Community financing in the German organic food sector

Urban Farm DB summary

Empirical evidence on community financing in the German organic food sector shows that a still-niche but growing number of firms use citizen-sourced funding to substitute or complement bank credit. The models are classified into four types — pure financing instruments (crowdfunding, profit participation rights, direct loans), legal-form-based models (cooperatives, corporations), intermediary-pooled financing (citizen shareholder corporations, land purchase cooperatives), and others such as community supported agriculture, leasing and sponsorship — and their role is discussed in easing access to capital for farms facing rising land prices and limited access to traditional bank credit.