Reimagining the Economy: Jose E. Corona on the Stewardship Economy
Guest Contribution from Jose Corona of the Agricultural Platform Collective
What if we measured economic success not only by what we produce or consume, but by what we leave behind? A stewardship economy recognizes that prosperity is not something we simply extract or accumulate; rather, it is something we cultivate and pass forward.
As the son of a farmer and in my work at the Agricultural Platform Collective (APC), I’ve witnessed firsthand that farmers do far more than produce food. Their decisions affect soil and water health, strengthen rural communities, and shape the resources available to future generations. They are important contributors to the economy, yet often go unnoticed and unappreciated.
Currently, our economy often rewards short-term production while leaving farmers, particularly small, historically underserved farmers, to absorb the long-term costs of caring for the land and feeding their communities. Climate change, economic inequality, food insecurity, and agricultural land loss reinforce one another, while economic insecurity limits farmers’ ability to invest in the land, adapt to climate change, feed their communities, and build a localized infrastructure to keep that wealth on their farms.
A stewardship economy realigns incentives by shifting what we value toward the people, relationships, knowledge, and natural systems that sustain us. Central to this shift is shared responsibility: businesses, policymakers, funders, consumers, and community leaders must consider how their decisions affect the people who care for our land.
If we can fully embrace the shift toward a stewardship economy, we can build a system that meets the needs of people and communities today, protects shared resources, and enables those who tend them to thrive and create lasting prosperity for generations to come. A stewardship economy recognizes that we create prosperity together — --and that we all thrive when everyone has the opportunity to share in it.