Agroecological Infrastructure as Civic Reparation

In the U.S. Southwest, a region marked by ecological degradation and extractive land histories, community-led agroecological practices are emerging as both spatial interventions and political acts. This contribution uses research and teaching methods in West Texas and the Navajo Nation to look at how agroecological infrastructure—like food forests, water harvesting systems, and community learning spaces—serves as a way to fix past wrongs and design land use. These grassroots efforts are shaped by legacies of settler-colonial displacement, industrial overuse, and water insecurity, yet they also reflect powerful modes of resistance, repair, and reinvention. This paper looks at how community-focused design methods include agroecological ideas like recycling resources, sharing knowledge across generations, and improving soil health in planning spaces and teaching architecture. Drawing on the concept of people’s resourcefulness (MacKinnon & Derickson, 2013; Escobar, 2018), it reflects on how agroecological agency is embedded in informal systems of stewardship and self-organization. At the same time, it interrogates the tensions between these grassroots initiatives and dominant urban planning frameworks that often fail to accommodate non-institutional land use claims. By sharing real-life examples and hands-on teaching experiences, this work highlights how agroecological urbanism can act as an alternative to traditional environmental management from above. The work engages with agroecology not only as an environmental solution but also as a socio-political movement reconfiguring the commons through situated design practices. In the end, it suggests that agroecological infrastructure can be a community-based approach that values different ways of knowing and is based on real-world needs, making those who work on the land partners in taking land out of the market and supporting local independence.