Leanne Ussher

Leanne is an independent economist specializing in the design of local currencies and accounting systems that support place-based, regenerative economies. She holds a PhD in Economics from the New School for Social Research, known for its heterodox approach. Her publications span agent-based modeling, monetary design, token economics, and the history of economic thought.

Leanne spent two decades teaching and critiquing mainstream economics—connecting theory to praxis—at universities including Queens College CUNY, UMass Boston, and Bard College. Prior to academia she worked as Securities Analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia. Since leaving academia, she transitioned to hands-on community practice, collaborating with a wide range of corporate, NGO and grassroots initiatives including Consensys, French Development Agency (AFD), Wolfram Blockchain Labs, Valueflows, Grassroots Economics, ThriveOn!, Hudson Valley Current, and the Economic Space Agency.

Globally, Leanne works with communities and funders to co-design post-capitalist, Web3 regenerative protocols. She co-develops “living labs” with local groups, creating programmable currencies that incentivize ecological restoration, cooperative economics, and decentralized coordination.

She is currently a Fellow at Bard College’s Center for Civic Engagement, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Blockchain, and Director of Bowralea Farm in Australia, where she is actively engaged in local ecological initiatives.

Paying for What Lasts

Thirty years of European ecosystem funding versus Australia's Big-Ag wager

Stand in an alpine meadow above Salzburg in July and you are surrounded by 50 or 60 plant species in a single hectare. Orchids, arnica, eyebright, wild thyme. The farmer who manages that meadow cuts it once a year — late, after the wildflowers set seed — hauls the hay down by hand because the slope is too steep for machinery, and receives a payment from the Austrian government for doing exactly that. Not as charity. As compensation for a service the rest of society benefits from but rarely pays for directly: a functioning, species-rich landscape that holds water in the soil, holds carbon in the vegetation, holds tourists in the valley, and holds genetic diversity in the bank for everything that comes after us.

Logos & GrowGood: Community Owned Economies

Guest Podcast with Host Sterlin Lujan

Introduction What does a post-capitalist economy look like, and where does value actually live? In this deep-dive session from the Logos Thursday X Space, heterodox economist and monetary theorist Leanne Ussher joins host Sterlin Lujan to explore the frontier of community-owned economies. The conversation traces a fascinating lineage of economic experimentation—from the Wörgl “miracle” during the Great Depression and the Sardex network in Sardinia to modern-day implementations like Will Ruddick’s Sarafu currency in Nairobi’s Kibera slum. Moving beyond theoretical frameworks, this discussion focuses on practical applications: mapping material, ecological, and human flows to reclaim value that mainstream economics is built to ignore.

GrowGood Mycelium

Part 1: Economics of the Digital Commons

GrowGood is an ambitious open-source digital platform built to empower farmers to reorient their practice towards regenerative agriculture. We are part of a movement and a broader shift toward planetary civics grounded in what Zehra Zaidi & Indy Johar (2024) describe as two defining realities: Firstly, there is an awakening of planetary consciousness regarding the scale of planetary challenges. Groups of stakeholders have recognised that there is finite time to correct destructive pathways and have begun to experiment and generate new propositions.

Doughnut Economics and GrowGood

Aligning Farm Management with a Thriving Planet

Introduction Kate Raworth’s “Doughnut Economics” presents a compelling model for 21st-century prosperity, one that rejects the endless pursuit of GDP growth in favour of a more balanced goal. The “Doughnut” itself is a visual framework representing a safe and just space for humanity. It consists of two concentric rings: The Social Foundation (Inner Ring): This outlines the basic standards of living—such as food, water, housing, and political voice—that no one should fall below. The Ecological Ceiling (Outer Ring): This represents the nine planetary boundaries, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, that humanity must not overshoot to protect Earth’s life-support systems. The goal is to operate within the Doughnut’s green ring: the space where we can meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet.