Agroecology Commons Collective
Working primarily within unceded Lisjan Ohlone Territory (also known as the Bay Area) Agroecology Commons came together as a collective of individuals who share deep resonance for the connection between land and liberation. Coming from backgrounds as farmers, educators, artists, and cooperative business owners, we share a commitment to agroecological land stewardship and justice.
Our work is not new, but rooted in Indigenous, peasant, and community organizing lineages, that for time immemorial have protected land and agroecological practices. We honor all those that steward and protect, while simultaneously rooting this work in our own diverse ancestral land-based practices.
*To learn more about local Indigenous Land Rematriation, the Shuumi Land Tax, and more, check out Sogorea Te’ Land Trust
Collective Members
Jeneba Kilgore
Core Collective Member
Jeneba Kilgore (she/they) is rooted in Oakland, CA with extensions to Sierra Leone, West Africa, and Indiana. She spent her childhood dreaming about living on a farm and watching loved ones in the kitchen. Jeneba is a former worker-owner at Mandela Grocery Cooperative. She specializes in cooperative community economics and has 3 years of experience running a community grocery store serving low-income customers, teaching nutrition classes, and working to support urban farmers, especially Black, Indigenous, and farmers of color. Jeneba has studied and been a part of cooperatively run spaces for over a decade. Jeneba is also a beginning farmer who is passionate about growing heritage crops.
Brooke Porter
Core Collective Member
Brooke (she/they) is a seed sower, agroecologist, and visual storyteller, committed to cultivating relationships of reciprocity with the land and communities. Through a process of interweaving the social, ecological, and political dimensions of agroecology, she actively works to create regenerative farming systems rooted in ancestral practices and collective healing. She uses her ability to speak Portuguese, Spanish, and English, to strengthen a movement for food sovereignty, popular education, and land justice throughout the Americas. Brooke has worked as a public school educator in the Bay Area, teaching youth agroecology, natural building, herbal medicine making, and earth science. She holds a Master of Science in Agroecology from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in conjunction with Spain’s Universidad de Córdoba.
Lesley Jenkins aka Lazzlo
Core Collective Member
Lazzlo (they/them) is an artist and dedicated land steward. With a love for crafting clay sculptures, Lazzlo's creative spirit harmonizes with their love of the land and community. Their time as the Farm Lead at the Assata Shakur Freedom Farm and as a core collective member of the Black & Brown Farm Collective in West Sacramento shaped Lazzlo's dedication to community-centered land projects and accessible farming education. Through these experiences, they developed a deep-rooted commitment to nurturing environments where knowledge and wisdom are shared across age groups to encourage a sustainable and inclusive future in agriculture. Lazzlo enjoys connecting over food and resting whenever possible.
Leah Atwood
Core Collective Member
Leah (she/they) grew up in the forests of unceded Wiyot territory in Humboldt County, California. Being surrounded by farmland and redwoods instilled a love for growing food and wilderness. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley which helped inspire her path in agroecology. Inspirations grew from social movements such as the MST and La Vía Campesina to focus on farmer-to-farmer organizing for food sovereignty. Leah was named a California Food Systems Changemaker in 2018 by the Berkeley Food Institute. Her work passions are focused on collective land stewardship, anti-racist succession planning, seed saving, wellness practices, cooperative governance, queer ecology, and silvopasture. Leah also stewards a microdairy and herdshare collective with goats, sheep, and bees within a land-centered intentional community.
Mahji
Collective Motivator and Goat Herder
Mahji is Agroecology Common’s beloved resident farm dog. She can be found romping around the farm catching sticks, digging for gophers, and hanging out with her friends at the goat and sheep flerd. She loves a good sun nap and a warm bowl of goat milk.
We honor our former core members who helped shape Agroecology Commons - this work would not exist without them!
Alexa Levy
Core Collective Member
Alexa (she/they) is a passionate educator, organizer, facilitator, and earth tender. They are a co-founder of Permaculture Action Network, an organization that mobilizes thousands of people to action building out regenerative place-based projects—this work regenerates ecosystems, supports local food systems, and catalyzes movement for a just transition by partnering with musical artists, and a diversity of projects forging pathways to collective liberation. For over a decade she has been a youth educator and facilitator of rich learning experiences, where justice and compassion are at the forefront. Alexa particularly focuses on the intersections of collective governance, ecology, community building, resilience, and mutual aid.
Natasha Mevs-Korff
Former Core Member
Natasha (she,they|ella,elle) is Afroboricua called to AC by her love for food, reproductive justice, and gente. They are an aspiring midwife who comes to birth work through their love for nurturing, and what is more nurturing than feeding someone? Nurtured with food by her bisabuela Celia, her grandmother Delia, and her mother Yolanda, and inspired by the sovereignty movements taking place in Borikén, Natasha is excited to join AC to combine her love for community wellbeing, empowered birth and parenting to agroecology.
Natasha is trained as a full spectrum doula and has supported families in California and Puerto Rico. They hold a BA in Geography and Latin American Studies from The University of Texas at Austin. They have had the opportunity to farm and build community in Italy, Puerto Rico, and California.
Paul Rogé
Former Core Member
Paul (he/him) continues to deepen his understanding of agroecology through research, teaching, and the practice of farming. He serves as Senior Program Officer for the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program. In addition to co-founding Agroecology Commons, Paul launched the Certificate of Achievement in Urban Agroecology at Merritt College. Paul earned his PhD from UC Berkeley in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in 2014.
tanamá varas
Former Core Member
tanamá (we/they/him/elle/él) is a returning jíbaro who is devoted to earth stewardship, agrarian social movements, and land based healing. He has worked on farms throughout turtle island, the caribbean and south america. Inspired by peasants globally they hope to see the movement for repeasantization and urban-rural migration happen in their lifetime. When not cultivating the soil we can be found skateboarding, stretching, and scheming on ways to plant more food in public spaces and to dismantle the current globalized food system.
Will Smith
Former Core Member
Will (all pronouns) is a Black, Korean, queer farmer who uses land as a way to connect to ancestral practices. Will helps steward two small farms in Albany, CA & El Sobrante, CA that are used to grow healthy, chemical-free food and medicine to communities in the Bay Area. Their journey with stewarding land begins with love for food and the way that it connects people across cultures. He has learned the love for cooking and feeding people from her dad who is a chef. They organize with the Root Slam to do poetry writing workshops and mutual aid fundraising for Black Queer poets during COVID-19. They enjoy connecting ceremony and prayer to the land and desire to have a community that shares the same values. She does this work for their 3-year-old nibbling, mom, sister, and other family/friends who can walk this path of land-based healing.
Kai Delgado-Pfeifer
Former Core Member
Kai (they/them) is an earth steward, seed keeper, and educator rooted in healing and liberation. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kai's ancestral lineages spread to the Philippines, China, Ireland, Germany, and Lithuania. Their commitment to liberation on land is deeply inspired by Indigenous and peasant sovereignty movements in the Philippines they have been humbled to organize in solidarity with. Kai received their Certificate in Organic Urban Agriculture from Farm School NYC and has apprenticed with Truelove Seeds, Rise & Root Farm, and Kelly Street Garden. When Kai isn't farming, they enjoy cooking slow Filipino food for soul family and spending time with forests and ocean.