Terre de Liens enables, through citizen savings, the purchase of farms that are then rented to those who want to become farmers, provided they produce organically.
Terre de Liens consists of 1,700 volunteers and 200 employees across France who go out into the field, listening to farmers who want to retire or those who have inherited land and wish to transfer it with a purpose, an ecological project. This allows them to listen to, welcome, and guide around 1,500 project holders each year who are looking to establish themselves.
Today, there are 400 farms acquired, with 50 to 60 new acquisitions each year, totaling 800 farmers on an area of 12,000 hectares. “This means that little by little, we are becoming an important agricultural owner,” explains Benjamin Duriez. “We have a responsibility and we seek through our actions to make the land a common good.”
Terre de Liens addresses the two main barriers to agricultural establishment today, which are access to information, by connecting those who want to transfer land with those who want to take it over, given that when one is not from the agricultural sector, which is the case for two-thirds of those establishing themselves today, the chances of obtaining the right information are slim.
The second barrier addressed is that of capital. “Today, establishing oneself in agriculture, assuming one buys, will require an average of half a million euros. Knowing that agricultural incomes are insufficient. With us, someone who does not have that capital can access the land because citizens will pool resources to allow them to become tenants in a secure manner with an environmental clause in the lease. This gives them the opportunity to access a profession, especially for those undergoing professional retraining. And there are many.”
Indeed, every week, 200 farms disappear in France. In 10 years, 100,000 farmers have been lost. It is therefore necessary to launch massive policies for the renewal of generations and agricultural establishments, knowing that between 800,000 and a million people would be needed to work the land, especially in organic farming, which requires more labor and less mechanization.
“For this, we need to encourage everyone to evolve their relationship with food, regarding their meat consumption for example. Because if we consumed half as much meat, mathematically, statistically, France could produce enough to feed everyone organically,” specifies Benjamin Duriez.
To this end, Terre de Liens proposes the idea of a social security for food, somewhat similar to that of health or retirement. "We believe we could do the same for food, which would mean avoided costs in terms of health and water pollution. The hidden costs of our food amount to billions, which are directly linked to the agricultural model.”
The idea would be to establish agreements with farmers or stores that indeed have virtuous practices or products for our health and environment, empowering people to buy quality food. Everyone would contribute according to their means to be able to feed themselves. “And we are convinced that this would be a real lever for transforming the agricultural sector through demand,” concludes Benjamin Duriez.
