Land Stewardship and Food Sovereignty
Land stewardship rooted in reciprocity, observation, ancestral knowledge, and sovereignty.
Holding the land at the center of our work, Agroecology Commons serves small farmers and community organizers, working to amplify agroecology and food sovereignty. We seek to create a just and equitable food system, focusing our efforts to support BIPOC and beginning farmers. We are currently cover cropping for holistic soil management, beekeeping, supporting a goat/sheep herd, assessing riparian care to support native ecological restoration, and building out infrastructure for our cooperative incubator plots on our farm in El Sobrante, CA.
How We Organize
Cooperative Incubator Plots and Agroecological Land Commons
Located in the Bay Area’s peri-urban landscape, Agroecology Commons cooperative educational farm is currently being developed to support on-farm learning and land access for graduates of our Bay Area Farmer-to-Farmer Training Program (BAFFT).
This 3-acre site is a space for BAFFT participants to deepen their relationship to land and understanding of agroecological farming principles, creating a space for beginning farmers to experiment, learn, and practice land stewardship with support from experienced mentors. The forty terraced rows will be the future incubator plots for those partaking in the cooperative incubator farm.
Food Sovereignty Tool Lending Library
We are currently working to build a tool lending & seed library for small-scale agroecological farmers in our Bay area network. A farm tool-lending library might seem innovative for these modern times, yet this project is inspired by and honors the long-standing traditions of tool, machinery, and infrastructure sharing that runs deep in agricultural legacies, such as planting and harvest cooperation between Black farmers and Midwestern farmers efforts to create cooperative large grain silos. The library will reduce economic barriers and initial capital investment for small farmers, strengthen cooperative efforts, and continue to build food sovereign communities.
Tools we are seeking to include in the library are, a commercial dehydrator, broad forks, small grain mill, seeder, value-added processing equipment, post-pounders, pole pruners, and more! If you would like to donate a tool check out our wish list here.
Agroecological Land Stewardship
Agroecology Commons cooperative farm is a site for community-based learning, land connection, and collective healing.
Through embodying agroecological principles we seek to create closed-looped systems by minimizing on-farm inputs, preserving and protecting our rich local native ecology, enhancing biodiversity, and build community resilience that supports thriving agricultural livelihoods and a Just Transition. Currently, on the farm, we keep bees, tend to the native riparian area, support the stewardship of a goat and sheep herd, enhance soil fertility through cover-cropping, and have planted out hundreds of native plants as hedgerows.
Join our mailing list if you would like to find out about more upcoming on-farm community work days and events!
