There is no climate justice without social justice,
no social justice without food justice,
and no food justice without land justice.
OUR WORK
Minnow secures land tenure for California’s farmers of color and indigenous communities to support the heritage and foodways of those most affected by state-sponsored dispossession. Such conditions help repair the harms of settler colonialism, which persist to this very day under capitalism and white supremacy.
We also facilitate democratic governance of land and food systems, so colonized peoples can thrive again in their cultural practices while contributing proven solutions to climate change.
To achieve this vision of land justice and belonging, Minnow focuses on four work areas.
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Land-based debt is inherently extractive of the soil and those who tend it. We work towards securing land, debt-free, for farmers of color and indigenous land stewards. The models for land stewardship we advance center community wealth, economic stability, cultural autonomy, and physical safety. We leverage our culturally-informed expertise with collective ownership, democratic governance, and legal and financial tools to support land relations that transcend the capitalist logic of land as commodity.
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There is no land justice without indigenous sovereignty. Our vision of a just food system and a livable planet is grounded in the work needed to repair and restore the severed relationships, caused by settler colonialism, between indigenous communities and the lands they belong to. We use existing and new legal strategies for indigenous rematriation to advance this process.
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Our vision of justice is inseparable from the practice of true democracy in all aspects of our lives. Minnow assists in the development of democratic governance within farms and other land-based entities. We engage with the experience and cultural wisdom held by our clients and draw on our own experiences, traditions, and practices to uplift democracy as a core practice of self-determination. Because we believe we must embody the change we seek, we also invest in governing ourselves as a democratic, non-hierarchical workplace.
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Minnow challenges philanthropic entities to divest their endowments from extraction and speculation, and to redistribute those assets into building power, political engagement, and community ownership for black, indigenous, and people of color communities. We do this in close collaboration and partnership with other people of color-led groups, like The People’s Land Fund, Liberating Investment for the Food and Farm Ecosystem, CDFA Farmer Equity Committee, Climate Justice Alliance, and Local Economy Lab. Minnow provides research, strategy, and knowledge on the current landscape of where money is held, what tools exist for redistribution, and how to close the gap between our movements’ needs and philanthropic practice. Our goal is to win the redistribution of financial resources to advance land justice projects led by communities of color in California and around the country.
OUR TEAM
Minnow’s co-directors are currently based in the unceded lands of the Kumeyaay and the Ohlone peoples, or what are otherwise known respectively as San Diego and Oakland, California. We insist on acknowledging the indigenous stewards of the places we work on, precisely because our work is about reshaping our collective relationships with the land and its beings. In naming that history, we recognize the injustice we strive to repair.
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Javier Román
Director of Strategic Storytelling
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Mai Nguyen
Director of Farm & Policy Programs
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Neil Thapar
Director of Land & Financial Redistribution
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Director of Strategic Storytelling
Javier A. Román-Nieves is an artist, writer, and naturalist. He joined Minnow in fall 2021 after obtaining his second graduate degree from the Yale School of the Environment. Prior to that, he maintained a solo art practice while collaborating in a culture jamming collective between San Juan and New York City.
His outspoken cultural criticism and more than five years of environmental communications work led Javier to study anew. He became an active supporter of the Environmental Justice at Yale group, while participating in actions with Fossil Free Yale and the Yale Endowment Justice Coalition.
At Minnow, Javier combines skills from human ecology and ecosystem conservation with his design background to help shift the dominant agricultural narrative to one that centers farmers of color and indigenous people. He also steers Minnow’s web and print communications platform, creating visual and long-from storytelling content to support engagement and grassroots fundraising.
Javier completed a B.A. in Environmental Design and an M.A. in Architecture from the University of Puerto Rico, and an M.E.M from the Yale School of the Environment. He is currently a Conservation and Justice Fellow for the American Bird Conservancy.
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Director of Farm & Policy Programs
Mai Nguyen is a well-respected farm owner-operator and farmer community organizer with a deep understanding of California's agricultural challenges, seen from an environmental, economic, policy and agricultural worker perspective.
Serving as the National Young Farmers Coalition's California Organizer and Director, Mai organized California’s farmers of color to affect policy for the benefit of the state’s diverse and independent agricultural producers. Their social and environmental justice work has been recognized by Grist.org, Berkeley Food Institute, Rachel's Network, and the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and featured in CNN, SF Chronicle, VICE, and Patagonia.
At Minnow, Mai uses their cooperative development expertise to directly assist clients in organizing themselves democratically. Before co-founding Minnow, Mai supported existing and startup agricultural cooperatives and worker cooperative farms at the California Center for Cooperative Development. Mai’s close connections with farming communities enables Minnow to advocate for farmers' needs when designing land tenure structures and building equitable infrastructure and services.
Mai holds a B.A. and an M.A. in Geography from UC Berkeley and University of Toronto, respectively. They are chair of the Asian American Farmers Alliance, member of the inaugural CDFA Farmer Equity Advisory committee and co-founder of the California Farmer Justice Collaborative, which passed California's first agricultural civil rights bill, the 2017 Farmer Equity Act.
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Director of Land & Financial Redistribution
Neil Thapar is a land justice attorney who advises and advocates for decommodified relationships to land that promote affordability, community ownership, and long-term sustainable stewardship. Prior to co-founding Minnow, he served for over six years as a Staff Attorney and Director of the Food and Farm Program at the Sustainable Economies Law Center.
From worker-owned farms to community land trusts, Neil builds partnerships to surpass the legal and policy challenges standing in the way of transformative change. He has led successful legislative initiatives, such as the Law Center's Save Seed Sharing campaign and the Neighborhood Food Act.
At Minnow, Neil works directly with client farmers, indigenous communities, and BIPOC-led organizations to develop the legal tools or infrastructure needed to acquire and collectively hold land. He also redirects philanthropic assets to finance these shifts, in collaboration with The People’s Land Fund, the California Tribal Fund and other cause-aligned partners.
Neil earned a B.A. in Economics and International Area Studies from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Hastings College of the Law. He also holds a Certificate in Ecological Horticulture from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz, where he authored thirteen case studies to introduce social justice to the existing curriculum.
FORMER STAFF
As a small team of co-directors, everyone has helped shape all aspects of our organization since day one. Here you will find our past staff members and their contributions to Minnow’s journey so far.
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Director of Resource Mobilization & Engagement
Anchal Bibra is a Bay Area artist and activist who brings together skills in fundraising, design, and communications to support organizations rooted in social justice values. She joined Minnow in fall 2021 after serving as Engagement Director for the East Bay Meditation Center, where she oversaw a robust monthly donor program.
Anchal also developed a communications strategy and planned multi-day retreats for the Castanea Fellowship. As a fundraising consultant and freelance graphic designer, she has supported social justice-oriented clients like the Sustainable Economies Law Center and Bay Area Legal Aid, successfully planning, organizing, and leading fundraising strategies, events, and campaigns.
At Minnow, Anchal leverages her experience supporting values-aligned nonprofits to design and implement the organization’s grassroots funding strategy and to engage our communities in mobilizing resources. She strives to deepen relationships both digitally and in-person, in and out of Minnow, where she also co-directs storytelling efforts focused on fundraising while co-stewarding organizational health and wellbeing.
Anchal earned a B.A. in Political Science from California State Long Beach, and a M.A. in Gender, Sexuality and Culture from the University of Manchester. She is a member of Satya Yoga Cooperative, a network of conscious yoga teachers of color who center indigenous wisdom and teach liberation-oriented yoga that acknowledges colonial systems that fracture our wholeness.
