“The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” – AUDRE LORDE
In order to guide our work while remaining aligned with AFSA’s theory of change, Antoine Lenique (Chair of the Agroecology Land Trust Steering Committee) and Tammi Jonas (AFSA’s Focal Point for Farmers) developed a series of economic principles. This work stems from what AFSA means by non-extractive finance, outlining a series of economic principles to guide our funding model. The foundational economic thought behind our theory of change is as follows.
If we agree that climate change and ecological degradation result from the continued pursuit of economic growth; that such growth depends on ever-increasing consumption of land extracted resources and energy; that land ownership and private property concentrate the means of production, resources and therefore power, in the hands of a ruling class; and that endless economic growth is impossible on a finite planet, then we must also agree that environmental issues are deeply intertwined with capitalism and class struggle.
In order to achieve a paradigm shift, alternatives capable of overcoming the ever-expanding capitalist and productivist structures need to be developed. Without class consciousness and an understanding that capital is dead labour, environmentalism risks collapsing into an ineffective and depoliticised middle-class concern, because the polycrisis is fundamentally rooted in the organisation of production and power, rather than in any autonomous market forces.
As Chertkovskaya puts it, when describing Erik Olin Wright’s anticapitalist strategies:
“Ruptural transformations seek a direct confrontation or break with existing institutions and social structures. Interstitial transformations involve building new forms of social empowerment on the margins of capitalist society, usually outside of spaces dominated by those in power. Symbiotic transformations, in turn, are aimed at changing the existing institutions and growing power within the current system so as to ultimately transform it.”
These transformations must happen at the same time, with political and community action to force structural change. With the Agroecology Land Trust project, if successful commoning is achieved (as in social practice in sharing and cooperation, provisioning to meet needs and peer governance), there is a chance for the adage “From each according to [their] ability, to each according to [their] needs” to become the law.
The following economic principles are useful for AFSA’s future Agroecology Land Trust to ensure no rent, debt, interest, or shareholder dividends burden land custodians while decommodifying land for agroecology and offering a potentially ruptural and interstitial transformation.
1. Collective land ownership
Land is owned collectively by the Coordinating Co-op and its members, the regional cooperatives. The Coordinating Co-op holds land in perpetuity for agroecology-oriented farming use, eliminating private property rights that generate rent extraction.
2. Value reproductive labour
Recognise and value reproductive work, care, food preparation, and community building (work historically and enduringly primarily carried out by women), as essential and equivalent to productive labour in all economic calculations and resource allocations.
3. Value First Peoples’ custodianship of Country
Centre First Peoples’ custodianship through respect for Indigenous knowledge systems and collective land stewardship as foundational assets. Include care and First Peoples’ and settler’s cultural work as indispensable economic contributions, not externalities or afterthoughts.
4. Use-value prioritised over exchange-value
The trust prioritises land’s and infrastructure’s productive use for agroecology and local food sovereignty rather than its speculative or market exchange value, breaking commodification logic. The concluding value (financial, material, cultural, etc.) of any structural contributions made to the farm by the land custodians that may warrant reciprocity, should the custodians leave, will be collectively determined by all relevant parties.
5. No land rent charged
Farmers receive secure, long-term use rights. No land rent or lease payments that generate unearned income for landowners is permitted. A membership and administrative fee is contributed by regional coops to cover the Coordinating Co-op’s running costs. Land custodians enter a mutual obligation to provide ongoing care for land, dwellings, infrastructure and human and non-human lives on and around the land.
6. Zero interest and debt avoidance
Credit provided to farmers by the trust or associated cooperative funds is interest-free and avoids debt structures that impose financial burdens extracted by creditors.
7. Non-extractive return models
The only indirect returns on support funds or investments are non-financial (e.g., food resilience, risk-reduction or public good like land conservation), and where genuine financial surplus is produced beyond living reproduction costs, it is recycled into the trust or community rather than distributed as dividends to external investors.
8. Democratic governance
All decision-making in the trust and finance structures is democratic and participatory, emphasising the rights, roles and responsibilities of those with custodianship of land, finance, and surplus distribution to prevent domination by financial or capitalist actors.
9. Sovereignty of labour: surplus remains with peasants or producer-workers
Surplus generated by the farms stays within the farming community for reinvestment, community services, and agroecology, rather than being extracted by outside capital owners.
10. Embedded decolonial, ecological and social covenants
Land and credit agreements align with Country’s priorities, embed agroecology-oriented practices and social justice covenants, ensuring intergenerational equity, social inclusion principles, and enabling belonging and conviviality. In the case of resolving conflict between parties, Land’s priorities are considered before the human and non-human needs and priorities, and relying on local elder guidance where it is needed to achieve resolution.
11. Community risk sharing
Risks in production and finance are shared communally (e.g., loan guarantees through cooperative funds, community-supported agriculture (CSA)), reducing dependence on external creditors and reinforcing solidarity and mutual aid networks over competition.
12. Respect complexity and pursue adaptive learning
Navigating transformational change comes with uncertainty, and new needs, understandings, and opportunities may arise, requiring an openness to learning and adaptation. The praxis of action, reflection, self-criticism, and continual improvement is valued by land custodians, and all members of regional hubs and the Coordinating coop.
For more information or if you’d like to have a yarn about the principles or the Agroecology Land Trust, please reach out to our General Coordinator Antoine (admin@afsa.org.au). The authors would also like to thank the many activists, economists, critical agrarian studies scholars, farmers, and community members for their valuable feedback.
Image credit: Carte de la Zone à défendre (ZAD) de Notre-Dame-des-Landes, 2016, Editions à la criée.
