Mobilizing family farmers, fishers, and ranchers for fair prices, vibrant communities, and healthy foods free of corporate domination. |
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News from the Field
- Congress Delays the Farm Bill
- Brazil's G20 Summit
- NFFC's New Staff Members
- Farmland for Farmers, Not Corporations!
News from Members & Allies
- 2024 Members Marketplace
- CAGJ Director Heather Day's Farewell
- FFD's 2024 John Kinsman Prize Winner
- FSC/LAF's 6th Annual Heirs Property BootCamp
- Int'l Day to Stop Violence Against Women
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What We're Reading, Watching, and Listening To
- NOFA Mass Podcast: Soil Microbes & Citizen Science
- MRCC Presents 'The Grab' Documentary
- RAFI Webinar: The Grocery Gap Atlas
- WFAN's Community Poem
and more!
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What the Farm Bill delay means for family farmers, and why we refuse the status quo of corporate overreach
As the 2024 legislative session draws to a close, Congress signaled yet another extension of the Farm Bill, punting critical discussions and negotiations to the new year. Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced the Senate's version of the bill on November 20, six months after the House approved their version, leaving no time for meaningful action.
NFFC responded to this stalemate by urging our Congressional leaders to put farmers and ranchers - and not corporate agribusiness interests - at the forefront of future Farm Bill negotiations.
Congress cannot allow the Farm Bill to languish any longer. The cost of delay is clear: missed opportunities to address food insecurity, dwindling rural economies, and growing dominance of corporate agribusiness. The 2022 Census of Agriculture revealed that an alarming 510,000 farms have closed or consolidated since 2017 - thousands more farmers have been forced out of business since, waiting and hoping for transformative federal agriculture policies that support them.
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NFFC at G20 Brazil
NFFC was invited to present our anti-land grab work at the G20 Social Summit in Brazil! This year's summit had a particular focus on social inclusion, global reform, and sustainability. Our National Programs and Policy Coordinator Jordan Treakle was there to represent our work.
This was an incredible opportunity to strengthen our connections with attending governments, and to build power with civil society groups such as La Via Campesina and the Landless Workers' Movement (MST - Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra) who have decades of experience organizing against land grabs. We are eager for the ideas and collaboration to come!
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Clockwise from above: Civil Society delegates meeting with the Brazilian Vice Minister for Agrarian Development and Family Farming. NFFC's Jordan Treakle presenting our anti-land grab work and participating in G20. | |
Introducing our new hires!
A warm welcome to our new staff members, Lateefah Morse and Rosa Bordallo, who will help NFFC with our growing development and communications efforts. Learn more about the NFFC team at our website!
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Lateefah Morse (she/her)
Development Coordinator, NFFC / NAMA
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As the new Development Coordinator of both NFFC and NAMA, Lateefah will support our fundraising and grant needs.
Lateefah shared, "NFFC’s mission aligns with my passion for social justice and environmental advocacy. I’m particularly inspired by the organization’s commitment to challenging corporate control and supporting community-driven solutions. I’m looking forward to supporting the growth of our community of partners and supporters.”
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Rosa Bordallo (she/her)
Communications Associate, NFFC
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Rosa fills our new Communications Associate position. She will help NFFC organize and boost our communications presence with members, allies, and supporters.
"I’m excited to use this role to fight for independent food producers. Our collective voice - for economic, social, and environmental justice in the food system - must prevail!”
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Farmland Is for Farmers, Not Corporations! | |
Big corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, and JBS have been buying up farmland for years. Now, hedge funds and universities like Harvard are getting in on the action too. They’re not interested in growing food—they’re interested in growing their wealth.
At NFFC, we believe family farmers should control the land, not corporate giants. With 40% of U.S. farmland set to change hands in the next 15 years, the time to act is NOW. If we don’t, more land will fall into the hands of absentee investors, and less will stay with the farmers who feed us.
You can help reclaim farmland for family farmers by supporting NFFC's work today! Your donation helps amplify the voices of over 100,000 farmers fighting for change in Washington, D.C.
Together, we can make sure agriculture works for people, not corporations.
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News From Our Members & Allies | |
A sampling of products from our members! |
Browse Our 2024 Member Marketplace!
Did you know that many of our members offer merchandise, and even special products during the holidays? You can support our members by purchasing their products - any of these would make excellent holiday gifts with the added benefit of knowing that you are supporting our coalition's work towards a more just food and farm system! These are gifts that are good for you AND that you can feel good about.
Don't forget that you can also donate to any of our members, or gift a membership to a friend. Click here to see all of NFFC's members!
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Farewell and Thank You to CAGJ Director Heather Day
Community Alliance for Global Justice announced recently that their fearless leader, Heather Day, will be leaving her role as director. With Heather at the helm, CAGJ has been an indomitable force fighting for food justice in the Pacific Northwest and in solidarity with global food sovereignty movements. We are heartened to know that Heather has no intention of stopping and will bring her expert organizer skills into her next line of work. In the interim she will contribute part-time to Pesticide Action & Agroecology Network.
CAGJ is charting a path forward, and will return to its roots as a volunteer-led organization. Sara Lavenhar will continue part-time to provide institutional knowledge and support as CAGJ's Operations Goddess.
We wish Heather the very best in her next endeavor, and we look forward to CAGJ's new vision for global justice.
Read Heather's farewell letter here.
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Heather and Sara tabling at Folklife.
Photo courtesy of CAGJ. | |
FFD Announces Winner of the 2024 John Kinsman
Beginning Farmer Food Sovereignty Prize
Congratulations to Shae and Anna Pesek of Over the Moon Farm in Coggon, IA!
Since 2011, Family Farm Defenders has proudly hosted this prize in honor of John Kinsman, founder and longtime president of FFD, who passed away at age 87 on MLKJ Day in 2014. John was not only a pioneer of organic grass-based dairy farming in the Midwest, but was a strong voice for food sovereignty, civil rights, and social justice, both in the U.S. and around the world. Learn more about the prize here!
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Federation of Southern Cooperatives Will Host Their 6th Annual Heirs' Property Bootcamp
Registration is now open for Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund's FORWARD2025 Boot Camp, which provides 100 heirs’ property landowners and their next generation with practical information for resolving their heirs’ property issues. The event will take place December 5-7, 2024, at the Embassy Suites in Atlanta, GA. It includes an in-depth 12-month checklist to guide their efforts to clear title, create an estate plan, resolve family conflicts, and much more. Register here.
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#25Nov24 International Day to Stop Violence Against Women
On November 25, we joined our allies at La Via Campesina in a global campaign to Stop Violence Against Women. This demonstration of popular peasant feminism called out the destructive impacts of neoliberalism, environmental extraction, violence, and war. LVC denounced the "responsibility of agribusiness in perpetuating violence in rural areas, and in the environmental, social, and food crises." They demanded a radical change to our food system model, one based in "food sovereignty and peasant agroecology, where women play a leading role in cooling the planet and nourishing humanity with healthy food."
NFFC supports the rights of women worldwide to grow food, own land, and raise healthy communities free from the specter of war, violence, and climate change. We call for popular agrarian reforms that put the needs of our communities first over corporate greed for profits!
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What we're reading...
...watching...
...and listening to!
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NOFA Mass | Soil Microbes & Citizen Science podcast
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The Modern West explores the evolving identity of the American West
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National Family Farm Coalition
110 Maryland Ave NE #307
Washington, DC 20002
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