1. Why ALTS in Canada?

Building alternative agricultural land tenure systems (ALTS) for food systems transformation:

• agroecological practices

• diverse and equitable land access

• community-based decision-making and collective action

Canada’s context

• Drivers: demographics and farm succession; rising land values; farmland financialization

• Policy: limited federal/provincial policy or legal frameworks for land redistribution

• Third-sector: patchwork of initiatives to protect farmland and build/support alternative land tenure

• Indigenous land justice: title, governance, sovereignty and “small ’t’ treaty relations”

National Farmers Foundation

• Farmer-led national charitable organization (National Farmers Union partner)

• Patchwork of third-sector initiatives (farmland conservation)

• Is there a role for a national third-sector model in Canada?

</div>

2. Portrait of ALTS in Canada

Development of ALTS to date has been localized and decentralized across the country: we need a better picture of what’s really happening on the ground:

• national inventory of ALTS

• farmer-experience and comparative research

ALTS geography

Diverse “models” across the country…

• Regional trusts: regional/provincial-scale entities from tradition of farmland conservation trusts

• Community trusts: local entities designed to build leaseholder equity without speculative investment; community-based governance

• Social purpose trusts (Quebéc): leverage formal trust structures (trustee/beneficiary) to enshrine social objectives

• Co-operatives: horizontal member-based/democratic governance within well-defined statutory regimes

• Others (employee ownership trusts; land condominium)

ALTS frequently employ "mix and match" design strategies: formal models appear less important than what works on the ground.

3. What policy lessons emerge from our “bottom-up” view of ALTS?

• ALTS as transition pathways (dynamic systems), not static tenure models: structure vs social learning

• Farmers want the means to build shared equity to sustain their livelihoods, keep land accessible, and realize community benefit

• Both short and long-term success of ALTS means planning for the next transition

Common Roots Farm: “who still knows how to organize a barn-raising”?

• Structure: co-op to co-op tenure

• Governance experiments: probationary periods, different membership roles, feedback loops

• Policy lesson: identify and target support to critical intervention points in ALTS transition pathways

Heartland Homestead: from housing as key constraint to equity-enabler

• Structure: public to co-op tenure

• Equity-building tools: ground leases as flexible devices for benefit sharing

• Policy lessons: organizational housing policies/practices as high-impact interventions; legal barriers to ground-lease equity; housing as liability; land use regulation for multiple housing units

New Generation Farm: planning for the next transition

• Structure: land trust to individual leasehold tenure

• Farmer reserve pool: revolving fund managed by the land trust through re-mortgaging, earmarking capital improvements

• Policy question: how to balance the needs of incumbent and new-entrant farmers in future transitions?

Other legal, financial, social, cultural factors:

• Networks of professional expertise

• Credit, investment and insurance

• Charitable registration and charities regulation

• Cultural norms?

4. NFF as national model: between market and state?

• USA as a useful comparator: multi-level collaboration, competition with conservation sector; vulnerabilities to political change

• Mapping the field; identifying gaps; defining roles and communities of interest

• Possible roles: land trust; building local ALTS; establishing networks of support; legal and policy advocacy