[EXP] Kulturland eG: a farmers - consumers cooperative

Buying farmland to ensure organic farming

Date of writing: December 5, 2017

Author(s) of this page: SM

Organization(s): Access to Land Network, Kulturland eG

Summary:

The Kulturland eG cooperative buys organic farmland with 0% interest share capital of consumers and rents it to community connected farms on a long term basis.

Text:

Description of activities

Background

The history of Kulturland eG goes back to 2012 when 15 ha of arable land in the Bodensee region, cultivated on a biodynamic basis since 1986, was about to be sold. This incident led us to seek for new models of financing and property. Together with the International Biodynamic Association a baseline study Study: Liberating the fields - land markets and new forms of ownership in organic farming was done in order to show and react to problems related to property and access to land.

Kulturland eG currently has acquired 90 ha of land for 10 farms. Kulturland has initially emerged from a Forum Synergies workshop and is member of the European Platform on Access to Land

Activities

The key current activities are

•cooperating with more farms to acquire land

•acquiring more cooperative members to raise capital stock

•networking with other access to land organisations in DE in our “Netzwerk Flächensicherung” ("Network for land securement" zugangzuland.de/)

Outlook

Challenges:

•to integrate larger amounts of money without compro-mising our principles

•to cover our running costs without subsidies

•to do proper PR with lacking time resources

Next steps

•to grow

•to become more professionalized

•to motivate and train members as ambassadors

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Titus Bahner presents the story of Kulturland cooperative, how this small network of 7 community connected organic farms and members works, not only securing farmland but also creating new relationships, taking care of biodiversity.

He also mentions similar European initiatives who are also trying to tackle the issue of access to land for farmers.