Access to Land

In 2017, Nourish started working with the Scottish Farm Land Trust (SFLT), a new organisation that aims to own land in trust to create secure and affordable opportunities for young farmers and new entrants into farming, to help them establish and sustain small ecological farms.

The SFLT commissioned us to do a feasibility study, looking at models of land trusts abroad and how they could be replicated in Scotland. As part of our research, we conducted a survey into the demand for farmland, which received over 1,000 responses from aspiring farmers, 92% of which said that organic/agroecological methods are a priority for them, and access to land was raised as the critical issue.

After publishing the report, we presented it at an event in the Scottish Parliament, hosted by Gail Ross MSP.

The Scottish Farm Land Trust is now officially up and running, and we are sitting on their board to support their work.