Practical Farmers of Iowa’s mission is to equip farmers to build resilient farms and communities.
We cannot achieve our mission without justice and equality for all.
Practical Farmers helps farmers by providing resources, education and a community of connections to help them succeed. To honor our value of welcoming everyone,
we are working to be a more inclusive organization
by reaching out to Black people, Indigenous people and other people of color.
We are working to create relationships with all Iowans who farm or aspire to farm, learning what challenges they face, what they need to be successful and welcoming them into PFI’s support network.
Our network is resilient because of its diversity.
But we know
there is more we must do to fight racism and inequality.
As a staff, we plan to build awareness through staff training, and then ongoing action, to increase our focus on diversity, equity and inclusion within our organization.
Many of our members have already requested we increase our focus in these areas. During this time where racism is so visibly exposed to all of us through recent, but not isolated, racist acts,
our big-tent philosophy stresses that we can all learn how to do better in acting against racism.
While they are tough conversations to have, conversations about our actions are vital on the path to equity in our communities and on our farms.