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Bosavern Farm spans about 36 acres and is the last County owned farm in Penwith. Cornwall Council Farm Service are consolidating their farm holdings and have a plan to reduce the number of farms by roughly 10% but still keep ownership of about 11,000 acres. Bosavern Farm was on their list for disposal so if the community farm is not successful then ultimately it could be put on the open market for a private buyer to purchase.

This farm is small in commercial terms but being on the very edge of St Just is a great opportunity to develop a local asset for the benefit for our community.

We are proposing that the farm be used as a site for a Community Supported Agriculture project (What is a CSA?), including chickens and pigs. We also support the plan that one of the fields be leased separately by the Town Council for public allotments. This arrangement would allow individuals to have an allotment to grow their own food and/or to be a member of the CSA and so share in its produce. Both the Allotments & Growers Association and the CSA group have said that an important role for them is educating the wider public about food growing and increasing the availability of locally produced food i.e. The local schools have expressed an interest as the location is within in safe walking distance and they would be keen for the children to learn about growing vegetables.

The land has already proven to produce high quality organic vegetables and beef by the last County tenants who ran an extremely popular farm shop on a Saturday and were reported to have been able to sell their produce many times over, so we believe the demand is there to make this a sustainable proposition.

The Bosavern Community Farm (BCF) committee is leading this project and is a sub group of the Lands End Peninsula Community Land Trust (LEPCLT). The LEPCLT has taken on the lease from April 2010 and has been awarded grants towards the project costs from the West Cornwall Local Action Group and Cornwall AONB Sustainable Development Fund. The BCF committee is now raising funds for other setup costs. This 18 month lease will allow the farm committee to show what is possible on the site and hopefully have time to raise the funds to purchase the farm (as a not for profit enterprise).

June 2010