(Mont-Tremblant) Véronique Bouchard is a pioneer.
She is the very first up-and-coming farmer to have convinced, in 2010, the Commission de protection du territoire agricole to grant the right to buy land by dividing up, thus paving the way for a whole new generation of small market gardeners. .
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Véronique Bouchard, from the Small Onion Farm
The 42-year-old agronomist, who is at the helm of the Small Onion Farm, has also innovated by growing oyster mushrooms in the field as well as ginger and turmeric in the greenhouse.
Last November, she transformed her business into a social solidarity cooperative.
His next challenge: to protect the ecological vocation of his land in perpetuity by means of an agricultural social utility trust (FUSA).
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Véronique Bouchard grows 60 crops in her fields and greenhouses.
“I, the hamster, have been running for 18 years,” she says from her office, which overlooks her four hectares of snow-covered fields.
FUSAs are relatively new in Quebec. It is a legal entity whose mission must be geared towards the common good. There are a dozen in the province at the moment. But the model is taking off.
“It’s like putting a padlock on the ground and then throwing away the key,” illustrates Véronique Bouchard, who completed a master’s degree in environmental sciences on social innovations in agriculture.
Land sold at a gold price
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The Small Onion Farm, in Mont-Tremblant
One-upmanship and speculation: a report published on Sunday in The Press revealed that the average value of farmland has jumped 248% over the past 10 years, according to data compiled by Farm Credit Canada.
“We have reached the tipping point where it is possible to make agricultural land profitable by growing crops on it. We succeeded, but we are perhaps the last generation that was able to do it, ”explains Mme Bouchard, which is laden with awards for its agricultural excellence.
“Farmers can no longer own their land… We are going back to [l’époque] seigneuries,” she laments.
In the Laurentides-Lanaudière region, an acre of land was worth an average of $3,479 in 2010. In 2021: $17,100.
“I had a thought and I said to myself: I don’t want to bequeath land to my children. I want to leave them values, studies, knowledge, friends, a network, but leave them money? Often, it creates quarrels in families. That’s why I want to sell the land in trust. »
The project is based on the purchase of his land by the trust, which would then lease it at a low price to the cooperative.
“The idea is that the community somehow becomes the owner of the farm via the solidarity cooperative and of the land via the FUSA. Not only do we free the next generation from the weight of indebtedness linked to the acquisition of the land, but we also withdraw the land from the speculative market and, by reducing the costs linked to this indebtedness, we can keep the price more affordable for the community. »
La Ferme aux Petits Onions provides baskets of organic vegetables to 800 families during the summer. She grows 60 different crops in her fields and her 2000 m2 Greenhouse. Its turnover is around 2 million per year and it employs 30 people, exclusively local workers.
“If the cooperative runs out of steam, the land fund, the trust, it stays,” explains Véronique Bouchard. If the cooperative leaves, the trust will be looking for someone else who agrees to come and cultivate the land in a model of agroecology for the local community. »
A good for the community
The first FUSA was created in Quebec in 2010, explains Hubert Lavallée, president of Protec-Terre, a non-profit support organization for those who want to set up projects with an agroecological mission. In addition to the FUSAs that already exist, about twenty are in development in the province, he says.
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The farm relies on the work of a local workforce.
Initially, it was mainly organic producers who wanted to preserve the ecological vocation of their land, he says.
“But more and more, the people who want to create FUSAs are communities. We saw it with COVID, the question of food autonomy and security [est devenue importante] so people say to themselves: it’s all very well, to put our resources, the land, in the hands of farmers, but we see that there is a lot of speculation and land that is left fallow,” he says. .
He cites the Boisbriand agricultural trust, the first created by a city, and the future Brome-Missisquoi regional trust, where the MRC has decided to preserve land in its region so that it remains agricultural and that the next generation can settle. .
The land has become a burden, huge debts for young producers.
Hubert Lavallée, president of the organization Protec-Terre
“One of the benefits of these trusts is to allow access to the next generation without them having to buy the land. »
The Union of Agricultural Producers plunges
“Overall, when you go over $20,000 per hectare around Montreal, it’s no longer profitable to farm. That is to say that if you and I decide to start farming from scratch and buy ourselves over $20,000 per hectare, we will go bankrupt, we will not be able to make the operation profitable,” explains Marc-André Côté, General Manager of two FUSAs: the REM agricultural trust and the UPA-Fondaction agricultural trust. “Currently, when you look at the regions around Montreal, the prices are around $50,000 per hectare. »
I tell you right away, agricultural social utility trusts alone cannot solve this problem, the problem is too big. But it is part of the solution.
Marc-André Côté, CEO of the REM agricultural trust and the UPA-Fondaction agricultural trust
In the case of the REM trust, the money comes from CDPQ Infra, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Québec responsible for building the Réseau express métropolitain (REM). Financial compensation of 2.9 million was paid into the trust to compensate for the loss of agricultural land caused by the construction of the terminal station in Brossard. Two lands totaling approximately fifty hectares were purchased in 2022.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
In the case of the UPA-Fondaction agricultural trust, the operation is a little different. The trust borrows money to finance the land and the rents are used to repay its borrowings. The donations that this trust also receives allow it to reduce the rent charged to its tenants. Land has already been purchased, but the plans will be made public in a few months. The Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) is the union that represents the province’s 42,000 agricultural producers.
“The mission of our two trusts is to preserve farmland and promote access to agricultural succession. Our way of proceeding is to buy the land and take it out of the speculative market because the trusts return the land to their patrimony and do not resell it. So over time, these lands are protected from speculation. »