TYPICAL CROP-SHARING LEASE CONTRACT EXAMPLE

EXAMPLE OF A TYPICAL

CROP-SHARING FARM or "MARKET GARDEN" LEASE CONTRACT

INTRODUCTION TO THE MODEL CONTRACT & COMMENTS

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DEFINITIONS: A "Farm" is a standard agricultural endeavor created to grow crops.

A "Market Garden", also known as "Maraicher Garden" from the old court language “Jardin Maraicher”, is usually a work-intensive (and potentially, investment-intensive) smaller surface of land dedicated to produce a maximum of quality food for a local market.

This could be the general market, for example if you sell at a "Farmer's Market" or on a "Produce Stand", and a good example of that is "PathToFreedom". This could also be a "captive customer" such as a better restaurant, which financed the endeavor and gets most or even the totality of the crops. Or a CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) group. Or simply a group of neighbors who banded together to become partially or completely food-independent. Or even a church that decided to provide wholesome foods instead of typical supermarket toxic offerings in their soup kitchen (this has indeed been done!)

What follows in the next post is A TENTATIVE or MODEL CONTRACT: This standard crop-sharing farming contract has been adapted to our specific situation of farming Organic and Sustainable Vegetables (and fruit) for a non-profit such as ours. Some mentions in there might not apply to your specific situation as landlord or lessee of a specific location, but that is easy to edit. Anyone is welcome to use this contract, whether for commercial or not-for-profit purposes.

The beauty of the not-for-profit crop-sharing approach is that organic and sustainable farming, besides strengthening a landlord's position in many different ways, for example as to actual property rights, when done our way opens many avenues not usually available, such as, for example, the participation of volunteers, the creation of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) unit, and in general, all the advantages and features described in http://topangamodel.blogspot.com/ , which actually go as far as creation and use of our own local currency.

In fact, for a portion of the lease (which would be deducted from crop share dues), or even the totality of it, a landlord could even be paid in that currency (usually denominated in "X Hours", X being the name of the farm or facility) in form of physical paper currency allowing them to "buy" their "share" of the crops when convenient to them, to "hire" volunteers as needed and convenient to them, simply by "paying" them with said currency, on an hourly basis, etc, or to otherwise relate with "stakeholders" in a clear and fair manner that is transparent to all, which is precisely what such parallel local currencies allows to do.

This is all a lot less complicated as it sounds, since a landlord doesn't have to (and shouldn't, at any rate) manage the currency. This should be done independently by people who understand the issue, such as our specialists. All they do is just use it, in a way totally similar to any other paper currency they use.

There are a lot many more advantages to following the "Topanga Model", which you can explore simply by reading the http://topangamodel.blogspot.com/ blog. and looking at the material provided there or linked to it.

For example, a very similar endeavor, although not run on a non-profit basis and thus a bit simpler in its organisation, is described on this site: http://pathtofreedom.com/ .

There, you will discover how the Dervaes family in Pasadena used organic and sustainable techniques to produce 10,000 pounds of unadulterated and wholesome foods this year on just 1/10th on an acre! And even if it is easy to think of them as super-human geniuses, they are just regular folks who love good foods and love the Earth. YOU could do it as well!

This represents a statistical production of over 4.5 tons (metric) on less than 400 m2, about 1.15 tons per 100m2, or, if you prefer, about 250 pounds per 100 square feet. That is about 115 (metric) tons of 100% organic and sustainable food per hectare, or 50 (short) tons per acre! And we are not talking here about the very questionable "food" you can buy at the local supermarket, which is known to come with numerous unwanted consequences when it comes to your and everyone else's health, and which will become even worse once the dreadful and evil "Codex Alimentarius" in implemented in late 2009, but of genuine "food" that sells like $2-$3 to $10 and more per pound for those who can afford it, at "Whole Foods" and the like, because it is indeed wholesome and healthy.

Meaning, we are not preaching theories here, we are demonstrating facts, and documenting how successful the right approaches can be.

And *you* could be part of the process, as a "Stakeholder". Whether, you are a landlord, staff member, community member, volunteer, CSA member, etc, everyone can benefit of participating to the "Topanga Model".

Food for your thoughts!




REMINDER: The short definition of “THE TOPANGA MODEL” is as follows:

THE TOPANGA MODEL OF CO-OP GARDENING & AGRICULTURE
A local IG-GARDEN is an alliance formed by groups of people known as "STAKEHOLDERS". The PURPOSE of such COOPERATIVE ENDEAVORS is to sustainably produce ORGANIC & FUNCTIONAL FOODS to SHARE & DISTRIBUTE. To work together as efficiently as possible, it's best to follow a model pre-addressing actual or potential issues, such as "THE TOPANGA MODEL". ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE, HEALTH ISSUES & THE ECONOMIC CRISIS are reasons why this model should be widely REPLICATEd.

Words in CAPITALS are defined in our GLOSSARY, which in turn can be found here:
http://topangamodel.blogspot.com/2008/12/glossary-definition-of-terms-used-here.html .

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