For many Black, Indigenous, and other people of color in the US, land and water stewardship play a central role in our culture, way of life, economic livelihoods, and the sustainability of our communities. 

However, due to white settler colonialism, the opportunity to farm has been unjustly stripped from the majority of BIPOC communities in the US through many avenues, including government policies and programs. 

Now, it is time to ensure that government policies and programs not only correct these racist practices that have led to massive land loss, but also help return land stewardship to BIPOC communities. 

One critical place we can do so is the farm bill, a massive piece of federal legislation that dramatically shapes our food and farm system through the investment of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars.

Historically, the farm bill has been used to aid the forced removal of Black and Indigenous farmers from their lands – agencies like the USDA intentionally gave loans to white farmers while discriminating against Black farmers. This racist practice has led to huge loss of land, wealth, and opportunity for BIPOC producers and their families. 

Photo by Jam Rose & Rion Moon

As National Organizer at HEAL Food Alliance, I helped organize a roundtable discussion with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, RAFI-USA, and the Midwest Farmers of Color Collective, where Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color shared the mistreatment and discrimination they’ve faced from banks while applying for loans. 

Access to credit and loans are vital resources for producers and growers to sustain their farms.  Over a dozen farmers of color participated, and we quickly saw many questionable practices were commonplace, such as loan officers changing the requirements to receive a loan or denying loans outright despite applicants having decent credit and debt-to-income ratios.

Ed Hunt, a member of the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina, shared at the roundtable how both he and his father have struggled to receive loans for their farms, despite good credit and high down payments. 

“If you don’t inherit land, you’re in trouble, you’re not farming. So for a person of color, it’s not gonna happen, ” said Ed Hunt to Civil Eats reporter Lisa Held.

Recently, the USDA has made efforts to address its own discriminatory lending practices with debt relief programs for farmers of color – but there’s still so much more that should be done. 

USDA technical assistance programs, trainings and grants should also be more accessible to BIPOC farmers. Oftentimes there is little outreach to communities of color – especially those that are non English speaking. Including culturally-appropriate outreach and assistance in the farm bill would make USDA opportunities in reach for more growers of color.  

Including the Justice for Black Farmers Act, introduced by Senator Booker and Representative Adams (with input from some HEAL members and partners) in the farm bill could help restore and prevent land loss for generations of Black farmers. 

Photo by Jam Rose & Rion Moon

Justice for Black and Indigenous Farmers is long overdue — it’s time for a farm bill that centers and prioritizes Black, Indigenous and other farmers of color.  This week, HEAL is calling on Congress and the Senate and House Ag committees to support the Justice for Black Farmers Act. Join us by calling your Congress members in support of a farm bill for thriving futures for us all!

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health. Learn more about the opportunities for all producers  HEAL policy priority for the 2023 Farm Bill.

Maleeka is HEAL’s National Organizer, where she builds the people power we need to create food systems that are good for our communities, good for our health, and good for the planet. Prior to working at HEAL, Maleeka mobilized coalitions to advance equitable climate policy as Co-Director of Policy at Climate Action Campaign and Chair of the San Diego Green New Deal Alliance. Maleeka has served as Director of Membership for the San Diego Democrats for Environmental Action and Assembly District Delegate to the California Democratic Party. Maleeka has also served on the Steering Committee for the California Green New Deal Coalition, the Stewardship Committee for the San Diego Food Systems Alliance 2030 Food Vision, and County Board of Supervisor Nathan Fletcher’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force. Maleeka has lived and worked in South Korea, Thailand, and Brazil, and has a B.A. from Colorado College. Maleeka currently lives in San Diego on Kumeyaay land and enjoys playing in the ocean and walking dogs in her free time.

The post We must center BIPOC farmers & producers in the farm bill! appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Food is our most intimate and powerful connection to each other, our cultures, and the earth. How we produce, process, and consume food has a larger impact on our wellbeing than any other human activity. 

That’s why, earlier this month, HEAL members joined over 500 farmers and farmer-advocates, partners and allies in DC at the Farmers for Climate Action: Rally for Resilience for a week of advocacy and power building, and to educate lawmakers on our vision for a transformative farm bill!

Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose

Why We Went to DC

It is no secret that the farm bill is heavily influenced by Big Ag and Big Food. A handful of giant corporations lobby heavily to ensure that lawmakers prioritize their interests (i.e. profits for their investors and shareholders). We came to DC to ensure that voices from our communities and alliance are also heard and prioritized in one of the most powerful pieces of legislation that determines what food farmers grow, what we eat, and how we access food. 

For four days we rallied, marched, and advocated for a 2023 Farm Bill that protects farm and other food system workers, brings justice for Black, Indigenous and farmers of color, and invests in communities instead of corporations.

Read on below to learn more about our policy priorities and our efforts in DC to secure a farm bill that supports thriving futures for us all.

SECURE DIGNITY AND FAIRNESS FOR FOOD CHAIN WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Since its inception, the farm bill has excluded labor rights and policies for the more than 21 million people working in our food and farm systems. This exclusion makes it more difficult to hold corporations accountable for mistreatment of workers, including unsafe labor conditions. 

HEAL member Marielena Vega, Visión 2C Resource Council Chair and Board Representative, Idaho Organization of Resource Councils (IORC) called for greater protections for farmworkers in the 2023 Farm Bill at the Rally for Resilience, and spoke about the increased health risks farmworkers face from heat stress. 

“We need a farm bill that puts the wellbeing and livelihood of our communities, of our farm workers, as a priority,” said Marielena.

Marielena Vega, while speaking at the Rally for Resilience on March 7th in Washington DC, demanded a labor title in the Farm Bill that will improve labor conditions for farmworkers like her family members in the photo held by Marielena. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

Yanely Martinez leading the crowd in a rallying cry to claim their power at the Rally for Resilience on March 7th in Washington, DC (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

Yanely Martinez, farmworker advocate and community organizer with Californians for Pesticide Reform and Councilwoman for Greenfield City, CA spoke at the Rally for Resilience on the inhumane use of pesticides and its impact on the health of farmworkers, their families and rural communities.

“Farmworkers are affected daily by chemicals created as weapons of war. They were banned for war but are still used in my community and many communities of color,” said Yanely. 

We also made demands for workers rights while meeting with the Senate Agriculture Committee where Axel Fuentes, Executive Director of Rural Community Workers Alliance shared the potential impact of bills like Protecting America’s Meatpack Workers Act (PAMWA)* could have for factory workers.

*PAMWA has been officially endorsed by the HEAL Food Alliance as a marker bill for the 2023 Farm Bill. Learn more >>

HEAL members and staff at a meeting with staff from the Senate Ag Committee. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL PRODUCERS

Racism is deeply ingrained in our food and farm systems— for centuries Black, Indigenous, and other farmers of color have been systematically excluded from government programs and benefits. The USDA’s track record of denying and delaying loans and technical assistance costs Black farmers their land and livelihoods.

From left to right: Axel Fuentes, Eloni Porcher, Omowale, Nadia, Susuyu Lassa, and Navina Khanna in front of Senator Gillibrand’s Congressional office in DC.

Nadia and Omowale co-founders of Liberation Farm met with Senator Gillibrand’s (NY) office to urge support of the Justice for Black Farmers Act*, which would create more pathways to farming for Black farmers and address loan discrimination, land loss, and other racial injustices. 

*Justice For Black Farmers Act has been officially endorsed by the HEAL Food Alliance as a marker bill for the 2023 Farm Bill. Learn more >>

Dorathy Barker of HEAL member organization Operation Spring Plant called for greater investment in Black women farmers, who are often excluded from funding opportunities and technical assistance programs. 

Dorathy Barker, Co-founder and Executive Director of Operation Spring Plant at the Rally for Resilience Press Conference on March 8th in DC, where she discussed why justice for Black Farmers is vital. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

“What is equity and inclusion? What does that look like for Black farmers, Black communities? Money is coming down for this and that but we are always excluded,” said Mama Dorathy.

INVEST IN COMMUNITIES, NOT CORPORATIONS

Over the last 50 years, our food system has become so consolidated, that today, just five food and agricultural corporations control the grocery sector while just two corporations control the majority of our seeds.

Sign from March to Capitol Hill that reads “Communities Not Corporations.” (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

While marching to Capitol Hill, and throughout the week, we called for increased investment in our communities and local infrastructure and for Congress to break up corporate consolidation and increase regulation and accountability across the agri-food system. 

Representative Ro Khanna (CA-17) spoke at the Rally for Resilience Press Conference about why we need to curb the power corporate monopolies have on our food system.

Rep. Ro Khanna at the Rally for Resilience Press Conference on March 8th in DC. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

“The big players don’t care if they’re destroying the land, only about maximizing profits. And that is why a lot of the work we’re doing is to break up monopolistic practices,” said Rep. Khanna. 

Along with Senator Booker, Rep. Khanna reintroduced the Farm System Reform Act, which, if passed, would stop the expansion of factory farms.

NOURISHING PEOPLE

Families today are struggling with rising costs and reduced access to food, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the reauthorization of the Farm Bill this year, some lawmakers seek to cut access to nutrition assistance programs, which are a lifeline for millions of families across the US. 

HEAL members and School of Political Leadership alumni Chinue Fields and Dominique Miller of Urban Tilth met with Representative Jim Costa’s (CA-21) office to urge for the expansion of SNAP and increase funding for food assistance programs.

From left to right: Dominique Miller and Chinue Fields of Urban Tilth holding signs that read “Food is Medicine” and “Water is Life / Agua es Vida” in front of the US Supreme Court Building. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

“For BIPOC communities and farmers, having access is huge. Having nourishing, healthy food options for each person is a basic human right, but a lot of people are lacking that right now,” said Chinue.  

On March 14, lawmakers introduced legislation to cut access to SNAP benefits by increasing work requirements. We will continue to build collective power and advocate for expansion of SNAP and other nutrition programs on the federal and local level. 

ENSURE THE SURVIVAL OF ECOSYSTEMS & OUR PLANET

The survival of our planet depends on a transition away from capitalism, white supremacy, and heteropatriarchy towards non-extractive relationships with ecological systems and each other. 

As we convened in DC in support of climate action in the Farm Bill, our members also addressed the unique experiences folks of color and members of frontline communities have of being excluded from environmental solutions. 

“BIPOC farmers already have the knowledge but we are not being supported, our knowledge is being stolen, exploited and sold back to us. Our knowledge needs to be validated by land access,” said Julieta Saucedo, owner of Muros de Adobe Farm and Farm Education Coordinator, La Semilla Food Center.

Julieta Saucedo speaking at the Rally for Resilience on March 7 in Freedom Plaza, Washington, DC on validating the knowledge of BIPOC farmers. (Photo by Rion Moon & Jam Rose)

At the rally for resilience, Julieta called for land to be returned to Black, Indigenous and farmers of color, who, as knowledge keepers and practitioners of agroecological practices, are helping to restore our ecosystems.

HEAL’s vision is for a 2023 Farm Bill that transforms our destructive food and farm systems, our health, our planet, and our communities, and prioritizes the well-being of BIPOC and rural communities and human and environmental health.

While a transformative Farm Bill does not ensure the future we seek, it is our belief that by building the power of frontline communities, we can shift where power is held and begin to ensure rights and safety for our communities.

Eloni Porcher is a storyteller and strategic communicator who crafts messages, builds strategies and conducts research to inform communications and development for HEAL and its members. Her previous experience includes research, digital comms and media relations in global health, community development and nonprofit sectors where she specialized in gender health issues impacting BIPOC communities in the US and women across the Global South. Eloni has a B.A. in Communication Studies and minor in International Studies from Northeastern University and is currently based in the Washington, DC – Baltimore region on Piscataway land. 

The post HEAL Food Alliance Shows Up Big in DC for a Transformative Farm Bill appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Today, the food and agriculture industry spends billions of dollars lobbying each year, and their influence over policy means that the rules are still largely written in their favor. We’re now left with a reality of larger farms but fewer farmers and recent political decisions like the trade war on China have pushed many remaining small farmers, and rural economies over the edge. Under this system, where large corporations control almost every aspect of farming, it is often unviable to go against the current, irrespective of who you are—even without the additional barrier of structural racism.

Most farmers now rely on government bailouts and crop insurance to offset their losses and keep themselves afloat through particularly difficult seasons, but government aid has not reached all farmers equally. The payments are based on production: the bigger the farm, the bigger the payments and loans are configured to serve large scale farmers.  According to a report by NPR, about 100,000 individuals collected 70% of the money. BIPOC farmers, on the other hand, have historically been left out of USDA programs including disaster relief, conservation grants, and loan assistance due to discriminatory lending practices and inadequate outreach and assistance to their communities. Rather than rewarding farmers who practice ecological agricultural techniques that have long lasting positive effects on soil health, and air and water quality, such programs continue to benefit megafarms that practice extractive agriculture that contributes to the climate crisis. As a result, small farms engaged in ecological agricultural practices, struggle to remain viable in a market-based economy.

For BIPOC producers, though many of them have ancestral connections to agriculture and come from communities that have stewarded land for generations, continuing those traditions as a vocational farmer is impossible for a majority. Unlike their white counterparts they are also less likely to own land and have access to intergenerational wealth that can cushion their losses.

Yet, as you’ll see in the following sections, there is a growing number of BIPOC farmers that are at the forefront of the agroecological movement.

The post Small producers can grow food in regenerative ways — but our food system works against them appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

The history of agriculture in the US is one of colonization and enslavement, followed by a long history of denying land rights to Black and Indigenous people, and later to other People of Color. Between 1784 and 1887, 1.5 billion acres of land was stolen from indigenous people—through war and attempts at genocide, outright theft and legislative appropriations like the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Homestead Act of 1862 (the total landmass of what is now the United States is 1.9 billion acres). From the vast plains of Iowa to the fertile acres of California’s Central Valley, America’s farms are on land that was taken from the Indigenous communities that once stewarded it. 

The violent colonization was an act of physical and cultural genocide; not only were millions of Indigenous people killed, but a majority of them were removed from their homelands, which they had stewarded for thousands of years. As a result, they were disconnected from their traditional foodways and forced to assume European systems of land ownership through legislation such as the Dawes Act. To date, profit-driven corporations and the U.S. government continue to violate treaties and extract oil, water, minerals, and more from lands that even by U.S. law are governed by indigenous communities. 

EXPLORE: To learn more about the indigenous lands you currently occupy, explore this map. You can also download an app.

From the early 1600s, enslaved Africans were abducted from their homelands to cultivate cotton, sugarcane, tobacco and more on monoculture plantations on these stolen lands—these were some of the nation’s most valuable exports at the time and served to lay the foundations for American capitalism, and simultaneously set the scene for American agriculture for centuries to come.

Towards the end of the Civil War, in 1865, Union leaders met with a group of Black leaders in Savannah, Ga to discuss how the Union government could support previously enslaved Black people. In 1865, based on what he heard from those leaders, Union General William T. Sherman passed an Order declaring that each family would be given land to farm on—“a plot of 40 acres of tillable ground”. Subsequently, 400,000 acres that were confiscated from confederate soldiers were set aside to be distributed among Black families. This was the first systematic attempt at reparations for Black people, but it didn’t last long. Less than a year after the Order was passed, it was reversed. The land went back to its former Confederate owners, under who it remains to this date. Land ownership remains tenuous for Black and Indigenous farmers today. 

READ: The invasion of America: The story of Native American dispossession is too easily swept aside, but new visualizations should make it unforgettable

WATCH: Food justice: a vision deeper than the problem | Anim Steel | TEDxManhattan 

Contemporary land struggles

 Despite this history, by 1920, the United States had about 1 million Black farmers; however as of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, this number is closer to 45,000, and just 0.52% of the total farmland in the country is owned or operated by a Black farmer. How did this happen? 

Over the last century, Black farmers were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land.  A significant portion of this—6 million acres—occurred between 1950 to 1969, and according to writer Vann R. Newkirk II, can be tied with the rise of the civil rights movement. Additionally, federal programs during that time were designed to create larger, more consolidated farms (more on this later!) that drove many small and medium scale farmers off their land. Black farmers, and especially those that were in the South, were particularly vulnerable due to the systemic racism that persisted in federal agencies that were charged with providing credit, capital, and insurance to farmers that would help them remain on their land. Aside from this, legal loopholes like ‘Heir’s property’ prevented and continue to impede Black people from using their land to get loans or available federal disaster relief, and maintain control over its sale. 

WATCH: The Great Land Robbery: How Federal Policies Dispossessed Black Americans of Millions of Acres 

Indigenous producers and communities face different challenges when it comes to land. In 1848, the Dawes Act, or the Allotment act forced indigenous people into a system of private property ownership that did not exist in their traditional land tenure systems and enabled the sale of ‘surplus’ land to non-Natives. After being dispossessed from land that their ancestors stewarded for centuries, many indigenous communities are still fighting for sovereignty over their land and its resources. Forcing indigenous people to assume a capitalist, proprietary relationship with the land has not only threatened their sovereignty over the land but fractured their spiritual connection with the land—a vital component of indigenous culture.

A report on the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 found that the decision to intern more than 110,000 people was partly initiated by West Coast farmers’ racist resentment of Japanese farmers. During that time, Japanese-American farmers produced more than 40 percent of California’s commercial vegetable crop alone and generated a much higher income per acre than white farmers. West Coast farmers who were threatened saw the war as an opportunity to rid themselves of the competition, and also gain access to some of the most fertile farmland in the region. About 258,000 acres of land was ‘confiscated’ from Japanese farmers and was never fully returned to them; and the impact of their dislocation has had a generational effect. 

READ: The dangerous economics of racial resentment during World War II 

Reevaluating our relationship with the land

Starting with indigenous ancestors that fought back against relocation and the group of Black leaders in Savannah, GA who advocated that ‘40 acres and a mule’ be given to previously enslaved families, to organizations like the National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA), Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON), the Land Loss Prevention Project,  Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust,  White Earth Nation and BIPOC producers who are growing food and advocating for themselves across the country, the desire to maintain relationship to the land among BIPOC communities is as old as the attempts to deny them land access and sovereignty. 

While these organizations lead the fight to ensure land access for existing BIPOC producers, those like New Communities Land Trust are providing spaces where people from BIPOC communities can reconnect with land and farming. In urban areas, where communities are burdened by the twin forces of gentrification and food apartheid, community gardens stewarded serve not only as a source of food but as a community meeting space and sanctuaries. 

As European settlers colonized North America, they also exposed vast expanses of land to the plow for the first time and it only took a few decades until their mode of farming drove around 50 percent of the original organic matter from the soil into the sky as carbon dioxide. Much of the work being done by traditional farmers and new proponents of regenerative agriculture is geared towards undoing this colonial legacy and restoring land to its earlier, more fertile state. Together, the work of these organizations plays a crucial role in redefining our collective relationship with the land, nurturing food sovereignty, mitigating food apartheid, and healing the planet.

The post Food Justice is Land Justice appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

• Independent farmers and ranchers, especially those who are Black and Indigenous, and other People of Color (immigrants and US-born) who operate small to midsize farms and utilize ecological farming and ranching practices, and fair labor practices
• Indigenous land and water stewards who use traditional agricultural practices to grow food for their communities
• Foragers and hunters
• Independent fishers, especially those from Indigenous fishing communities whose practices align with conservation principles
• Farmworkers, a majority of whom are Latinx and Indigenous immigrants, and have been cultivating land for decades,possess a wealth of agricultural knowledge and skill, but have limited access to land and resources
• Urban farmers who grow community gardens in cities, often in abandoned plots, providing food and community in neighborhoods previously lacking in nutritive food sources
• Beginning farmers and fishers, especially those who are Black and Indigenous, and from other communities of color, who want to grow their own food and reclaim their relationship with the land

The post Our food is grown and gathered by a variety of people in a variety of ways appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Kitchen Table Advisors (KTA) is a Northern California-based non-profit that aims to fuel the economic viability of a multi-racial next generation of sustainable small farms and ranches. KTA provides farmers with business and financial management support to sustain their business long-term. Currently, they work with over 60 farms and ranches located throughout the Northern California region.

Most of KTA’s clients are people of color and women— over half are Latino immigrant farmers based in and around Monterey County— and all of them practice ecological land management and hold environmental sustainability as a core part of what they do. Farm owners from these communities experience even higher barriers to achieving economic viability—and that’s just one of the reasons their work is critical to HEAL’s mission.

HEAL welcomed KTA to our alliance in 2019; recently we sat down with Director Anthony Chang and Community Engagement Manager Daniella Sawaya to chat about what it means and what it takes to survive and thrive as a sustainable small farm or ranch in Northern California. Here’s what we learned.

Kitchen Table Advisors started in 2013 when some  folks came together with the shared vision of creating a world where regenerative farmers and ranchers could thrive—how has your work evolved to stay true to this mission?

Our vision is for a food system that humanizes and values the people who nourish us and the land. For many agricultural producers, the path to building a livelihood that gains them that type of respect in our current food system is through operating a farm or ranch business. We work specifically with farmers that prioritize ecological land management, growing healthy food, and building community, and we recognize that unless they are able to operate viable enterprises, they cannot make a living fulfilling those goals. 

Our work is informed by working closely with and listening to farmers, farmworkers, women, immigrants, and communities of color. We began with offering business advising and support but we’ve evolved into recognizing that there are many things wrong with our food and farm system, and no matter how you interact with that system, you need to navigate those things. This recognition drove us to expand our work to include interventions at the institutional level; now, rather than just working with farmers and ranchers, we also partner with other organizations like ALBA, Mandela Partners, California FarmLink, and FEED Sonoma to shape institutions that control land, capital, and markets to work better for farmers and ranchers, especially those who are from communities of color who often face additional barriers. We’re also intentional about supporting folks who don’t just care about sustainable farming and healthy food, but that are really committed to nurturing their communities and building regional food ecosystems. Because of how power and resources are distributed in the industry, however, it can be even more challenging for farmers of color to maintain these values when their family’s livelihood is on the line. They are often overlooked in the sustainable agriculture movement, despite the fact that it is built on a foundation of indigenous and ancestral land practices that are contributed by communities of color. 

What kind of support do you offer to your clients? 

Many folks who come into our three-year intensive advising program are established as farmers — some have worked over 20-30 years as farmworkers, and nearly all have been in business on their own for at least several years. Though they’re often great at production, naturally entrepreneurial, and are already selling to grocery stores and farmers’ markets, many lack experience running a small business and are not necessarily surrounded by people with this experience.   

We help to accelerate their learning process around business and financial management, in a way that achieves their dual goals of running a viable business and stewarding the land in an ecologically responsible manner. For example, some farmers may not have a formal record-keeping system that helps them make informed choices around what to grow and where to sell. We then work with them to set up those systems so they can use data to complement their natural intuition. It’s not always a linear process; we try to meet them where they are and offer practical tools and knowledge that will lead them to their goals around money, livelihood, quality of life, or learning how to successfully run a values-based business. 

That being said, it has been reflected back to us that one of the biggest benefits of our support is serving as a thought-partner for farmers and ranchers. It can be isolating to be a small business owner, especially a farmer. It is valuable to have someone to call if you need help filling out a certification form, or to consider your options after a crop fails. Simply listening to our clients, or connecting them with the right resources is a huge way in which we support farmers. 

Whether it’s because of capitalism or the interconnected systems of white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, how food is produced, distributed, and sold in this country just doesn’t work for many sustainable small farms.

And what about periods of crisis, like fire season or the pandemic? 

The effects of these crises are felt across our food community—on people, workers, community, air quality, and housing. We have seen it during previous fire seasons and are seeing it again this year with the combined impacts of fire season, heatwaves, and a pandemic. Our role was to be available as a shoulder to lean on, to facilitate connecting them to resources, to talk through how they can adapt. Most business owners have their ‘people’ — someone to call during a crisis. Large industrial agriculture businesses can get another 5 million dollars on their credit by making one call. The folks we work with don’t have that so we are part of this support system that helps them to cobble it together, always but especially in times of crises. 

That said, our clients have been able to react and adapt quickly to give and receive support during crises because of the nimbleness of their business model, and the personal connections and social capital they cultivate in their regions— because they truly care about their communities.  

Do you find that climate change is becoming increasingly present in the experience of the farmers and ranchers you work with?

The short answer is ‘yes’. The fires are an extreme example of that, but last year we had a really wet spring which totally decimated strawberry crops in Salinas, impacting revenue for the whole year. Things rarely go according to plan in farming, but changes in historical weather patterns are making things harder. Most of our clients run diversified farms so they are better able to weather climate-related surprises and make the whole system more resilient. 

Additionally, farmers have been baking climate resilience into their practices. Vegetable farmers hone their practices around low or no-till agriculture, seed saving, cover cropping, and more. Ranchers focus on carbon sequestration, intensive rotational grazing, and holistic land management. They are able to react to current climate shifts, but really their leadership lies in the work they do to promote climate resilience.

Aside from dealing with crises, what are some common roadblocks that all your clients face?

Land access is a critical issue, especially in Northern California, whether it’s finding affordable land to buy or lease. Other times, it’s challenging finding a market for their product and learning to navigate relationships with buyers. Or it may be securing the necessary resources to strengthen their operations because they lack credit or the collateral needed for traditional bank loans and don’t qualify for federal agricultural funding. These are the main buckets that common issues fall into but on the whole, the system is not built for sustainable small farms, and particularly farmers of color. 

Whether it’s because of capitalism or the interconnected systems of white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy, how food is produced, distributed, and sold in this country just doesn’t work for many sustainable small farms. At the end of the day, our work is about helping farmers navigate the uphill battle of operating in a system that does not work for them.

So what needs to change in order for the system to work for them—how can consumers, markets, and institutions adapt to create a system in which these producers can thrive? 

We need to ask, what would it look like for farmers and ranchers, especially women and farmers of color, to have a stake in the entire food distribution chain, and have control and agency within that system? It’s also worth exploring how consumers, buyers, and retailers can orient to actually supporting the lives and livelihoods of farmers and ranchers.

How can farmers be compensated for the value they provide beyond the product they are selling? The ecological and land stewardship they provide, their contributions to local economies, and building resilient communities are all valuable public assets but they’re not treated that way in a capitalist system where everything boils down to commodities and productivity, and profits. If the price of food reflected the value of this work, it would be completely unaffordable. What if there was a universal basic income for farmers, or if farmland was in the commons? That could be a way to support them to do this important work. 

At the start of the pandemic, you published a blog about reimagining and rebuilding our food system in the wake of COVID-19. You talked about stewardship, community control, and cooperatives as the way forward; how can we continue to do that, and do you already see this vision taking shape?

It’s already happening and has been for decades. Folks like New Communities Land Trust and the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and others have been doing it despite the fact that systems are stacked against them. We already work with one food hub in Yolo county that is majority farmer-owned, and another in Sonoma is becoming a farmer and worker-owned cooperative.

How do we keep at it? By honing in on our values of ecological land stewardship, equity, resilience, and our vision for what we are working towards; and letting those two things guide our choices. We also need to ask ourselves the inverse of that: what are the values that shaped the current system—and do we want to continue holding onto those values. This isn’t how the food system always existed, it was shaped by values rooted in white supremacy, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy and it’s not the only way it can or should be.

We want producers to have the opportunity to live and farm in tune with their values, and to be able to thrive rather than choosing between their values and putting food on their own tables.

Featured images: Natalie Ngo Photography for Kitchen Table Advisors

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If the legacy of US agriculture is colonization and enslavement, it’s contemporary realities are rooted in capitalism. The current political and legal infrastructure of the food and farming sector is skewed heavily in favor of large corporations, whose profits hinge on the exploitation of workers and extraction from the land and oceans, and manipulation of democratic decision-making processes. As a result, the farming and fishing sectors are becoming increasingly consolidated. The majority of food production comes from farms that are larger than 2000 acres, and the largest 4 percent of farms make up 60% of all farmland.

From the Green Revolution of the late 1950s, the “Go big or get out” policies brought in by USDA Secretary Earl Butz in the 1970s large-scale farms, to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the nineties, government intervention in the agricultural sector has served the purposes of agribusiness, and not small and medium-scale farmers. In the past decades, large operations were able to leverage their scale to take advantage of technology, globalization, and a lack of antitrust enforcement to consolidate operations and push small farmers out.

A 2019 article from Time magazine captures the grim reality facing small farmers across the country: an unprecedented number of farm closures (100,000 farms closed between 2011 and 2018), farm debt at an all-time high of $418 billion, and declining mental health. At the same time our ocean commons – much like with land – is transforming into a private property asset, displacing community-based fishers and undermining conservation goals. In July 2020, the first batch of Genetically Modified Salmon produced by a biotechnology company entered the market despite warnings from conservationists, climate justice groups, and indigenous communities.

READ: A reflection on the lasting legacy of 1970s USDA Secretary Earl Butz

WATCH: Salmon People: The Risks of Genetically Engineered Fish for the Pacific Northwest

The post What Does a Legacy of Colonization and Enslavement Mean for Today’s Food and Farm Systems? appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

The second plank of our Platform for Real Food calls for Opportunity for All Producers. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the importance small-scale, community-centered producers in providing nutritious and culturally appropriate food to all communities. Here’s how the leadership and staff of La Semilla Food Center in Anthony, New Mexico has been adapting and evolving to take on the additional challenges brought about by the pandemic. 

In early March, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to capture national attention, and the state of New Mexico was about a week away from announcing a lockdown, the directors and staff of La Semilla faced their own set of tough decisions. As an organization whose operations are integral to the region’s food ecosystem, they knew that the situation would demand action on their part—they took the week to regroup and reflect. Graciously, the seasons were on their side. “One good thing,” says co-director Krysten Aguilar, who we chatted with in June, “was that the winter crops were dwindling down and spring and summer crops hadn’t started coming in yet so that gave us some breathing room for a week and a half.” 

Since their founding in 2010, La Semilla has been instrumental in connecting small producers, many of whom are Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and farm on less than 10 acres of land, to both direct and institutional markets such as farmers markets, schools, and local restaurants. They also run their own mobile market program—Farm Fresh— which in addition to providing a market from small, predominantly BIPOC growers, also ensures availability of fresh produce in neighborhoods that are burdened by food apartheid. The pandemic and consequent lockdown posed an immediate challenge to this ecosystem. “When everything, including farmers markets, restaurants and schools shut down, all their orders (from our farmers) got cancelled. About a week and a half in, we had 3-4 partner farmers who had all this produce but no market to sell to. So we decided, even though we didn’t know how to pay for it yet, that for those 2-3 weeks we would purchase the order from our partner farmers and donate that to food backs which were facing a huge jump in need.” In doing so, La Semilla not only ensured the economic stability of their partner farmers, but also filled a critical need that was cropping up in food banks. As a key node in the regional food ecosystem in El Paso and Las Cruces, they were uniquely positioned to do this. 

La Semilla’s work spans across a range of areas: food production, training in agroecology and desert education, community education, and nurturing regional economy and policy. Their community farm serves as a space for training beginning farmers in agroecology and desert ecology, and growing food for the local community.

The farm sits on 14 acres that was donated to them in 2010. Though not ideal — “a national gas pipeline runs diagonally across the space limiting what can be grown or built on a large portion of it,”— it opened up a lot of possibilities. Still, there was work to be done. They spent the couple of years getting to know and rehabilitating the land.

“We were really grateful to have land donated to us but the land was in conventional cotton production for a long time, and then fallow for a while so the soil was completely depleted. We also had to fundraise to dig a well because we are in the middle of the desert where the water is incredibly salty and the water table is dropping really fast,” recalls Krysten. About an acre of the property has now been in production for seven years and the community farm has been at the core of La Semilla’s work. “It’s an educational space, a gathering place—a place in which to cultivate community and celebrate,” says Krysten.

La Semilla’s broader vision is rooted in agroecological practices tied to the global movement for agroecology, and the farm serves as a working model for that vision.  All farm staff earn living wages and have benefits and everyone, including contractors, are paid above $15 an hour. And, there is a special focus on desert ecology and rediscovering ancestral knowledge about farming in the desert. “The desert is actually incredibly abundant but we’ve forgotten how to feed ourselves from the desert — in some cases we’ve had the knowledge of how to feed ourselves from the desert wiped out from us ,” explained Krysten. In addition to crops like tomatoes and peppers, they focus on desert edibles and medicines. 

Many partner farmers that participate in the Farm Fresh program are those that have gone through workshops and training at La Semilla’s farm. Regional universities focus almost exclusively on conventional agriculture so in addition to access to land and capital, the lack of training is a critical barrier for beginning farmers who want to practice regenerative agriculture techniques. La Semilla is one of the few farms in the region that provide this training. Another barrier is access to markets: consistent buyers that have an understanding of the realities of unconventional farming are hard to come by. La Semilla creates a stable market for them by acting as an aggregator, connecting them to buyers and redirecting their partner farmers’ produce to their other programs like the Farm Fresh Program. 

Sharing knowledge and learning with the community is integral to La Semilla’s vision. Apart from the beginning farmer training, their Edible Education program partners with local elementary and middle schools, and teachers to provide students with hands-on experience in growing and cooking fruits, while their community education program focuses on knowledge-sharing and community based learning for local residents. La Semilla’s policy and community development work focuses on changing the landscape on a regional level, and is rooted in shifting policy and strategic planning to transform the regional food system in Paso Del Norte to one where all communities can eat healthful, culturally appropriate food and where small, local producers can thrive. For example, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) invests in  small producers as a way to provide fresh, nutritious food to communities. 

Once the quarantine began in New Mexico, things had to shift across all programs. On-site training ceased for a while, training curriculum was adjusted to focus more on food safety, and La Semilla’s Farm Fresh program began to offer curbside pick up to their customers. “The hardest part has been figuring out how to keep the farm team and staff safe. Putting protocols in place and social distancing and creating operating features for the farm and office has been a lot of work,” says Krysten. The Edible Education program moved online — over 50 teachers signed up to get boxes of produce and took online cooking classes that integrated nutrition education. La Semilla’s existing connections with local farmers, communities, educators and institutions turned out to be especially critical during this unprecedented time. “Our washing path was too small to allow social distancing but luckily, schools were willing to accept unwashed produce for a period of time.”

Though the pandemic highlighted the need for stronger regional food systems, it also bought a fresh set of immediate policy challenges. Krysten points out that “farmers were being left out of the food assistance program, and the first stimulus package for small business did not include farmers at all.” Even after resources were made available, they were not easily accessible. “There is a disconnect between people’s capacity and the work it takes to access federal resources. Even for us, it was an ordeal to apply for the Payment Protection Program (PPP). Our small farmers don’t have that time and capacity, or the information as the resources are not easily available in Spanish.” 

Since March 202, La Semilla has moved further along in adapting to the new normal and evolving their mission to include the learnings from their collective experience. Last month, they celebrated 10 years of operation, and this week they kicked off a virtual summer camp. But more changes are on the way: “our work is evolving. As co-directors, Christina and I feel that there is more urgency around producing food. We don’t have unlimited resources to put into this but when things started to fall apart, that felt like an important thing to do. We need to be growing more food.”

Featured Images: La Semilla Food Center 

The post A decade of growing food, sharing knowledge and nurturing food ecosystems in Paso Del Norte appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

In 1997, 400 Black farmers sued the USDA for racial discrimination for about 15 years—and won. In the lawsuit, titled Pigford v Glickman, the court ruled that USDA officials had ignored complaints from Black farmers, and denied them farm aid, loans, and other support based on their race. The USDA admitted that they had delayed Black farmers’ paperwork until planting season was over, and denied them crop disaster payments. The landmark lawsuit and the case were settled for $1 billion in 1999.

That same year, another lawsuit—Keepseagle v Vilsack—made the case that the discrimination was not just towards Black farmers. Since 1981 USDA officials had discriminated against Native farmers and ranchers in loan programs and loan servicing, leading many of them to lose their lands and livelihoods. The case was settled in 2010 and the claimants received compensation, debt relief, and other programmatic relief which totaled to about $800 million. Once news of the Pigford vs Glickman case hit the news, many more black farmers came out to talk about the rampant discrimination they had faced. While farmers relied on loans from the Farm Service Agency to cover operating costs and hold on to their land, this option was rarely, if ever, available to BIPOC farmers.

READ: How USDA distorted data to conceal decades of discrimination against black farmers

WATCH: Catfish Kingdom

‘A system cannot fail those it was never built to protect’

The reality is that from the outset, federal and state agencies, and agriculture policy were not designed to include BIPOC communities. Legislation like the Homestead Act of 1862 which paved the way for farming in the Midwest was crafted with the explicit intent of forcing Indigenous people of the land which was then redistributed only to European settlers. Under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933, which forms the basis for today’s Farm Bill, crop subsidies were reserved for landowners (majority white)—sharecroppers and tenants (majority Black) who were excluded subsequently lost their land and livelihood. Labor laws like the 1935 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and the 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), also frequently left out farm labor and domestic labor, which were, and still are, overwhelmingly performed by People of Color. A historical lack of BIPOC representation in decision-making bodies has meant that BIPOC producers are still grappling with a system that was never meant to serve them. This explains why farming and agriculture continue to be overwhelmingly white, and federal and state agencies still fail to address the multitude of issues faced by small and medium-sized producers of color.

READ: For Native Americans, Land Is More Than Just the Ground Beneath Their Feet | The Atlantic

But even before BIPOC producers approach a loan agency, a multitude of factors are already working against them. Most loans are configured for large, high-yielding farms that are owned by white farmers or large corporations but because of a race-based wealth gap resulting from combined systems of oppression—white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism—BIPOC farmers are more likely to operate small to medium-sized farms with lower revenue. A lack of access to intergenerational wealth means that they cannot build strong credit histories, which can further a cycle of financial instability, making them ineligible for future loans. Because of a history of discrimination at financial institutions, they’re also more likely to lack clear titles to the land that they inherited. Similarly, other Farm Bill programs like federal crop insurance, conservation and environmental and research grants (like Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) or Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and a variety of other incentives and training are geared towards protecting the rights and livelihoods of white farmers, and the bottom lines of large agribusinesses.

Any steps the USDA has taken to address this problem, like carving out funds for “socially disadvantaged farmers & ranchers” throughout its suite of programs have failed to address the generational impacts of exclusionary policy. Furthermore, due to a lack of transparency on the part of agencies like the USDA, it’s often hard to judge how much has changed for BIPOC producers during this time but some reports point to things not having changed to a large extent. An investigation by The Counter revealed that not only is discrimination by the USDA still rampant, but it has also gone to lengths to conceal the impacts of this discrimination and paint a false picture of the revival of Black farming

The work of bridging racial disparities, including advocating for and working towards more BIPOC representation and more democratic forms of leadership in decision making, building new systems of community land stewardship and cooperative models, and holding the USDA accountable to BIPOC producers is now driven by BIPOC-led organizations. For example, at the HEAL School of Political Leadership session in Albany, GA, a Black organic farmer talked about how he was building community and engaging in policy at the federal level by planning farmer fly-ins with other Black farmers in the region. The session was also organized on land that is held and managed by New Communities Inc., one of the country’s first land trusts, started by Shirley and Charles Sherrod. Leaders like Savi Horne of the Land Loss Prevention Project are fighting to ensure that younger Black farmers have titles to, and can keep their families’ land. This organizing work is also taking place on municipal and state levels: In Philadelphia, Soil Generation is in protecting urban gardens from the city and developers, and in doing so, fighting both food apartheid and gentrification. In Richmond, CA, Urban Tilth is partnering with the county to use public land to grow food for their community. Statewide in California, the California Farmer’s Justice Collaborative passed the California Farmer Equity Act which begins to directly address the challenges faced by BIPOC producers. In New Mexico, La Semilla is among the organizations advocating for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative which provides resources that can help producers and small retailers to provide fresh food to low-income urban, and rural communities. On Navajo Nation, Black Mesa Water Coalition and others are cultivating restorative food economies and writing tribal policy for food sovereignty. Nationally, the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance is growing and trading seeds for cultivation.

WATCH: A Conversation with Savi Horne of the Land Loss Prevention Project, American University School of Public Affairs

READ: Two Biden Priorities, Climate and Inequality, Meet on Black-Owned Farms

These local-level policy changes model what could happen on a federal level, where change is harder to achieve because powerful agribusiness lobbies wield considerable power over policymakers. However, folks like Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON), National Black Food and Justice Alliance, Hmong Farmers Association, National Family Farm Coalition, Native Farm Bill Coalition, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Black Urban Growers and many more are continuing their work of advocacy, outreach, and research to expand BIPOC producers access to federal and state resources.

EXPLORE:  Regaining Our Future – Native Farm Bill Coalition

The post What Stops Federal And State Aid From Reaching BIPOC Producers? appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Tell Congress to Invest in Food workers, Farmers and Healthy Food Systems 

Even before the pandemic, 37 million people in the US were food insecure, many regional farmers were struggling to turn a profit, and food and farm workers were excluded from labor laws. HEAL has been working around the clock with partners to change this—to ensure that our nation’s food workers and food systems can thrive in this period and beyond. Help spread the word and shape this conversation as Congress determines ongoing Stimulus funding.

Check out our members’ priorities, and share with your networks on Facebook and on Twitter.

Sign these petitions to support food workers

• Join the Food Chain Workers Alliance in calling on gov’t to act – Demand big food corporations provide sick pay, hazard pay, family leave, and respect the right to organize. Here are a few petitions from food worker organizations:
  • Tyson and other poultry companies, via Venceremos
  • Major restaurant chains via ROC United
  • Amy’s Bread via Brandworkers
  • Amazon

Donate. If you’re receiving a stimulus check that you don’t need, consider passing it on. A few places we recommend:

• ROC United started a fund for restaurant workers who have lost their jobs
• Mai Nguyen is starting a fund to support Black, Indigenous, and POC regional farmers who are growing for their communities. Email Mai to learn more.
• Many communities are setting up relief funds for undocumented folks, who will not receive federal aid. Find one, and donate there. Here’s a list of places you can donate to for folks in California.
• Donate to grassroots organizations that are building power with workers and farmers.

Because community needs and efforts to organize around them are rapidly evolving, we’ll be keeping this list as updated as we can. Make sure to check back for more actions, updates and resources. You can also sign up here to receive updates directly to your inbox.  

The post Here’s how you can support farmers and food workers through COVID19 appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.