowers for local florists and seed garlic for farms all over the northern United States. As farmers, we see our work as service to the land and our community. Yes, we grow food, but first and foremost, we care for the creek, woods, cultivated soil, and people connected to our farm. Caring for people and the planet means that we use organic and sustainable growing practices and focus our energy on growing for communities located a half hour of less from our farm.
When people like you support farms like us, you are helping us do right by the bees, worms, waterways, soil, and our community. Thank you for being a part of the collective effort that makes Echollective possible!
Our Mission: Together with our Iowa Community, Echollective Farm grows food to nourish people and the planet.
Our Vision:
- We believe in the power of the collective. Our work to steward the land and support our community is supported by so many. Collaborating with other farmers, organizations, and community members allows us to thrive.
- We believe healthy food has healthy roots. So the food we grow is truly nourishing, we aim to for it to be good for everything and everyone, starting from the soil up. This means that we never spray synthetic pesticides or herbicides on our food, around our home, in our woodlands, or anywhere…ever.
- We believe that food is a human right. Our farm operates with the understanding that every person in our community deserves access to culturally-relevant foods that meet their individual dietary needs.
- We believe it takes a more just farm to grow a more just food system. As we farm, we must cultivate diversity and center equity in both our overarching mission and the road we take to achieving it.
- We believe diversity is important and necessary. We celebrate difference and variety, and seek to build a sustainable farm system that is welcoming to all animals (from worms to people).
- We believe farmers and farm workers deserve a livable wage as compensation for their labor.
Meet Your Farmers
Derek Roller (pictured here in a pink hat surrounded by the 2023 farm crew) has been a restauranteur, educator, volunteer, urban grower, and currently a rural steward. He views his shepherding of the farm ecosystem as his direct action against what he views as one of society’s (and earth’s ecosystems) larger problems — human food production. Born with a green thumb and raised in his parents’ and grandparents’ gardens, he sees himself as a doer and feels strongly that the doing should be passionate and matter.