Building a Cooperative Food System Pt. 2: Putting Land Back into the Hands of Farmers with Thomas Kliemt
Agrarian FuturesShow Notes
This week we go to Germany to learn about a cooperative called Kulturland who has been working on solving the farming land access problem for over a decade. Kulturland raises money from everyday people and uses that capital to buy farms, take them off the speculative market, and provides farmers with a secure lease. In return, the farmer commits to farming organically and keeping the farm open to the community.
Today, Kulturland holds 53 partner farms, owned by almost 4,000 cooperative investors. In this episode we talk to Thomas Kliemt, who spent 8 years as their Commercial Director. We discuss land financialization in Germany, why a cooperative, and touch on his new work: starting an incubator farm network to train the next generation of farmers.
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More about Thomas and Kulturland [http://www.kulturland.de/]:
As Commercial Director of Kulturland-Genossenschaft, Thomas helped grow the cooperative from 7 partner farms to over 50, membership from 250 to 3,000, and a tenfold increase in the balance sheet to nearly €20 million. Now, he is coordinating Germany's first agricultural incubator network — creating infrastructure so new farmers can access land, mentoring, and business development.
He is also the chairman of my local Green Party and serve on the steering committee of the European Access to Land Network, shaping policy that makes farmland accessible for the next generation.
Resources to learn more about Thomas and his work:
Website: Https://www.thomaskliemt.de [https://www.thomaskliemt.de/]
Substack: Https://substack.com/@thomaskliemt [https://substack.com/@thomaskliemt]
Farm Incubator Project: https://thomaskliemt.substack.com/p/incubator-farms?r=1ntyb6&utm_medium=ios
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Agrarian Futures is produced by Alexandre Miller, who also wrote our theme song. This episode was edited by Drew O'Doherty.
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