Reimagining Land Tenure for the Future
The Real Estate Crisis
When you think about real estate in the United States, what comes to mind? A quick Google search brings up some of the current issues facing homeowners and those looking to buy, stemming from the lasting effects of COVID-19, the slow roll of inflation, market value appreciation, and the growing impacts of climate collapse that have plagued many industries in our country over the last few years.
High mortgage rates combined with an unprecedented housing shortage have contributed to young families being unable to find affordable housing, individuals being forced from their homes and apartments due to exorbitant rent, young adults needing to move back in with their aging parents, and has added even more pressure to the growing population of unhoused people across the nation.
This real estate crisis extends into other domains of modern property ownership including farmland where investor capital, corporate land grabs, and development have contributed to record-high land prices that make it difficult, if not impossible, for young and beginning farmers to purchase land.
Privatized land ownership in the United States is big business and the real estate market is considered to be one of the largest asset classes of all industries in the country. As more farmland is sold through the real estate market, there is less available, and the farmland that is available, has rapidly become unaffordable as it changed hands.
From 1972 through 1990, national farmland values remained under $750 per acre (approximately $1,500 when adjusting for inflation). From 1990 to now, values have risen to a national average of $4,048 per acre with regional average values as high as $8,800 per acre. This drastic and alarming rise in cost has completely outpriced farmers in many regions of the country, and there’s no sign that this unrealistic acceleration of land values will slow down in the future.
The roots of this crisis are deeply set into the cultural concept of the “American Dream,” a capitalistic ideology that centers the prosperous individual. From the great land theft carried out by colonists and the United States government against Indigenous tribes and people of color, to the continual consolidation of land ownership by large companies, this cultural directive has established and fortified a modern-day relationship to land that is exploitative and transactional.
Thinking Outside the System
Here at The Farmers Land Trust, we believe that our transactional relationship with land has had a negative impact on our physical and spiritual selves. The establishment of this dynamic has severed human beings from nature, disassembled resilient land-based communities, and has made more and more people reliant on systems held and maintained by power over (extractive, capitalist monopolies).
While it may feel difficult to imagine a different path, the solution to this commodification of the land can be found reflected in nature itself. Anyone who has spent time in a garden knows how powerfully creative and generative the natural world can be. Through the infinitely complex, symbiotic relationships found in a healthy ecological system, abundance and resilience are gifted to all organisms involved. Each unique individual entity within the landscape contributes something magical, and when these gifts are nested within the cumulative contributions of the whole, wellness and abundance become available to all.
When we use nature as our model for building society, we can see how beneficial it would be to remove land from the unnatural, privatized land ownership model and consider the ways in which land held in common would lead to abundance with far-reaching positive effects for the environment and the people who exist within its context.
The Seeds Have Been Planted
Due to our modern society’s violent, racist, and systematic efforts to suppress, marginalize, and destroy examples and efforts like Indigenous land stewardship, New Communities and Hutterites, community-held land might feel radical and unattainable here in the States. Fortunately for us, there are several organizations in other parts of the world who have already established community land initiatives with success, and these initiatives are gaining serious momentum.
France
“Terre de Liens is based on an associative and civic dynamic that allows the acquisition of agricultural land, to install a new generation of farmers on organic farms. These places recreate the link between farmers and citizens, while promoting biodiversity and respect for the soil.”
Structure: Terre de Liens is a three-part organization consisting of a Federation, a Land Company, and a Foundation. The Federation is a non-profit managed by a board in collaboration with 19 partner associations with local roots to specific regions of France. The Land Company is a citizen-funded agricultural solidarity investment structure that purchases farmland and holds it in common. The Foundation is the national umbrella under which all partners, citizens, and associated groups are held to accept donated land and resources, and lease acquired land to local peasant farmers.
Land Held in Common: Terre de Liens has 54,000 members; 1,400 volunteers; and holds 10,000 hectares of land supporting 360 small farms across France.
Belgium
“Terre-en-vue brings together citizens, organizations, and public actors who wish to facilitate access to land in Belgium for nourishing agriculture.”
Structure: Terre-en-vue was born from the Support Network for Peasant Agriculture (ReSAP), initiated in 2010 by several associations concerned with the development of sustainable agriculture in Belgium. Today, the Terre-en-vue movement is made up of three legal structures including a non-profit organization, a cooperative of shareholders who buy and preserve farmland, and a foundation that accepts financial and land donations.
Land Held in Common: As of 2019, Terre-en-vue had more than 1,700 cooperators , €2 million in share capital, 75 hectares (approximately 185 acres) of land acquired and 15 farms supported.
Romania
“Eco Ruralis is an association of farmers and peasants, which operates at the national level, with almost 20,000 members in all counties of the country. The association was founded in 2009 and represents the interests and rights of peasants, small producers, and people working in the countryside in Romania.”
Structure: The association is managed by a General Assembly of members gathered annually and through the Coordination Committee with an executive role and representation by peasant members, elected by vote once every two years. The association is also supported by working groups who meet regularly and organize to fulfill the association’s objectives. In the executive and representative structure of the association, a third of the seats are dedicated to young people, who participate in decision-making and the implementation of projects, and in the coordination of the association’s activity.
Land Held in Common: Currently, Eco Ruralis has 10 farm producer members.
Germany
“We organize communal ownership of land for farm-run organic agriculture. We purchase arable land, meadows, pastures, hedges and biotopes and make the land available to regionally integrated farms that market organic food locally, offer tours, engage in nature conservation and landscape management, provide social care or work with school classes in experiential education.”
Structure: Kulturland eG is a Cultural Land Cooperative that collects money from farm customers and supporters in the vicinity and uses it to buy the land and make it available to the farm on a permanent basis. A new community ownership of land is created, which is called “Common Land 2.0.” Areas for organic farming are secured in the long term with the help of the community.
Land Held in Common: By the end of 2020, Kulturland had notarized land purchases for 21 farms nationwide, amounting to 308.66 hectares of land secured.
A Sense of Place
What do these community-held land initiatives have in common? They have established democratized land ownership; have prioritized organic, biodynamic, and regenerative land stewardship by peasant farmers; and have done so within the context of local laws, culture, and ecology—ensuring longevity through cultivating a sense of place. This is further supported by a national structure, extending reach, and available resources.
There is no one-size-fits-all model for community-held land and every opportunity offers unique possibilities and challenges. Here at The Farmers Land Trust, we treat all land projects within the Farmland Commons framework as individual community entities situated in a unique sense of place. We combine the benefits of local leadership with national support and guidance to build resilience locally while rooting the work into the growing national movement.
They have established democratized land ownership; have prioritized organic, biodynamic, and regenerative land stewardship by peasant farmers; and have done so within the context of local laws, culture, and ecology—ensuring longevity through cultivating a sense of place.
Using nature as our guide, we understand that healthy ecological landscapes rely on biodiversity for regeneration. For this reason, we prioritize inclusivity and diversity within every facet of the Farmland Commons and associated community leadership to bolster abundance and support a holistic and equitable vision for the land.
Land Is the Basis of Peace
At the 2023 National Biodynamic Conference held in Boulder, Colorado, Co-Executive Director of The Farmers Land Trust, and conference keynote, Kristina Villa delivered a passionate speech about the future of land tenure in the United States. From the harrowing history of community land lost to privatized land ownership to the modern-day difficulties communities face accessing food and land, Kristina elaborated on how she went from originally believing that access to food was the basis of peace, to seeing that actually, access to land was the true basis of peace.
With climate change, the rising cost of living, and economically enforced scarcity to face in the coming years, Kristina sees this work as being an essential part of transforming the well-being of our planet and people. “Land justice in the form of ecological stewardship and equitable access to land is not a lofty ideal. It is a fundamental right. As we look to the next 100 years, we have a moral obligation to advocate fiercely for equal access to land, by letting go of the power, wealth, and the control that we have, and giving it to farmers and growers who have been, and continue to be, systematically displaced from land.”
We are guided and inspired by Kristina’s words and acknowledge that we all have a role to play in transforming our relationship with land. Just as in nature, it is true in our human communities that we all have something special to offer to ensure wellness to the whole. Kristina notes, “The task before us is great, but so is our potential.”
Have you considered how your own unique magic could be used to support community-held land where you live? Reach out today and help us build a new, equitable path forward for land tenure in the United States.
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