Aiding landless campesin@ communities in securing tenure through regional mapping, absentee landownership analysis, parcel identification, and public leasing advocacy — because land access is the foundation of all ecological and economic viability.
Without secure access to land, everything else collapses. Agroecological farming cannot be sustained across generations by farmers who have no tenure — who can be displaced at any time by rising rents, absentee landowners, or corporate buyouts.
The Land Acquisition initiative combines four integrated bodies of work: regional mapping to understand where and how land is held; absentee landownership analysis to document patterns of extraction; parcel identification to directly support landless communities seeking specific land; and public leasing advocacy to open alternative pathways through state and public land systems.
These are not separate research projects. They are coordinated tools in the service of one goal — putting land in the hands of the communities who will steward it with dignity and care.
Our regional mapping analysis focuses on understanding the complex relationships between land use, ownership, agricultural potential, and ecological systems across California. Using SSURGO datasets, farmland classification classes, land use datasets, and parcel data, we identify patterns that inform equitable land reform strategies and support communities in targeting specific acquisition pathways.
Our methodology identifies four distinct policy pathways for expanding land access to landless peoples:
The state could adopt a land-use change policy cultivating unused, productive land — a policy applied worldwide when expanding access to landless populations. The Williamson Act already provides a legal and tax incentive basis; more robust reforms such as a social function of property clause could provide stronger foundations. Combining agroecology with newly opened lands creates economic opportunity for landless peoples while protecting ecological health.
Many reservation lands are zoned as "conservation" and "recreation." Contemporary state tribal land buy-back funds and external foundations may provide capital to transform this land for enrolled tribal members — who have increasingly criticized "landback" transactions being restricted to conservation use.
These parcels require change in land use codes at the state, county, or city level. While politically challenging, this is not impossible — it requires coalition building and innovations in agroecological, communitarian use. Urban agriculture tax incentives and Williamson Act provisions can provide financial pathways. Ground leases with government-owned land can facilitate access for landless peoples seeking agricultural production.
These parcels require negotiation with current private landowners — particularly those approaching retirement age. A supportive state government can help communities access acquisition funds and provide incentives to facilitate transitions from retiring private owners to community ownership.
A key aspect of our mapping work identifies "unproductive lands" — parcels currently underutilized or managed in ways that do not fulfill their social and ecological potential. We draw on the concept of the social function of property — a legal doctrine recognized in many Latin American constitutions establishing that property ownership carries social obligations. This principle has been fundamental to legitimate land reform programs throughout the Americas.
Absentee-owned parcels that remain fallow despite strong agricultural potential.
Land held speculatively — driving up prices without productive or community use.
Lands that could benefit from agroecological restoration and community stewardship.
Corporate-owned lands operated through exploitative labor practices with no community benefit.
Our absentee landownership tracking project investigates the relationship between land ownership patterns and economic outcomes in agricultural communities. We document how absentee ownership affects local economies, labor conditions, and environmental practices across California — with particular focus on the Western Coachella Valley, where we presented findings at the February 2025 California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force Meeting.
We define absentee landowners as individuals or entities who own agricultural land but do not reside in the community where the land is located, do not participate directly in its management, and primarily extract value from the land without contributing to local economic development or environmental stewardship. Key characteristics include:
Our research has found that absentee ownership correlates with more exploitative labor practices, less investment in soil health and ecological stewardship, and reduced community economic benefits from agricultural production.
Our research demonstrates that agrarian reform cannot focus solely on land ownership. The agricultural value chain includes multiple points where wealth is transferred away from those who work the land. Even when land is owned locally, the majority of agricultural value is often captured by non-local intermediaries — which is why Territorial Markets are a necessary complement to land acquisition work.
Comprehensive agrarian reform must address these intermediary relationships and create alternative value chains that retain wealth within farming communities — through cooperative processing, community-controlled distribution, direct producer-to-consumer relationships, and worker ownership of value-adding processes.
Control seeds, fertilizers, and equipment
Transform raw agricultural products
Control market access and logistics
Capture significant portions of consumer food dollars
Profit from agricultural financing and the assetization of farmland
Our parcel identification work directly supports landless communities seeking to access agricultural land in California. We combine geospatial analysis, legal expertise, and community organizing to identify strategic parcels for acquisition and develop realistic pathways to ownership or access. All services are provided at no cost to landless peoples and communities.
Our approach is deeply collaborative. Rather than imposing external solutions, we provide technical support that empowers communities to make their own informed decisions. The process typically includes:
Understanding land needs, agricultural goals, and organizational capacity of the community.
Using GIS tools to identify potential parcels based on community criteria and agricultural suitability.
Researching ownership, zoning, water rights, and potential acquisition pathways.
Collaboratively developing realistic plans through purchase, lease, partnership, or policy advocacy.
Identifying grants, loans, and innovative financing mechanisms suited to the community's situation.
Providing technical assistance throughout the acquisition process, not just at the planning stage.
Full ownership is not always immediately achievable given California's extreme land prices. Our work includes developing alternative access models:
Leases with path-to-ownership provisions providing tenure security for agroecological investment.
CLT models that permanently remove land from the speculative market while ensuring community access.
Cooperative structures that distribute ownership and governance among community members.
Negotiated access to public lands through leasing, use agreements, and sustained advocacy.
The Coachella Valley is one of our primary focus areas for community-led parcel identification — exemplifying the challenges faced by agricultural workers throughout California. It contains large concentrations of farmworker communities with deep agricultural knowledge, significant absentee and corporate landholding, rising development pressure, complex water rights, and indigenous communities with historical and ongoing relationships to the land.
Given the extreme unaffordability of California's land market, public land leasing represents a critical pathway for expanding land access and promoting food sovereignty. Our public leasing advocacy develops policy frameworks and practical models for making public lands available to landless peoples for regenerative agriculture.
Our suitability analysis identifies public lands that could support regenerative agriculture without compromising ecological integrity. We analyze soil quality and agricultural potential, water availability and rights, current ecological condition, current public use patterns, infrastructure and accessibility, proximity to potential stewards, and historical land relationships — particularly with indigenous communities.
Our advocacy is informed by indigenous critiques of dominant conservation paradigms that have historically excluded human communities from their traditional lands in the name of preservation. In California, the creation of "wilderness" areas, parks, and protected lands has often involved the removal and exclusion of indigenous peoples who had stewarded these landscapes for millennia. Dominant conservation models often reinforce colonial relationships by creating artificial boundaries between humans and "nature," ignoring the role of indigenous land management in creating California's diverse ecosystems, and privileging recreational access for predominantly white and affluent users while excluding traditional land uses by indigenous and marginalized communities.
"The conservation movement, born from the settler-colonial imagination, created wilderness by removing Indigenous people from their lands. Now we face ecological crises precisely because of this separation of humans from the natural world." — Indigenous environmental justice scholar
Our public leasing advocacy seeks to transcend Human/Nature divisions and recognize our role as ecological stewards who balance social reproduction and the ecosystems we are embedded in. The false dichotomy between environmental preservation and agriculture emerges from a colonial worldview — regenerative agricultural systems managed by communities with deep relationships to the land can enhance ecosystem function while producing food for human needs.
We advocate for these policy changes to address the structural inequities of California's land market:
Development of usufructuary regimes on public lands granting rights to use and derive income from land with state-guaranteed tenure.
20–90+ year leases providing sufficient tenure security for agroecological investment and intergenerational continuity.
Prioritization for historically marginalized communities — indigenous peoples, farmworkers, Black tenants, and other landless rural communities with their geographic specifications.
Cooperative lease arrangements supporting collective land management and integration of traditional ecological knowledge and contemporary agroecological practices.
Whether your community needs direct land acquisition support, or you want to contribute as a researcher, legal worker, or fundraiser — reach out. Services are provided at no cost to landless peoples and communities.