Invest “Usefully” and Earn Money Helping a Farmer? It’s Possible

GROWING YOUR WHEAT: Earning money by investing in a farm to enable young farmers who have projects that are good for the planet but want to set up without having the means is possible

Gain money while protecting it planet, is not contradictory. Saving intelligently, usefully, in solidarity, some, more and more numerous, have decided to conduct their portfolio in accordance with their convictions. Agroecology, an agricultural model born in the 1980s, is now tracing its path and also making it possible to invest in the land and promote one responsible agriculture, all while giving a chance to those who want to become farmers but cannot afford it, to achieve this.

It is in this spirit that was created in 2021 Farms alive (Feve), an agricultural property that allows individuals and large institutional investors to invest their money while facilitating agricultural installations and accelerating the agroecological transition.

Rental with purchase option

Concretely, this real estate company buys, also using individuals, agricultural land then rents them, “with purchase option”, an important feature which differentiates it from other structures like Terre de liens, which share, in substance it is true, more or less the same philosophy. “Feve is a real estate company that has projects in agroecology”, explains Vincent Kraus, its co-founder. The objective is to respond to two current challenges, namely the renewal of generations and to accelerate the agroecological transition”, explains Vincent Kraus.

Another challenge is to “promote the arrival of new farmers, because 50% of those who are in place will retire within 10 years, “while at the same time more and more people, but who are not children of farmers, want to settle down but do not have the funds for land”, underlines Vincent Kraus. Finally, Feve wants to “accelerate the agroecological transition by trying to enable installations that respect a charter, ecological production and significant diversification, which is an economic key but also to cope with climatic hazards”.

“Agricultural land increases in value over time”

A financing system which has already made it possible to save 40 agroecological farms (62 farmers) throughout France. Precisely, nearly 3,000 investors succeeded in mobilizing 39.6 million euros in “ethical, solidarity and sustainable savings”, welcomes Vincent Kraus. This is also what “completely” helped Vivian Santos and her wife, farmers in the Landes for a little over two years. “When I went to see the bank to buy the equipment and I already had a seven-figure check for the land, it sure helped”, assures the farmer, certain that without this device, he would not have been able to carry out his project. Since then, well established in his new profession, he has diversified large crops and planted trees on one of the plots with a view to turning it into a nursery.

And everyone “can” invest. “The entrance ticket is 500 euros, explains Vincent Kraus. Those who invest generally do so to give meaning to their savings, but also to invest in a sector that is low risk, because agricultural land remains tangible and has increased in value over time and is very little volatile. Another big advantage and not the least: people who invest benefit from a tax reduction because Feve has the approval of the social and solidarity economy, which, added to a profitability of around 2% per year, transforms agroecology into a “super attractive” investment, according to the co-founder of Feve.