I think we need to look at a totally different system that takes agricultural land out of the speculative property market. That way we could purchase land from older farmers and make it accessible to younger farmers, moving it through a charitable organization such as a community land trust. The older farmer would be taxed on the sale, and the younger farmer could... We don't need to own the land, necessarily, as long as we have security. A community land trust model, with a long-term lease, could give us the security without our having to own the land and could give access to people like Erica, who need access to the farming land on a long-term basis but could be paying a lease fee instead of an ownership fee.
On May 12th, 2010. See this statement in context.