Example of cooperative farm enterprise

From Rodale Institute Classifieds:

Organic Farm in Oregon
Submitted by Robert Styler (not verified) on Wed, 10/26/2011 - 17:03.
Not sure if this would interest you:

23 acre organic farm just north of Medford, Oregon (also close to Ashland, Or). Three wells (one pumps 100 gallons/min). Two streams that run 8 months out of the year. Mostly flat – irrigation throughout. 20,000 SF of greenhouses. 7,000 SF stone ranch house. The house can easily be divided into three separate living areas, each with their own kitchen and bathroom. There is also a HUGE commercial kitchen to process food in another building. There is also 40,000 SF below roof for shipping, offices, etc. We have a climate similar to Napa, CA…not much rain…we get about two or three snows a year that stick around for a few days.

I am looking for 3 couples or families who each want to pay $2,500/mo to earn equity in the farm. I have a deal where we can pay off the whole mortgage in about 10 years (even faster with the farm producing income…or the income can offset the monthly payments). The families would own the majority of the farm once the loan is paid off. The investor I would own the rest. The farm is worth much more than the mortgage and with a small, committed group working together, we can create a great deal for everyone. It is just too much for me and I want to find the right people who would cherish this opportunity to build equity, live on an organic farm, and create something special together. I am open to other arrangements than the one explained above, as long as it is fair to everyone involved.

[I am looking for 3 couples or families who each want to pay $2,500/mo to earn equity in the farm. I have a deal where we can pay off the whole mortgage of $670K in about 10 years. The families would own about 60% of the farm once the loan is paid off. The investor would own about 25%, and I would be left with 15%. The farm is worth much more than the mortgage and with a small, committed group working together, we can create a great deal for everyone. It is just too much for me and I want to find the right people who would cherish this opportunity to build equity, live on an organic farm, and create something special together.]

If you have farming, construction, or general handy skills...all the better. This farm is magical...and an amazing opportunity for the right people. Each family will need to buy in with a minimum of $30,000 each, which will go into a farm account to make sure we have plenty of reserves.

Please only reply if you are solid, responsible, and have the financial resources to be a partner.

My focus right now is CREWfund.org, a nonprofit that I launched to fund the green economy…and I would enjoy living with and working with positive people who have an inspired vision for a future were we all can thrive. 541 232 1020

Robert

Susan Witt on Winona LaDuke's land trust model for the White Earth reservation

"The White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota, in the turn of the century a group of well-meaning quakers said to the Ojibwe...you poor dears, you don't understand about private ownership. Let us help you survey this land and divide it into individual lots and give private ownership so you can have the experience of it. But the Ojibwe culture is to use multiple parts of the land -- so there're the lakes where the rice is harvested, there's the brush with the best raspberries, there's the timberland for the hunt -- so the community as a whole, as an integral community, moved through the whole of the land.

"Suddenly it was divided up into little lots, and with the consequential mortgaging of the land and losing the land to outsiders, their once intact reservation got divided up with holes in it, so people couldn't travel across it. LaDuke has used the community land trust model... the goal is to recreate the land intact, and then give long-term lease rights, so that people actually can own their buildings, own their homes."

~ 1h14m here.