Who Owns the Land and Why It Matters
Minnow at the 2022 Regenerate Conference
Who owns the land matters to us. For instance, do you know who owns the most farmland in the United States of America or that white people own 98% of farmland in this country, yet 60% of those who work that land are people of color? The trend of more extensive lands ending up in the hands of fewer people can be traced back to the onset of colonization. All these facts are at the heart of why we seek land justice at Minnow, but how are they related to our work? Minnow’s Director of Land and Financial Redistribution, Neil Thapar, weaved together all the answers as a speaker at the 2022 Regenerate Conference, held in Colorado last November.
In his talk, which you can watch on the Regenerate Conference YouTube channel, Neil begins by sharing the story of Shirley Sherrod and New Communities Inc., an inspiration to his work and many others working for land justice. He also cites a later occurrence in Sherrod’s career as a reminder to avoid knee-jerk reactions in the age of social media. His presentation then guides the audience through some basic figures of farmland ownership in the US. In doing so, Neil lays down some of the most pressing reasons behind what we do, seamlessly tying the need for land justice with Minnow’s work areas of Farmland Tenure, Indigenous Sovereignty, Workplace Democracy, and Resource Mobilization.
Of course, these are uncharted waters, hence the cautionary reminder at the beginning of his talk. Before addressing the need to decommodify land, Neil invites the audience to quiet the inner capitalist that has been socialized into every one of us. His fundamental urge is for us to stop thinking of land as a commodity that is owned, sold, and traded like any other item in the marketplace. To create the regenerative economy that is the conference's focus, Neil argues, we must completely reimagine our dominant legal and financial systems precisely because they uphold an extractive economy founded on land as a commodity.
How can we trailblaze out of this problem and restore our physical, cultural, and spiritual connections to the land? How can white landowners be better allies in dismantling the current system that churns everyone in for a profit? These are some of the audience questions that followed Neil’s talk around the 15:00-minute mark.
The Regenerate conference is a collaborative effort led by a partnership between Holistic Management International, the American Grassfed Association, and the Quivira Coalition. Its 2022 installment took place on November 3 & 4 in Denver, Colorado, bringing together leaders, innovators, and land stewards who exchanged ideas and experiences through provocative panel presentations, roundtable discussions, and networking opportunities. Attendees came from all across the United States of America and the globe, with a significant representation from the southwest of the country. The 2022 conference was geared toward those interested in its main topic, Cultivating Restorative Economies. Its underlying premise was whether the economic viability of farms and ranches–often discussed as distinct from conservation and restoration–is actually the same as economic and ecological resilience.
A special shoutout goes to our friend and collaborator from The People’s Land Fund, Mariela Cedeño, who also participated in the conference. Mariela shared reflections on her work with Manzanita Capital Collective, where she works to facilitate non-extractive investments in Black, Indigenous, and POC-led food, regenerative agriculture, and land stewardship projects. Check out the video of her talk here, which includes a refreshingly candid panel discussion about funding pathways for farmers who need it the most at the 20:22-minute mark.