The New Mexico Agrarian Commons is raising funds to regenerate a historic family farm through community landownership.
Long-term land access is needed in order to invest in soil health
A statewide survey conducted by NM Healthy Soil Working Group in 2018 while developing the Healthy Soil Act, asked about the main barriers to improving soil health in our state. Respondents (~50% of them New Mexico farmers and ranchers) resoundingly identified the lack of access to land as a major issue.
Corroborated by many such inquiries and studies across the country, this makes common sense: When land is leased on a short term basis, it’s hard to invest in its long-term health. Rising costs and land values, and the loss of farms and rangeland to development exasperate the problem.
Based on the latest Census of Agriculture, New Mexico’s farmer population averages nearly 61 years of age. Nationwide, an estimated 400 million acres—more than 40% of U.S. farmland—will change hands in the next 15 years. Yet next-generation farmers, farmers of color and small-scale operations often struggle when it comes to secure land tenure.
NM Agrarian Commons’ model of collective land ownership
Seeking to address this major need, NM Healthy Soil Working Group joined forces with New Mexico non-profits Chihuahuan Desert Charities and Naya’s Refuge as well as the national organization Agrarian Trust, to found the New Mexico Agrarian Commons in 2023.
Following the innovative model of shared land ownership developed by the Agrarian Trust, the NM Agrarian Commons was established as a community land-holding entity registered under IRC 501(c)(25). Beyond solely conserving farmland, the Commons intertwines food production with social and environmental justice, community well-being, and ecological stewardship.
Lopez Legacy Farms is the Common’s first project, bringing together farmers, birthworkers, and land stewards committed to ecological restoration and community resilience.
Just recently, the work of the NM Agrarian Commons has been recognized by Farm to Table NM with the Sowing Change Award for Organizations Engaged in Creating Sustainable Food Systems.
Lopez Legacy Farms
Once part of a much larger farm property, three parcels of two acres each represent the last remaining acreage of the original family land. Located in the San Ysidro Church community of Doña Ana County in Southern New Mexico, this land has sustained the Lopez family for over five generations.
Known as Lopez Chile Farm with the motto “It hurts so good!”, the Lopez family grew pecans, alfalfa, cotton, corn, and a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, stewarding both the soil and a vision of community abundance.
Now, as board member of the New Mexico Agrarian Commons, Melissa Lopez-Sullivan is leading the next chapter: protecting this land as a community-held place of nourishment, teaching, and transformation.
Lopez Legacy Farms is advancing a three-phase land acquisition and stewardship strategy to place all 6 acres into the Commons, securing the land for collective benefit in perpetuity.
Healing Land, Growing Justice
The agricultural history of New Mexico is shaped by colonization, land theft, and racialized displacement. Indigenous communities stewarded this area for generations before colonization imposed extractive systems such as encomienda.
Later, Mexican landowners lost property through post-1848 legal systems that erased Spanish land grants. Black farmers, including the founders of nearby Blackdom, also faced barriers to land access due to racism and environmental exclusion.
By restoring Lopez Legacy Farms, the NM Agrarian Commons reclaims a small but powerful piece of this history, centering land, healing, and community care in the hands of those most impacted.
Regeneration and community resilience
Guided by the healthy soil principles, the Commons is regenerating Lopez Legacy Farms using organic practices (e.g. cover cropping, targeted grazing, and compost application) with the goal to achieve regenerative organic certification through the Rodale Institute.
The farm will grow vegetables, medicinal herbs, and heirloom seeds while also serving as an incubator for a regenerative organic pecan cooperative and community-supported agriculture. These efforts create hands-on demonstrations of regenerative farming and expand access to fresh produce and economic opportunities for local families.
Lopez Legacy Farms is an extension of the values and mission of the New Mexico Doula Association, where Melissa Lopez-Sullivan serves as Executive Director. It represents the physical grounding of reproductive justice; reconnecting the work of community-based doulas and full-spectrum care providers to the land, food systems, and cultural healing traditions.
Grounded in a vision that all people deserve access to culturally humble, affirming care, Lopez Legacy Farms seeks to serve as a vital site for rest, recovery, and reconnection to land and water for birthworkers and families.
Images by Isabelle Jenniches CC BY 4.0 unless otherwise noted.
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