Is an alternative to private property durable in agriculture?

Abstract

The desire for sustainability calls for new development paths for the agricultural sector. Some suggest creating small to medium size farms, performing agricultural practices that preserve ecosystems, are labour intensive and connected to local markets. New farmers are a necessity in many rural areas, yetthe main obstacle to the settlement of newcomers is access to land. This research suggests an alternative to private property of land, such as experienced by the Foncière Solidaire created by the association «Terre de Liens» in France, which collectively buys land (13,500 shareholders, end of 2019) to lease themto new farmers under long-term basis. The research question is therefore: "Is this alternative to private property of land durable?" Here, durability means the permanence of farms, despite the on-going upheavals. We suggest that the values are the key, and that values leading to everlastingness describe aconception of Justice. To identify whether or not the values describe a conception of Justice in practice, the discourses should be consistent with the six axioms of the Grammar of Justice by Boltanski and Thévenot (1991) when implemented to a Local Common Good (Thévenot, 1993). The whole movement cannot last without the association Terre de Liens being permanent itself. We will highlight that the discourse(official communication) of the Terre de Liens association calls on Justice, being consistent with the six axioms. We  also underpin that the main challenges are the evolution of regulations, and especially the European laws and French annual financial laws, which set the rules for fiscal exonerations and drive agricultural practices. Whatever these evolutions, it is likely that the association would achieve permanence because of the high number of actors (communes searching for farmers, applicants to taking or transferring farms, donors, shareholders) who are federated around its "Fair" raison d'être. Yes, there is a potential for durable alternative to land private property in agriculture.

Access to Land: Markets, Policies and Initiatives

“…These organisations exchange knowledge, such as in the Erasmus-Plus-funded projects 'Fostering access to land for a new generation of agroecological farmers' [67], 'Learning towards access to land' [68] and 'Setting up a Learning Platform for Farmers' Access to Land' [69]. One of the leading actors in the access-to-land movement is Terre de Liens, whose foundation was founded in 2003 [70], and which has a range of legal entities, such as a national association, several regional associations to ensure local embeddedness, a charity foundation to allow for using gifts and bequests [70,71] and an investment fund, the 'Foncière Solidaire', [71] to allow for acquisition and use of low-interest funding to acquire farmland to be leased to new farmers. Macombe [71] evaluates this structure as ' .…”

“…One of the leading actors in the access-to-land movement is Terre de Liens, whose foundation was founded in 2003 [70], and which has a range of legal entities, such as a national association, several regional associations to ensure local embeddedness, a charity foundation to allow for using gifts and bequests [70,71] and an investment fund, the 'Foncière Solidaire', [71] to allow for acquisition and use of low-interest funding to acquire farmland to be leased to new farmers. Macombe [71] evaluates this structure as ' . .…”

“…a potential for durable collective alternatives to individual ownership of agricultural land, the future extent of which depends on future policy decisions.' [71] Some older organisations, such as BD Grondbeheer in the Netherlands (founded in 1978), have not been directly involved in these Erasmus programmes, but have been inspired towards taking a more active role in obtaining new sources of finance to broaden their scope by this new access-to-land movement [55].…”