Scaling Up Rural Resilience Strategies: From Chicken Coops to Egg Cooperatives - Lideres Campesinas

Farmworker Women from Ventura, Ca and Southern Florida are Doing It for Themselves!

Early in the RC Seeds of Rural Resilience conference, Laura and Elizabeth, representatives of Lideres Campesinas, members of Alianza Nacional and Rural Coalition, reported on their emerging egg cooperative. They spoke about their desire to scale up, but also how they were providing quality food for their neighbors, who understand that organic, sustainable practices are better for their families:

“More and more people are asking for our eggs, but we cannot find land to house more chickens. Land is very expensive.”

Listening closely, Rick Lopez from the local Farm Service Agency office informed them that with sales exceeding $1000 dollars/year they were eligible “small producers.” He worked with them on the spot to explore federal programs that could help them scale up operations, find land, and meet the demand. He also offered to reach out to USDA in California. In two quick hours, “Las Mamas de los Pollitos” had drafted their first Business Plan!

“Water is Life” – Indigenous Traditions, Land-based and Ancestral Knowledge - Ms. Lisa Bellanger

Lisa Bellanger of the Three Fires Cultural Education Society (Minnesota) opened the Seeds of Resilience Summit with a water song composed by the women in her family, the Ojibwe clan of water protectors.

This article is part of a series covering The 2017 of Seeds of Resilience Summit hosted by the Town of Atrisco’s Land Grant, an independent, self-governed community comprised of farmers and ranchers, to educate the public on indigenous sustainable farming practices and the need to protect traditional rural land. The summit primarily focused on how the New Mexico acequia irrigation system and other traditional, indigenous systems of agriculture can help inform and shape policy that affects the land rights and longevity of rural people and in the region.

On the first day of this year’s summit, Lisa Bellanger, RC Board member spoke to the group about the role of water in traditional food gathering, family education, and indigenous rights, and taught us a song composed by her family members, the matrilineal Ojibwe clan of water protectors.

Ms. Bellanger also discussed the significance of climate change for her people. “In Minnesota, warm days are coming earlier. Traditionally, April is the time of the maple syrup moon, sometimes in March. But this year we were tapping in February. We have to look at these issues, think seven generations ahead, and show them the skills to move these traditions, knowledge, and teachings into the future.”

 For many generations, entire multigenerational families would travel together by canoe for several weeks to gather wild rice and berries and medicines from communally owned islands throughout the river system. Changes in water levels, seasons and the introduction of chemical toxins endanger the ecology, human health and food security, and family bonds formed around these traditions. She concluded with a question for all to ponder.

 “How do we reach the youth; how do we send that knowledge into the future?

EQUITY IN POLICY UPDATE: Continue the Fight for Equity in the 2018 Farm Farm Bill

October 19, 2018

The current Farm Bill, passed in 2014, expired on Sept. 30. Our most critical task now is working together to move a Better Farm Bill to final passage. Here we remind you of what we have accomplished together in this Farm Bill Season, what we need to protect, and what we still need to fight for.

Our leaders, members and allies together identified a core subset of amendments, marker bills and provisions we’ve fought for in what we hope will soon become the 2018 Farm Bill. 

We also collaborated locally, regionally, and nationally to advocate opposition to the deep cuts to SNAP contained in the May and June House versions of the Farm Bill which also slashed investments in conservation, and reduced support for equity and local and regional food systems. That bill narrowly passed, 213-211.

We worked closely with Senator Pat Roberts (R-KA) and Ranking Member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), their staffs, and our other family farm supporters in the US Congress not only to ensure that the Senate’s version of the Farm Bill protected nutrition programs for the most vulnerable members of our society, but that it also advanced rather than reversed the hard-won, long-term gains we have long supported for equity in agriculture, conservation, and credit programs. The Senate’s bipartisan Farm Bill, which passed on June 28 on a vote of 86-11, included support for SNAP, conservation and local food programs, as well as the specific wins we are now working to keep in the final bill.

The two bills were assigned to a joint House-Senate conference committee to resolve differences, with action still needed when Congress returns after the election to complete a final combined bill that can secure enough votes to pass both the full House and Senate for final votes before being sent to the President for signature. 

Senators Roberts and Stabenow have created “a farm bill package that, unlike its counterpart in the House of Representatives, takes a strong bipartisan stance on ensuring food access for all communities, by retaining funding and authority for the crucial Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.” The Bill also increased support for the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentives program and related initiative to strengthen local food systems.

As the Farm Bill Conference continues, the Senate’s bipartisan bill provides a stronger basis to advance key aspects of the legislative packages endorsed by Rural Coalition and more than 100 organizations in the recent Equity sign-on letter. Click here for more information.

It is important to acknowledge–even as Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (KA) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (MI) admit–that this bill is the best of what could be passed at this point given stiff budget constraints and a contentious political climate. That said, the Senate bill has enough valuable features to make moving forward quickly on a final bill, which is preferable to having no bill or even a continuing resolution.

Now is the time to call on your members of Congress to complete a fair farm and food bill. In particular, thank Senators Roberts and Stabenow for their work. Urge all Senators and House members to assure the final 2018 Farm Bill includes several important equity improvements in these vital areas:

• Protects SNAP funding in the Nutrition Title in the Senate Bill and doesn’t include the 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 costs of constructing an underfunded bureaucratic infrastructure.

• Provides Fair Access for Farmers and Ranchers “heirs property” language (in Senate Sections 12623, 12624 and 12625) that 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.

• Senate Section 12301, Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO), which strengthens the historic Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program and also links it to and provides permanent funding (of $50 million annually) and permanent authority shared equally with the closely related Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program.

• That removes industrial hemp from the controlled substances list and 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.

• That provides small steps forward in Credit and Dairy Policy, including equitable relief in credit to protect producers against errors made by the lender. (See joint Senate Press Release with the National Family Farm Coalition.)

• Authorizes the new LAMP program, which merges authorities and provides baseline funding for local food, rural value added and food safety programs.

• In a tight budget climate, overall conservation funding is also protected and access to conservation programs for historically underserved producers is prioritized. However, funding cuts in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Easement Program are of concern.

ALSO, LET’S NOT FORGET

There are some ugly aspects of current versions that we refuse to accept, please remind your Congress member.

• RC joins our members Alianza Nacional de Campesinas’ and Farmworker Association of Florida in opposing the language in the House bill weakening hard won pesticide protections.

• Deep SNAP cuts and weakening of the program as written in the House Bill are also unacceptable.

We further invite all Members to join our policy network and to stay informed on key actions needed to protect our wins and see the 2018 Farm Bill to final passage. (Go here)

The Rural Coalition, born of the civil rights, indigenous rights, and anti-poverty rural movements, has worked since 1978 to assure that diverse organizations from all regions, ethnic and racial groups, women and men, and youth and elders, have the opportunity to work in solidarity on the issues that affect them all. The foundation of this work is strong local, regional and national organizations that work to assure the representation and involvement of every sector of this diverse fabric of rural peoples.

We invite all to join as members or renew your membership in the Rural Coalition and to attend our 10th Annual Winter Forum and our 40th Anniversary Dinner on December 13-14 in Washington, DC. (G0 here for information).

Continue The Fight For Equity As The 2018 Farm Bill Goes To Conference. (Part Two) - September 5, 2018

The current Farm Bill expires on Sept. 30. Our most critical task now is working together to move a Better Farm Bill to final passage. Here we remind you of what we have accomplished together in this Farm Bill Season, what we need to protect, and what we still need to fight for.

Our leaders, members and allies together identified a core subset of amendments, marker bills and provisions we’ve fought for in this bill. We have organized and collaborated locally, regionally, and nationally to advocate against the deep cuts to SNAP, in local and regional food programs, and in conservation funding that permeated the May and June versions of the House Bill which passed narrowly, 213-211. On the Senate side, with our members 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 support for SNAP, conservation and local food programs, as well as the specific wins we are now working to keep in the final bill. (See below.)

As the Farm Bill Conference convenes, the Senate’s bipartisan bill provides a stronger basis to move forward. At the outset it is important to acknowledge–even as Senate Agriculture Chairman Pat Roberts (KA) and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow (MI) admit–that this bill is the best of what could be passed at this point stiff given budget constraints and a contentious political climate.

That said, 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.

TALKING POINTS

When you call on your members of Congress, ask them to accept the specific language in the Senate version that:

• Protects SNAP funding in the Nutrition Title in the Senate Bill, and doesn’t include the 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 costs of constructing an underfunded bureaucratic infrastructure.

• Provides Fair Access for Farmers and Ranchers “heirs property” language (in Senate Sections 12623, 12624 and 12625) that 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.

• Senate Section 12301, Farming Opportunities Training and Outreach (FOTO_ which strengthens the historic Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program and also links it to and provides permanent funding (of $50 million annually) and permanent authority shared equally with the closely related Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program.

• That removes 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.

• That provides small steps forward in Credit and Dairy Policy, including equitable relief in credit to protect producers against errors made by the lender. (See joint Senate Press Release with the National Family Farm Coalition.)

• Authorizes the new LAMP program which merges authorities and provides baseline funding for local food, rural value added and food safety programs.

ALSO LET’S NOT FORGET

There are some ugly aspects of current versions that we refuse to accept, please remind your Congress member.

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

• Deep SNAP cuts and weakening of the program as written in the House Bill are unacceptable.

YOUR ENGAGEMENT IS CRUCIAL

Let’s secure 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!

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.