The second plank of HEAL’s Platform for Real Food calls for the creation of a farming system that makes it possible for everyone to grow, raise, catch, hunt and forage for healthful food in ways that are environmentally sustainable and culturally appropriate for themselves and their communities. This includes:
- 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