We will discuss lessons learned so far from a participatory action research project through the Grassland 2.0 project, which aims to create an agroecological transformation to perennial grass-based animal agriculture in the Upper Midwest. Bringing together a diverse group from across the region, we engaged community members in a series of three workshops to address the critical justice and equity components of this transformation and to discuss preliminary findings from 120 semi-structured interviews. This presentation will highlight our approaches to relationship-building with communities of color, creating spaces for transformational thinking, and helping community organizations address silo-ing of services.