A new form of Land Trust is emerging; a Community Farm Trust. These trusts offer an important strategy for communities dealing with the root cause of the loss of their productive farms and productive farm land.
Farms in the past were owned in name by one individual but effectively were owned and operated by all the members of the family farm. There were typically 10 to 15 children in an extended family with aunts, uncles and the grandparents living on one farm. One of the children would take over each aspect needed to maintain these independent and sustainable farming communities. Stable rural communities were made up of networks of these family farms lasting for many generations. As shifts in agricultural markets and technology and growing development pressure lead to the breakdown of these communities, land ownership was divided between the aunts & uncles of a family.
By the late 20th century, these farming families started having only 1 or 2 children, and community farms and community farming ended. Farming became a business, not a way of life, and the land and equipment became the farmer's retirement fund. Because few children of farmers want to continue farming as their business, farmers are forced to sell out in order to secure the funds they need for their retirement and to pay off debt. Entry into farming today is severely limited by prohibitively high land values, equipment and labor costs, and changing markets for farm products.
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