Feature image above: Photo Credit: Kevin Kossowan // Location: Lady’s Hat Farm, Castor, AB
The Young Agrarians team and our contributors have been working hard at creating the first edition of the Alberta Land Access Guide. It’s a toolkit for new farmers like YOU.
It’s a collection of stories of wins, losses, and everything in-between. We hope you can use these experiences to guide you through this big, rather intimidating step in your career path as a regenerative farmer. (Don’t worry, we’re here to walk you through it, step-by-step). For land seekers, it will give you ideas to explore when you are looking for land. For land holders, it will give you context around what new farmers are looking for.
The Alberta Land Access Guide is a one-of-a-kind guide that can help you envision the future farm that you want to create.
What you can find in the guide:
- Leasing land: benefits, options, and reviewing your terms of agreement, and more
- Purchasing land: strategies for building equity and more
- Resources for finding farmland
- Attributes to consider when assessing potential land opportunities
- Tips for designing your own business plan
- The many types of farm businesses, broken down. (Think: sole proprietor, partnership, corporation, cooperative, etc.)
- Community farms and land sharing
- Case study examples
Best of all, it’s FREE. We believe in breaking down the barriers to ecological, organic and regenerative farming. Get your copy of the Alberta Land Access Guide here. (We’re not even going to make you sign up for a newsletter or anything, but you can here if you’d like.)
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to all of the farmers, organizations, collaborators and funders who participated in the development of this guide. Thank you to Blake and Ang Hall, Eric and Ruby Chen, Jianyi Dong, Moira Watson, Jodi Van Nistlerooy, Melanie Villeneuve and Thomas Fournier, Kye Kocher, and Jenna and Brett Hauck for sharing your insights, stories, and the heartful and sometimes hard learnings from your journeys into organic, regenerative and ecological farming. Thanks to Byron L. Whitford of Torry Lewis Abells Lawyers LLP and Chireen Chick of KBH Chartered Professional Accountants for reviewing this document.
This guide has been adapted to the Alberta context in partnership with Organic Alberta and with financial support from the Alberta Real Estate Foundation.
Our deepest hope is that the future of our food systems is diverse, interconnected, and resilient, embraces people of all walks of life and sustains the water, plants, and creatures in ways that benefit and work alongside Indigenous Peoples and narratives and ways of knowing and caring for the land.
The farms mentioned in these stories, like many others, are surrounded by agricultural cultivated land, uncultivated land, Indigenous people and voices from non-settler walks of life. We encourage everyone to build relationship with the land and community that surrounds the place where you will be learning.
I have four quarter section of land here in the High Prairie didtrict of Alberta, looking to lease or rent, one 1/4 has 70 acres open another has 50 acres open the other two are logged over with lots of pasture. One has some very big black loam deposits on it. we could work something out to someone that is just starting out.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the comment and the offer! I’ll forward this to our Alberta Coordinator. She will follow up via email.
Cheers,
Michi
Hi..would love to chat with you. Dion Villeneuve 7802854640
It’s great opportunity newly immigrated former origin to start working in Candace.
Thank you Young Agrarians for this resource. We just signed a lease for some farmland to expand our operations! Your team was quick to help, it’s so appreciated!!
Yay thank you so much Moira! I’ll make sure the Alberta team sees this comment. We are thrilled to be able to assist!
Cheers,
Michi
Hi folks. Have a business plan and feasibility study for turnkey verticle gardening centre to provide fresh leafy greens to northern communities.. give me a call. Dion Villeneuve 7802854640. Looking for partners and investors..numbers are unreal..
Hi Dion,
Thanks for your comment. I’ll forward it to our Alberta Coordinator, Dana (alberta@youngagrarians.org)
Cheers,
Michi
I’m a retired greenhouse owner operator with a 9000 sq ft greenhouse to lease 20 minutes East of Calgary. It’s 3 21×96′ bays, 14′ to gutters with bow sides. Natural vented. Double poly. HAF fans. Dehumidification. Coal and gas heated.
Header House is 18x42ft. Radiant heated. Has 12x 10′ high garage door & man door. Exhaust fan.
GH is out of service. It needs much restoration.
Contact Doug 403-934-4893
Hi Doug,
Thanks for reaching out. I will forward it to our Alberta Land Access Coordinator, and she will get back to you via email or phone soon.
Take care,
Michalina