People
Community

Environment
Ecology

SHARED FARM OWNERSHIP: A Way to Get Back to the Land

Have you ever considered becoming involved in farming sustainably but been deterred by the cost of ownership and profitability risks?

Shared farm ownership can be a possible solution. We are exploring the potential for groups of people and families to come together and develop solutions to ownership, housing, and living productively and sustainably on farms.

Planning Policy
One of the main problems with such activities has often been planning policy which has traditionally constrained the numbers of people who can live on a given farm. The Town and Country Planning Act (1949) is directed towards very broad socio-political-economic factors and protecting the countryside from piecemeal development. It takes into consideration limited reasons for living on the land - usually agricultural and the industries surrounding agriculture, but even then only in narrowly defined economic terms related to a planning strategy.

Sustainability: A New Imperative
However, positive changes are already underway which will mean that broader definitions of agricultural economics, contributions to society in terms of sustainability, and associated housing requirements, are likely to be met with greater acceptance by planning authorities.

While "The concept of 'sustainability' is comparatively new to the environment field, is protean in meaning and extremely difficult to define in any precise sense." (Deputy Judge Nigel Macleod QC) human activities which reduce our overall resource and energy dependence are increasingly becoming accepted as factors to address within society and hence also within planning policy. The Sustainable Communities Act, recently passed by Parliament, is an indication that society overall is beginning to take such issues seriously.

In order to increase sustainability there is a need for more families too produce, consume, recycle, and live (in the broadest of terms) in one location and hence reduce their importation of resources and energy dependence. One way to achieve this is to increase the numbers of people living and working on and around farms - and increase the number of smaller farms.

NB: sustainability is a concept which has arisen from the ecological movement in recent times. The ecological movement is not to be confused with environmentalism which has a historical timescale in centuries, as implied by Macleod.

Leading the Way
There are many examples of new approaches to planning applications with sustainability as an aim (economic and social), not least those which attempt to address the need for more families too live, work, produce, consume, and recycle in one location. This requirement comes under  the ecological principle of permaculture in its broadest sense. Community Supported Agriculture is an example of some broad permaculture principles in action.

However, it would be misleading to state that the planning authorities are embracing such concepts as valid reasons for increasing the numbers of people living on the land. After all we live in a culture in which civilisation (culture centred on a disconnection between human life and nature) is still continuing to place more people in cities than in the countryside. Those cities must import food and other resources from the countryside and society revolves around this dynamic. Those of us who live in the countryside experience the many negative factors associated with this situation, from jobs and transport to social isolation and the constant need to depend (often paradoxically) on towns and cities for products and services.

Nevertheless, the intentional sustainable community movement (e.g. www.evnuk.org.uk and www.tlio.org.uk) are making slow conceptual inroads into issues associated with the conventional perspectives of the planning system. Due to the increasing sustainability imperative planning policies are beginning to retrench one step at a time towards accepting sustainability principles as a valid basis of land use and agriculture.

Invitation
We have been looking at developing proposals for a sustainable approach to farming (through having many families living and working cooperatively and diversely together on the land) in the Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Monmouth, Abergavenny, Hay-on-Wye area of the Southern Wales/England borders. The aim is to to begin to evolve an existing farm towards ecological sustainability.

We have looked at several farms that have been for sale in this area and through exploration of the possibilities it has become clear that a clear plan and a definite proposal for dealing with planning law (specifically in relation to increasing the dwellings on a farm) are required long before considering the purchase of a farm. If you are interested in joining us in this exploration please contact info@ecovillage.co.uk

Farming Community
The above intention to develop a sustainable farm is not an attempt to reinvent the wheel. As with the main aim of EcoVillage supporting existing rural communities we see the traditional farming community as an integral part of the forthcoming revolution in sustainability.

Ultimately we are all heading towards the same future and there is considerable momentum to be gained from all sections of society coming together in this endeavour.

Therefore, we are especially interested in the views of members of the traditional farming community, particularly those who may be under pressure to leave farming but who wish not to do so. This is with a view to increasing the number of people living and working sustainably on a farm. Community Supported Agriculture is likely to be one of the factors that will be important in such a venture.

Impact and Sustainability Criteria
As an example of forward thinking on the above issues (mainly in the context of new eco-communities) the following is reproduced from The Land is Ours It is a set of criteria for demonstrating sustainability of land-based rural developments:

[1] The project has a management plan which demonstrates:

[a] how the site will contribute significantly towards the occupiers' livelihoods;

[b] how the objectives cited in items 2 to 14 below will be achieved and maintained.

[2] The project provides affordable access to land and/or housing to people in need.

[3] The project provides public access to the countryside, including temporary access such as open-days and educational visits.

[4] The project can demonstrate how it will be integrated into the local economy and community.

[5] The project can demonstrate that no activities pursued on the site shall cause undue nuisance to neighbours or the public.

[6] The project has prepared a strategy for the minimization of motor vehicle use.

[7] The development and any buildings associated with it are appropriately sited in relation to local landscape, natural resources and settlement patterns.

[8] New buildings and dwellings are not visually intrusive nor of a scale disproportionate to the site and the scale of the operation; and are constructed from materials with low embodied energy and environmental impact, and preferably from locally sourced materials, unless environmental considerations or the use of reclaimed materials determine otherwise. Reuse and conversion of existing buildings on the site is carried out as far as practicable in conformity with these criteria.

[9] The project is reversible, insofar as new buildings can be easily dismantled and the land easily restored to its former condition.

[10] The project plans to minimize the creation of waste and to reuse and recycle as much as possible on site.

[11] The project has a strategy for energy conservation and the reduction, over time, of dependence on non-renewable energy sources to a practical minimum.

[12] The project aims over time for the autonomous provision of water, energy and sewage disposal and where it is not already connected to the utilities, shall make no demands upon the existing infrastructure.

[13] Agricultural, forestry and similar land-based activities are carried out according to sustainable principles. Preference will be given to projects which conform to registered organic standards, sustainable forestry standards or recognized permaculture principles.

[14] The project has strategies and programmes for the ecological management of the site, including :

[a] the sustainable management and improvement of soil structure;

[b] the conservation and, where appropriate, the enhancement of semi-natural habitat, taking into account biodiversity, indigenous species, and wildlife corridors;

[c] the efficient use and reuse of water, as well as increasing the water holding capacity of the site;

[d] the planting of trees and hedges, particularly in areas where the tree coverage is less than 20 per cent.

[15] The project can show that affordability and sustainability are secured, for example, by the involvement of a housing association, co-operative, trust or other social body whose continuing interest in the property will ensure control over subsequent changes of ownership and occupation.