Last week, members of the Agrarian Trust team gathered at the 2025 Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) Forum, held at the Tamaya Resort on sovereign Santa Ana Pueblo land. It was a powerful setting for conversations about land, food systems, and the evolving role of capital in shaping a more just and rooted future.
We were honored to share our work in a session titled Integrated Capital Case Study: Centering Long-Term Community Needs in Reparative Land Return Models. Nathan Galaviz, our Commons Manager, opened by introducing Agrarian Trust and the Commons initiative—a collaborative approach to community-centered farmland tenure that places stewardship and equity at its core.
What emerged throughout the forum was a shared recognition: acquiring land is not the end goal. True transformation requires staying with the work—funding not just moments of transfer, but the years of governance-building, relational labor, and care infrastructure that follow.
We joined discussions with peers from Potlikker Capital, Pathstone, and the Woodcock Foundation—funders and intermediaries who are actively using integrated capital strategies to move grants and loans in more coordinated, responsive, and trust-based ways. These models reflect an important shift away from siloed funding toward holistic support, especially for refugee, Indigenous, and community-rooted organizations working at the intersection of food sovereignty, land access, and economic justice.
Across plenaries and workshops, participants named a need for:
- More patient, multi-year capital that supports long-term vision, not just short-term deliverables
- Low- or no-interest loan products tailored to community-led intermediaries
- Investments in relationship-building as infrastructure
- A deeper understanding of how integrated capital can repair, not just sustain, systems
These conversations affirm our direction and challenge us to build even deeper bridges between funders and communities navigating complex transitions. At a moment when land access is under threat and federal commitments are in flux, gatherings like this are reminders that the work is long, the stakes are high, and the path forward is collective.
We’re grateful to all who stood with us, who brought their questions, their convictions, and their deep belief in what’s possible when land is held in common care. The Commons is not just a model, it’s a commitment. A living, evolving practice of solidarity, rooted in the long work of stewardship, justice, and repair.
To those walking alongside us – from funders to farmers, from intermediaries to movement builders, we invite you to stay in the work. To bring not just capital, but continuity. Not just investment, but a relationship. Together, we can grow the conditions where communities don’t just access land—they thrive on it, for generations to come.
