Farmer Friday: Barbara Shipman from RRBG Farm! - August 24, 2018

Barbara with the children of some of the farmers from Flats Mentor Farm.

In 2006 or so, Barbara and Roy Shipman returned to become fifth generation farmers on land in Barbour County that has been in Roy’s family since 1862. Over the years, this land had become overgrown, but the Shipmans’ determination and vision have made the space thrive again.

Initially, Barbara reflects, they began with 175 goats, “that’s where the money was.” Today, RRBG Farm is comprised of 40 acres, 27.5 of which is organic produce. They still have goats, but only five that their nieces and nephews show for 4-H. Their fields are abundant with collard greens, tomatoes, cilantro, peppers, herbs: you name it! The farm is GAP Harmonized Certified, and, around 2009, the Shipmans received funding through USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to improve their irrigation system.

The real life of the operation, Barbara explains, is driven by youth. Barbara and Roy began engaging young people in their farm when their nieces and nephews started growing their own crops to sell at a local farmers’ market. Last summer, Barbara and Roy launched Alabama’s first-ever “Agricultural Bootcamp”: a particularly appropriate name, given Barbara is both a farmer and a veteran. Kids ages ten through eighteen from eight different counties participated. “The Pollinators,” as Barbara calls them, learned technical practices, like how to install irrigation and test soil. They also delved into topics like risk management, and opened their own savings accounts. “These kids learned what it means to have their own businesses,” Barbara tells us.

Barbara in Atrisco, NM helping to train other Veteran farmers in the Rural Coalition

The Pollinators were not only excited about farming as a career interest; they also developed a taste for the food they’re growing. Barbara describes how initially the kids weren’t psyched about munching on collard greens for lunch. “Now they love to eat salad,” she exclaims. “Sometimes they just make a snack of fresh tomatoes instead of eating sweets!”

Barbara is motivated to continue educational farming programs like these because she recognizes the power derived from growing your own fresh food.

At RRBG Farm, Barbara monitors pesticides, insecticides, and water. “We watch our food every day, and we nurture that food to maturity, to harvest, to [the market],” she explains. “It is vitally important to know where your food comes from.”

Barbara describes this as the foundation of food sovereignty; that is, to be be proud knowing you can grow your own culture’s food.” And this power ties back to the land. Caring for soil health and saving seeds to use the following growing season are integral to the holistic vision for food sovereignty Barbara describes. “Take care of the land, of the soil, of the water…[the land] will produce what it needs to produce.”

RRBG Farm is a proud member of the Rural Coalition, and Barbara is quick to note. “I just love the Rural Coalition family.” We at Rural Co applaud the work of the RRBG and eagerly await the next generation of food sovereignty champions they are cultivating!

To meet more of our farmers and ranchers, follow us @ruralco, and like us on Facebook. To support a federal Farm Bill that benefits all our diverse farmers and ranchers, sign up for our e-updates. Please consider making a $5 donation to support our work with our farmers. Your contribution of any amount to support our work is also so appreciated. Please see the link here if you would like to make a contribution.

Farmer Friday: Meet Michael Kotutwa Johnson - August 17, 2018

I’m trying to put the “culture” back in “agriculture.”

I’m trying to put the “culture” back in “agriculture.”

Michael Kotutwa Johnson is a Hopi farmer from Kykotsmovi Village, Arizona, where his family has been growing corn, beans, and squash for “eons”.

Right now, he is cultivating four fields — approximately five acres of land. Michael doesn’t sell his produce. “It goes to my Aunt,” he says, who shares the produce with his family and other clan members. Most of the food is eaten, save for some corn that is used in ceremonies.

“The nutritional value of what we produce is incredible,” Michael tells us. “It’s way better than what you’re eating in the supermarket, it’s way better than what’s grown organically in the U.S. It’s place-based.”

While most American growers rely on genetically engineered seed, doctored fertilizer, and elaborate irrigation systems to produce well in harsh climates, Michael’s crops thrive in the dry, hot Arizona summer without any chemical treatment. Rather than manipulating the environment to fit their corn, Hopi farmers cultivate corn that can thrive within the confines of its environment — meaning that these farmers are optimizing soil moisture in the midst of this August drought.

This, Michael explains, is “the heart of stewardship” and the core of place-based farming.

Mike standing next to a tall cornstalk

That said, Hopi farming is by no means simple, nor unscientific. In fact, Michael’s doctoral dissertation frames the ways in which indigenous ecological knowledge is the foundation of modern conservation. From water management to seed-saving and promoting soil health, environmental stewardship is integral to a Hopi farmers’ relationship to their land.

Ironically, most Hopi farmers cannot access USDA Natural Resources Conservation Services funding. Michael calls these obstacles “institutional mismatches,” which he observed firsthand during his time working at USDA. Through his farming and academic work, Michael aims to bridge the communication gap between the government and indigenous peoples to create access to Natural Resource Conservation Service programs and emphasize the deeply conservationist nature of Hopi farming.

“What makes [Hopi farming] different…is that there is no separation between Hopi spirituality and agriculture. They’re one in the same.”

Michael also illustrates indigenous farm knowledge in his exhibit, The Resilience of Hopi Agriculture – 2000 Years of Planting. Displaying Arizona State’s historic images of Hopi farmland as well as photos of his own farm, the works will be on display until June 29, 2019 at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson.

To meet more of our farmers and ranchers, follow us @ruralco, and like us on Facebook. To support a federal Farm Bill that benefits all our diverse farmers and ranchers, sign up for our e-updates. Your contribution of any amount to support our work is also so appreciated. Please see the link here if you would like to make a contribution.

Farmer Friday: Stephen and Tyler of SAL - August 10, 2018

Future farmer grinding corn at Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville Garden Camp

Based in Louisville, Kentucky, Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville (SAL) seeks to educate, train, empower, and accompany the next generation of farmers to rebuild a just local food economy in their regional foodshed.

Stephen Bartlett, SAL’s Director, and Tyler Short, a member of SAL, just finished their 16th summer of Garden Camp: a week of gardening, cooking, recreating, and storytelling for kids. While this/the camp is for children, SAL prides itself on cultivating an intergenerational community. Members as young as six years old to over sixty participate in SAL’s programs. “Living out [this model] has been what has made SAL successful in the undertakings we’ve had as an organization,” Tyler says.

Recently, Stephen and SAL have actively engaged with #OccupyICELouisville. Condemning Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a repressive, “rogue” agency, SAL has shown up by participating in demonstrations, serving fresh food for movement participants, and crafting social dramas — a form of theater used to enhance and strengthen social movements. As part of a coalition of organizations led by Mijente, SAL fought to successfully pass a bill to prohibit collaboration between ICE and police in Louisville.

“With a social movement lens and mode of practice, it is important to have a holistic conception of social realities– we understand the intersection of different systems of oppression…The persecution of immigrants is a direct threat to justice in the food chain,” Tyler shared.

SAL prepares to continue embracing the intersection of food and justice at this year’s US Food Sovereignty Alliance Midwest Regional Assembly. Stephen and Tyler are preparing to collaborate with the seven other member states to discuss food chain labor issues, and promoting resource access for farmers. Assembly participants will also visit a New Roots Fresh Stop Market to see/observe/learn about? a model of food procurement and distribution firsthand.

The Midwest Regional Membership Assembly is part of a broader process leading up the US Food Sovereignty Alliance’s IV National Assembly in Bellingham, WA (October 12-14, 2018). This year, the national assembly will focus on promoting agroecology as a way of life as well as the means to protect Mother Earth.

As they explore and envision a food system that cultivates immigration justice and food sovereignty, SAL also addresses the reality that the United States exists on colonized land. Considering this truth, SAL asks you, our followers: what would decolonization look like right now? How can the food sovereignty movement play a role in decolonization?

Rural Co proudly celebrates SAL — new member organization! — and looks forward to supporting their work promoting food sovereignty in Louisville and the greater midwest region.

To meet more of our farmers and ranchers, follow us @ruralco, and like us on Facebook. To support a federal Farm Bill that benefits all our diverse farmers and ranchers, sign up for our e-updates. Please consider making a $5 donation to support our work with our farmers. Your contribution of any amount to support our work is also so appreciated. Please see the link here if you would like to make a contribution.

Farmer Friday: Fabiola from World Farmers - August 3, 2018

Fabiola Harvesting Green Amaranth at Flats Mentor Farm

It’s Farmer Friday! Meet Fabiola from Flats Mentor Farm, a program of World Farmers

This month, Rural Coalition is celebrating the stories of farmers, farmworkers, and ranchers of our member organizations. Our “Farmer Friday” campaign features the people and communities who motivate and inspire our organization’s advocacy and policy work on Capitol Hill. Now, let’s hear from Fabiola, a farmer and changemaker of our member organization, World Farmers based in Lancaster, MA.

“Farming has always been a vital part of my life.”

Fabiola Nizigiyimana was born in Rwanda and raised in Burundi, where the majority of folks are subsistence farmers. Just three years after Fabiola arrived to the United States as a refugee in 2007, she found a space where she could farm for herself and her family once more — this time, at Flats Mentor Farm in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

Flats Mentor Farm (FMF), a program of World Farmers, currently supports 300 small-scale immigrant and refugee farmers in access to farm infrastructure, and assistance in marketing and farm business development. World Farmers, a member organization of Rural Coalition, has supported immigrant farmers since the early 1980s and leads the program through farmer to farmer mentorship, modeling a unique beginning farmer program. At FMF, people with a talent for growing can also become accomplished producers by honing the knowledge and skills they need to operate a successful farm business.

Driven by her passion for farming, Fabiola now cultivates over an acre of land and owns a high tunnel. The result of her dedication to a year-long application process and several meetings with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, Fabiola’s high tunnel allows her to start planting earlier in the springtime and grow her crops through late fall. It also protects her plants from excessive rain in the summer, so her chard, tomatoes, collard greens, and carrots can thrive.

“Since I started to farm I don’t have food problems,” Fabiola asserts. With her abundant harvests, Fabiola feeds her five children and earns a profit at local farmers’ markets and other community retail spaces.

During her time farming at FMF, Fabiola also founded the African Immigrant Marketing Cooperative. The co-op serves as a space in which farmers can support the success of each other’s small-scale operations. While growers might not produce enough individually, together, farmers can sell their produce wholesale. “It helps us to sell our vegetables easier,” as she told the Telegram & Gazette. Fabiola also translates for other cooperative members; English is one of five languages she knows.

“In my life, there is something making me…help other people.” Fabiola’s gift for cultivating both vegetables and positive change makes her a valuable leader for World Farmers, as well as within our wider Rural Coalition family of farmers and communities.

To meet more of our farmers and ranchers, follow us @ruralco, and like us on Facebook. To support a federal Farm Bill that benefits all our diverse farmers and ranchers, sign up for our e-updates. Please consider making a $5 donation to support our work with our farmers. Your contribution of any amount to support our work is also so appreciated. Please see the link here if you would like to make a contribution.

Keep Up the Fight for Equity in the Farm Bill! - June 22, 2018

Greetings Rural Coalition Members and Allies,

The U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to send the 2018 Farm Bill to conference committee with the Senate, which is expected to appoint conferees shortly. The task of the committee will be to combine portions of the respective farm bills into a shared bill that can pass both the House and Senate and secure the signature of President. There are deep differences between the two bills. The strict work requirements and other cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in the House Bill will be among the most contentious items.


The Republican Conferees appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan include the following from the Agriculture Committee:

Chairman Mike Conaway (TX-11)

Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (PA-05)

Bob Goodlatte (VA-06)

Frank Lucas (OK-03)

Mike Rogers (AL-03)

Austin Scott (GA-08)

Rick Crawford (AR-01)

Vicky Hartzler (MO-04)

Rodney Davis (IL-13)

Ted Yoho (FL-03)

David Rouzer (NC-07)

Roger Marshall (KS-01)

Jodey Arrington (TX-19)
 

The Democratic Conferees appointed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi include the following from the Agriculture Committee:

Collin Peterson (D-Minn.)

David Scott (D-Ga.)

Jim Costa (D-Calif.)

Tim Walz (D-Minn.)

Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio)

Jim McGovern (D-Mass.)

Filemon Vela (D-Texas)

Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.)

Ann Kuster (D-N.H.)

Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.)

*Please see link for additional conferees — both Republican and Democratic — appointed for specific sections of the bill.
 

As the 2018 Farm Bill Season heats up, the Senate and House conferees must work to create a single version for the nation’s Food and Farm Policy for the next five years, the Rural Coalition staff and our policy team has been hard at work with our allies. Our goal has been to develop our strategies and positions on critical issues for our communities, and to improve communications to stay connected to you, our membership, in order to swiftly engage in the unique grassroots advocacy that only we can do, by working together!

Our most critical task now is working together for a Better Farm Bill. We are writing to remind you of what we have accomplished this Farm Bill Season, what we need to protect, and what we still need to fight for.


Building on the RC Food and Farm Equity Agenda drafted with membership during rural gatherings, and DC-based forum fly-ins over the past year, RC members and staff identified a core subset of amendments, marker bills and provisions that we would fight for. We organized locally, regionally, and nationally to advocate against the deep cuts to SNAP, local and regional food programs, and conservation that riddled the May and June versions of the House Bill which passed narrowly, 213-211. On the Senate side, we pushed our equity package, working to ensure that the Senate’s bipartisan Farm Bill, passed on June 28 on a vote of 86-11, included key components of RC’s Equity Package. While the Senate’s version of the bill preserves SNAP funding and contains important components of the RC Equity Package, we must continue to fight for the best possible Farm Bill in a very tough year.

In 2018, it is the Senate’s turn to convene the Farm Bill Conference, and their bipartisan bill provides a stronger basis to move forward. At the outset it is important to acknowledge that even the Senate farm bill leaders, Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (KA) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (MI) acknowledge the bill is only the best bill that could be passed now given stiff budget constraints and a contentious political climate. But the Senate bill has enough valuable features to make moving forward on a final bill preferable to having no bill or even a continuing resolution.


Moving forward, Rural Coalition is committed to continuing our fight for a full, fair Farm Bill!

Our policy team, featuring some of the next generation leaders who are also veterans of the 2014 Farm Bill debate, is now working with our allies on a full conference letter covering many features of the farm bill. We will have more to share early next week, including a sign on letter. Meanwhile, check to see if you have member of Congress on the House conference committee – it is time to be in touch with them now, starting with these Republican and Democratic Conferee lists.

Here are some important Equity Package Provisions we aim to protect going into the Conference:

• The Senate Bill protects SNAP funding, and doesn’t include very stiff and bureaucratic workfare requirements that will create hunger and deepen poverty for vulnerable Americans, including children and families, and burden States with implementation and the construction of an underfunded bureaucratic infrastructure.

• Our “heirs property” amendment will ensure that more farmers — especially African-American farmers and farmers of color — can access USDA programs that enable them to protect the soil and water; continue to operate viable farms that feed their communities; and pass farming vocation and farmland on to future generations. (Read more in our Action Alert.)

• Improving the Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program will strengthen support for historically underserved producers. The Senate Bill also provides permanent funding and authority for this important program which is shared equally with the closely related Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program. (Read more in our Action Alert.)

• The removal of industrial hemp from the controlled substances list will allow both tribes and states to establish regulatory structures within their boundaries that allow farmers and ranchers to produce a high value cash crop.

• Small steps forward in Credit and Dairy Policy. (See joint Senate Press Release with the National Family Farm Coalition.)


There are some ugly aspects of current versions that we refuse to accept:

• RC joins our members Alianza Nacional de Campesinas’ and Farmworker Association of Florida’s in opposing weakened pesticide protections.

“Rural Coalition, We’ve Got Work to Do!”

Your engagement is crucial to securing the Farm Bill our farmers deserve. What can you do to support our final push?

• Sign up for our action alerts, updates and newsletters. If you have more organizational staff and members that want to participate, please add their names and emails.

• Join or renew your membership. It is time to renew your Rural Coalition Organizational Membership — by joining or renewing on time, your support will provide critically needed resources to allow us to focus on this important Policy Push!

• Make an additional donation to support the final fight for a Farm Bill that addresses the injustice of hunger in the wealthiest nation on the planet; advances equity for small and new entry family farmers; uplifts and grows just food systems, and protects our mother earth.

• Save the Date: Let’s fight, win, and then celebrate! This is RC’s 40th year of fighting for justice and equity in food and farm policy. Save the date and please join us December 13-14 in DC and stay for dinner the evening of December 14.


• Follow the latest Rural Coalition blog posts!


• Find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.


We’ve done so much already: Let’s continue our momentum!
 

Thank you for your support,

All of us at the Rural Coalition

Immigration and Family Separation at the Border: Concrete Actions - June 21, 2018

This week, Rural Coalition, the National Latino Farmers and Ranchers Trade Association and our members joined dozens of other organizations in opposing Speaker Paul Ryan’s bill, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act. As the sign-on letter states, the act “guts our asylum laws, waives laws that protect communities within 100 miles of the borders and wastes $23 billion taxpayer dollars to build a wall and militarize border communities.”

We at the Rural Coalition affirm that this bill is not only unjust, but would inflict further damage upon the immigrant children and families it targets. We urge RC members to call their Representative to oppose this bill.

The House vote on this legislation will take place tomorrow, June 22. (The House Farm Bill is also up for for a vote this week, see our blog here on why to urge your Representative to oppose that bill, HR-2, as well)

Rural Coalition also condemns the President’s Executive Order to Detain Families Together; while separating children from their parents is inhumane, justice for immigrant families does not mean detaining full families together. This Executive Order is no more humane than the preexisting procedures. Families belong together and free.

What’s next? Green Latinos composed a comprehensive list of concrete actions you can take to oppose family separation at the border and demand full justice for immigrant communities, which we share here for your information and action.


CALL CONGRESS TODAY:

Weigh in with Members of Congress today!

Encourage your network/membership to urge their Members of Congress to use Congress’ oversight authority to stop separating families and to VOTE DOWN the two anti-immigrant bills moving through the House this week. The House is expected to vote on two anti-immigrant bills on Thursday, June 21st: one proposed by Rep. Goodlatte and another proposed by Speaker Ryan. Neither bill addresses the administration’s policy of separating families, and neither bill fixes the administration’s decision to end DACA.

1. Urge them to Vote NO on the two anti-immigrant bills: Please ramp up outreach to your Representative ASAP via calls, digital engagement, in-district meetings, and lobbying in DC to dissuade Republicans from voting for the both bills. It is especially important to defeat the Ryan bill and ensure no Democrat votes for it. Please pass these action recommendations on to members of your organizations ASAP and speak out publicly against the Ryan bill and Goodlatte bill.

(Breaking NEWS – The Goodlatte Bill failed on Thursday June 21 on a vote of 193-231 – see how your Representative Voted Here:)

2. In advance of the vote.

a. United We Dream’s call tool opposing both the Goodlatte bill and Ryan bill: 844-505-3769 directs calls to target House moderates; when folks call the line, they will hear a recording directing them on asks.

On family separation: The ACLU has a call tool specifically for Senators; the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) has a call tool that directs calls, tweets, facebook posts, and emails to all Members of Congress.

a. Ask MoCs to urge the administration to end the policy of forcibly separating families, particularly by weighing in on social media.
b. Ask MoCs to also push for President Trump, DHS Secretary Nielsen, and Attorney General Sessions to end the practice of separating and jailing families via letters, appropriations requirements, and Congressional hearings.
c. Ask MoCs to cosponsor family separation legislation and take other actions listed in the Hill briefing document developed by the Immigration Hub and the Women’s Refugee Commission.
 

MASS MOBILIZATIONS:

• Thursday, 6/21: Faith mission to the Ursula processing center in TX, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Please email Jordyn Bussey at bussey@civilrights.org to join the delegation of rabbis, ministers, bishops, and other faith leaders who will be ministering to children and holding a vigil outside of Ursula.

• Keep Families Together Rally in Washington, DC outside of Department of Homeland Security from 4:30-6:30 p.m. ET (4401 Massachusetts Avenue NW). Moms and families are holding a rally EVERY FRIDAY until the separation of families at the border ends. Contact Tricia Duncan with questions: triduncan05@gmail.com, (202) 288-5498.

• Saturday, 6/23: Families Belong Together March in San Diego, CA, led by San Diego Indivisible. See additional details on Facebook.

• Sunday, 6/24: Mass Action in Tornillo, TX, led by Voto Latino. Visit www.stopseparation.org to sign up and learn more.

• Thursday, 6/24: Mass mobilization at the Brownsville Federal Court in TX, led by the ACLU. Join the #FamiliesBelongTogether rally in Linear Park at 11 a.m. RSVP here or on Facebook and contact Natalie Montelongo at nmontelongo@aclu.org with questions.

• Saturday, 6/30: Join the Families Belong Together march and rally led by MoveOn and others in Washington D.C. Similar actions actions will be planned across the country.

• Date TBD (Possibly 7/1) – Moms march from El Paso to Tornillo, TX, – Check back for more details and to join.

SPREAD THE WORD

Continue speaking out on social media to raise awareness about the administration’s cruel policy. Keep tweeting at @realDonaldTrump and @SecNielsen to stop forcibly separating families. We Belong Together’s demands for the Administration can be RT’d here. Ask the administration: what are its plans to reunify the families it has torn apart?

Thank you for all that you’re doing to keep families together and free!