Opportunity for All Producers

We need food and farm systems that promote the success of independent farms, boats, and ranches, especially those owned and operated by Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

For this to happen, we must end discriminatory practices and focus on opening new opportunities for people of color – especially those already working the land – to access land, fishing rights, and the resources needed to grow food and catch food. Farmers, fishers, and food production are the foundation of a healthy economy.

This vision is reflected in the second plank of HEAL’s Platform For Real Food: Opportunity for All Producers.

Explore the plank using this toolkit – learn about the historical context that guides our work, our solutions, what HEAL members are doing to realize our collective goals, the resources that guide us and how you too can take action towards building a food system that creates pathways for small and independent farmers and fishers, especially those from BIPOC communities.

• Secure and protect land access and non-predatory credit and capital for independent producers, particularly producers of color
• Equalize and expand access to crop insurance, technical assistance, low interest credit, and technical assistance for independent producers, particularly producers of color
• Place moratorium on farm land foreclosures with an independent review on cause and effect, particularly for farmers of color
• Create and implement farmer debt forgiveness programs in cases of discrimination
• Radically increase support for beginning farmers and for the sustainability of independent farmers
• Recognize fisheries and small fishers as part of the food system by supporting research, technical assistance and federal support parallel to that of agriculture producers
• Secure fair markets, fair prices, and fair wages for all farmers and farmworkers to enable economically stable livelihoods (see Planks 1 and 3)
• Support smaller and independent producers to pay a living wage to farmworkers (see Plank 4)
• Fully fund land-grant institutions to work in the public interest and stop private interests from determining agricultural research
• Increase public research dollars for improved, non-GMO seeds, breeds, and farming methods
• Protect the ocean commons from privatization