Community-owned farmland trust with long leases
Citizens pool money to buy farmland, take it off the speculative market for good, and lease it on long, affordable terms to new ecological farmers.
Start small
Form a working group of 5 to 8 people (farmers, a lawyer, someone with finance skills) and spend 6 to 12 months choosing a legal structure and drafting a model lease, roughly A$10,000 to A$30,000 in legal advice. Trial one property through a covenant or a donated or bequeathed farm before raising community shares.
The problem
Land prices put farm ownership out of reach for new farmers, who rely on short, insecure leases and leave farming once training or incubator support ends.
Where it fits
Thrives where there is a strong cooperative or ethical-investment culture, legal structures that can hold land in perpetuity, and planning rules that allow farmers to live on the land. Needs a pipeline of trained farmers and patient capital.
The principle underneath
Separating ownership of land from the right to farm it removes speculation from the farmer's costs. Long leases tied to ecological conditions give farmers security to invest while the community keeps the land in farming.
Who to call
Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance (Agroecology Land Trust); Sustain: The Australian Food Network; Terre de Liens (France); Ecological Land Cooperative (UK); Agrarian Trust (USA).
Watch out for
Breaks when lease rents can't cover building upkeep, when land is bought before farmers are ready, when planning law blocks living on site, or when governance drifts away from the farmers themselves.
Where it comes from
Grows out of the community land trust movement and European citizen land cooperatives; Terre de Liens was founded in 2003 and became a recognised foundation in 2013. Open knowledge. AFSA's Australian model aims to centre First Peoples in governance, which needs First Peoples-led design.
Where it's worked
France (Terre de Liens) · 2003 to 2013
About 5,000 shareholders raised over €15 million; by 2013 it owned 89 farms (about 2,000 ha) leased on 9- and 18-year rural leases with environmental clauses.
DocumentedSource
Greenham Reach, Mid Devon, England (Ecological Land Cooperative) · 2013 onwards
Three affordable smallholdings of 5.5 to 8.5 acres with shared barn, solar and water; planning won in 2013 and three families farming since. The co-op now runs 7 sites.
DocumentedSource
USA, 8 states (Agrarian Trust Agrarian Commons) · to 2026
10 commons secured 400+ acres and raised US$6+ million, including a 99-year lease at Lick Run Farm, Virginia.
Stories from the fieldSource
Where it failed
Terre de Liens reports costly building upkeep, a shortage of trained farmers able to run diversified farms, and capital limits on how fast it can buy. In Australia no farmland trust was yet holding and leasing land as of late 2025; AFSA's Agroecology Land Trust is still in legal structuring. Incubators alone don't solve tenure: only 58% of Tufts New Entry alumni were still farming, with affordable land after graduation a barrier.