How to Share Land - A project to develop ways for landowners and new entrants into farming to work in partnership, in order to diversify and foster innovation in our food system.

Why share land?

The average size of a farm in the UK is 57ha, with holdings in predominantly arable regions frequently totalling several hundred hectares. This scale of operation, several times the average in the rest of Europe, lends UK farms well to the large scale and rationalised systems through which we grow, move, process and retail virtually all of our food. While these systems work efficiently in a world of stable markets, free trade, and cheap fossil fuels, there is mounting evidence to suggest that our over reliance on this industrial-scale approach to food supply will lack resilience given the uncertainties of the 21st Century.

This initiative aims to square the scale at which land is owned in the UK with the need for diversification and innovation in our food system. While there is measurable demand for food from new and more reliable sources, there are few opportunities for new land entrepreneurs to get fresh businesses started. Land is simply too expensive. At the same time landowners may wish to diversify the income streams on their estates, and take advantage of emerging markets. But they may not have the time, management resources, or wish to take on the risk of starting new businesses. Within this conundrum there is an opportunity for partnership. Our aim is to develop and promote operational models and legal structures through which landowners and new entrants into farming can work together. The principal challenge is to find frameworks which provide the new entrants with the reassurance that they are building their enterprise on firm ground, whilst ensuring that the landowner sees material benefits and does not risk diminishing the value of their assets.