Advocates of Bay Area agriculture and organics have been waiting to learn the fate of Star Route Farms since owner Warren Weber put his 100-acre Bolinas farm up for sale in 2013.

When news broke this month that the University of San Francisco has purchased the property that was the state’s first certified organic farm, many responded with enthusiasm. “It’s a symbol of the importance of farming and of farmland conservation,” said Jamison Watts, director of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. Not only is the land going to remain a working organic farm, but the university plans to use it to educate students.

Yet if the sale is an omen of the future of farming in the Bay Area — and organic agriculture in particular — it’s a hard one to read. The unconventional nature of the deal, rather than the institutional buyer that purchased the land, may signal a future that Bay Area food lovers can look toward.

The 76-year-old Weber’s desire to sell the farm he founded in 1974 is a bellwether for an entire generation that has reached retirement age. According to the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture census of agriculture, the average age of farmers in California in 2012 was 60. Almost a quarter were over 70. Only 4 percent were under age 34.

The Farm LASTS Project, which studies succession planning for farmers, has estimated that in the next 20 years, 70 percent of all privately owned farms and ranches in the United States will change hands. Although organic farmers are younger on average than conventional ones, California Certified Organic Farmers, the primary certification agency in the state, recently found that 200 of the 2,500 farms on its rolls had been certified organic for more than 20 years.

Many aging farmers must sell their farms to fund their retirement. Yet it’s not as simple as putting a home or business on the market and decamping to Arizona. “It’s selling your life’s work,” said Liya Schwartzman, who works on California FarmLink’s Agrarian Elders Project. “The hope is that in the transition you’re finding someone who will preserve the legacy of the farmland and also the farm business.”