Who controls California's farmland? | SF Chronicle op-ed

[Adam Calo]

Dear all,

In this op-ed, we make the case for a "Land Observatory" to regain democratic control of the food system.

Who controls California's farmland? 

Adam

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Adam Calo 

Assistant Professor of Environmental Governance and Politics 

Radboud University, Netherlands

@adamcalo

Google Scholar

Land Food Nexus Blog

(2025) The enduring fantasy of 'feeding the world.' Spectre

(2024) Transforming land for sustainable food: Emerging contests to property regimes in the Global North. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 12(1).

(2024) New entrant farming policy as predatory inclusion. Agriculture and Human Values.

(2022) Using property law to expand agroecology: Scotland’s land reforms based on human rights. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 1-37.

(2020) The Yeoman Myth: A troubling foundation of the beginning farmer movement. Gastronomica 20, 12–29. 

[Adam Calo]

Hi gep-ed,

I received some helpful feedback that I might offer the listserv a little more than to drop a paywalled article without context: 

If you are interested in the land dimension of environmental governance, the op-ed summarizes findigns from a collaboration of scholars and farmland activists to monitor changes in farmland ownership and transfer in California. The goal of the work is partly to inform the California Land Equity Task Force, a state-appointed group that is due to make policy recommendations to the Governor's office at the end of the year. 

The main policy recommendation here is the establishment of a public Land Observatory, with the ample tools and power to monitor land ownership and put the brakes on rampant consolidation. This is part of my broader interest in developing a land governance paradigm that synergizes with sustainable land use objectives. For those behind the paywall, an adjacent blog post makes these arguments: The case for a land observatory

All best,

Adam