The Ecological Land Cooperative develops affordable, low impact smallholdings for ecological agriculture. We believe that small-scale ecological farming can work in today’s economy. Our vision is to see farms which provide sound livelihoods and healthy food for local communities, whilst improving ecology and biodiversity.
Determined to turn good ideas into reality we have designed a model for creating affordable, ecological smallholdings. Since 2013 we have established clusters of working start farms across England and Wales, for new entrants to start in agroecology.
Why is this needed?
Supporting new entrants into sustainable rural livelihoods
Farming is becoming increasingly inaccessible to new entrants. Even though the numbers of young people studying agriculture is growing, the average age of a British farmer is 59 and rising. The cost of agricultural land and rural housing is at record levels, becoming prohibitively expensive for most new entrants to agriculture. Farms have also been getting fewer and larger, while stocks of council owned County Farms have declined.
With the cost of land and housing being so high, it is hard for aspiring farmers to acquire mortgages. The result is a substantial body of people who wish to farm an ecological smallholding but cannot afford to do so. We want to change this.
“ We repeatedly see new entrants to farming struggle to secure access to land, planning permission, or start-up finance. The Ecological Land Cooperative have an excellent strategy for helping new entrants overcome all of these. Their model will get more land into productive, ecological management.” Kate Swade, Director, Shared Assets
Supporting the transition to regenerative agriculture
UK agriculture is slowly transitioning towards a more ecological approach. Farmers are being asked to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, whilst making improvements to biodiversity and ecosystem services on their land. This is reflected in the government’s plan to phase out farm subsidies in favour of ‘payment for public goods’, through environmental land management schemes.
We know that farming can be both viable and ecologically sound. Our model supports small-scale agroecological enterprises to help build and maintain a countryside in which people flourish alongside natural biodiversity.
Our model
The ELC’s solution and core business plan is to create small clusters of affordable residential smallholdings. We work with out tenants to gain planning permission to build low-impact dwelling, and provide infrastructure such as barns and water supply.
This model allows us to keep costs low by distributing the cost of infrastructure and planning applications across several smallholdings. The cluster model also allows the smallholders to work together and provide mutual support. Our cooperative retains the freehold on each smallholding in order to protect it for affordable agricultural and ecological use in perpetuity.
“The Ecological Land Cooperative is a small organisation with big ambitions, and for that I applaud it.” ELC Investor
How does it work?
The Ecological Land Cooperative purchases agricultural land and plans a number of ecological smallholdings for the site, usually three. We draw on advice from ecologists, planning experts, and the local community, to put together an application to local planning authority for residential smallholdings.
Once planning permission is granted, we select suitable farm stewards to take on the smallholding plots. Plots are either sold on an 150 year lease, or rented to new entrants at an affordable rate. The holdings’ performance is monitored against a binding management plan, which ensures planning regulations and ecological standards are being met.
As well as the land, farm stewards also receive extra resources, such as:
- Permission to build a low-impact dwelling
- A shared timber frame barn
- Road access and internal stone track
- On-site renewable electricity generation
- Water via rainwater harvesting and borehole
- Business mentoring from a sector expert
“As a society we face numerous immediate and longer term challenges with regards to food security, energy and climate change. A genuinely sustainable response relies on more small farmers in low impact developments, providing good food, experimental data, and contributing to rural regeneration. The Ecological Land Cooperative does just that — putting in place today the foundations for the food production of tomorrow” Caroline Lucas MP, Green Party
Additional benefits
Our work is centred on the development of ecological smallholdings, but the impacts of our work are wider than this. The creation of ecological holdings also:
- Demonstrates a model of collective ownership that can protect and enhance the land, based not only on ideas of conservation, but on producing a living and working countryside;
- Provides evidence through our site monitoring research that helps strengthen campaigns for land reform;
- Seeks to improve planning policy by providing evidence and examples that low-impact ecological land use has multiple benefits and should be embraced and legislated for.
