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January 24, 2018
Farming for the future
With the spotlight of Brexit falling on farming, some remarkable anomalies within the current subsidy regime are being revealed. Skewed so much in favour of the larger landowners, there doesn’t appear to be any great financial incentive either to farm the land productively or indeed to farm in a way that places a premium on the careful stewardship of the natural environment. Clearly there are many people who aspire to doing both but many cannot get access to the land. Scottish Farm Land Trust is working to facilitate this. They highlight this example of a community run farm in Perthshire.
Blackhaugh Farm is a community managed 43 acre farm in Spittalfield, Perthshire, owned and managed by members of BFAG (Blackhaugh Farm Action Group) since 2015.
So far, we’ve renovated a farm house, set up a market garden, planted over 500 trees, converted shabby outbuildings into useful spaces and built a hut. The farm also hosts an apple tree nurseryand provides grazing for sheep and cows.
It has been a busy few years. Next, we aim for Blackhaugh to provide affordable access to land and host many more small scale, ecologically sound, land based/farming enterprises. Find out more here.
We host work days at the farm on the second Saturday of most months. Join us if you can on Saturday 10 February, Saturday 10 March or Saturday 14 April 2018, or email us for the latest dates.
Our aims and objectives
Aims:
• Support people to live, work, and learn from/on the land
• Foster a land based and inclusive community which is based on principles of autonomy and mutual aid
• Facilitate and create a farm that is ecologically beneficial
• Look outward to support other communities and engage with wider movements for social and ecological justice
Objectives:
• Build affordable housing
• Produce healthy food
• Create and improve wildlife habitat
• Practice co-operative working principles
• Host businesses, enterprises and projects on the land and buildings
• Support self-sufficient living
• Create community spaces