Guide to Regenerative Grazing Leases: Opportunities for Resilience

CHAPTER 4. Into the Next Generation (Continued)
Regenerating Land and Communities
How else are today’s landholders using their land to regenerate human communities?
Christine Pielenz and Bill Laven founded Potrero Nuevo Farm on 300 acres in Half
Moon Bay with a goal of providing free and healthy produce to people in need
while building healthy soil. With their nonprofit partner, Abundant Grace Coastside
Worker, Potrero Nuevo Farm grows, harvests, and donates over 20,000 pounds of
fresh, organic produce to low-income residents in the area. TomKat Ranch manages
cattle on their Pescadero, CA property to uphold shared ecological values and model
regenerative grazing practices. Peninsula Open Space Trust holds an agricultural
conservation easement on the land, protecting it from development and ensuring a
future of healthy soil and productive agriculture.
Community Land Trusts and Agrarian Commons
Some ranch owners facing the end of the line envision a future of affordable land
access by regenerative, working farmers and ranchers, and cannot find a viable path
to do so within the private real estate market. Whereas conservation land trusts
generally hold easements in partnership with private landowners, community land
trusts were formed as nonprofit landholders, in which long-term or lifetime tenure
is conveyed to qualifying members of the community. The Agrarian Commons,
organized under umbrella organization Agrarian Trust, holds clusters of agricultural
properties in trust for their communities—supporting regenerative land stewardship,
local food production, and equitable access for working producers.
IN SUMMARY
There is an urgent need for landholders to take the bull by the horns—to proactively
begin transforming land tenure, access and stewardship practices. Landholders are
in a unique and empowered position to align the management of their land with their
values and directly impact the health of their communities, ecosystems, and even the
planet as a whole. By working creatively with the next generation, landholders can
see their land be honored and cared for, support the regeneration and transformation
of the ranching industry, and build a diverse and equitable system of ecological,
economic, and community resilience.
© Copyright 2022 California FarmLink and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation
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