National Family Farm Coalition Summer 2022 Gathering

From August 4th through the 6th, Graham and Caroline represented Rural Vermont at the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) Summer Gathering in Gloucester, MA.  It had been nearly 2 and half years since our Coalition last met in-person in Birmingham, AL - and it was a joy and relief to be working and sharing time together face to face again!  Gloucester is a particularly potent place for us to all meet as NFFC has a shared leadership with the National Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA - formerly “Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance”), an organization of community based fisherfolks facing similar challenges as small family farms, which is based in Gloucester.

Rural Vermont has been a long time member of the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC), and has been reinvigorating its relationship with NFFC over the past few years.  NFFC’s mission is, “to mobilize family farmers, ranchers, and fishers to achieve fair prices, vibrant communities, and healthy foods free of corporate domination.”  Though Graham is Rural Vermont’s representative on the NFFC Board of Directors, and sits on its Executive Committee, all of our staff have different touchpoints with NFFC based on our different domains of work and issues.  NFFC and all of its member organizations are incredible partners to, and resources for, Rural Vermont.  These relationships provide not only invaluable stories, friendship, and information about the greater context of our work across geographies and demographics which directly informs our actions and perspectives (from local to international); but also enable us to grow power collectively in unity and across differences, contributing to campaigns and movements for more transformative change that we would otherwise be more isolated from.

At this meeting we made time to talk about critical issues facing our communities and how to address them together, in particular we discussed the upcoming Farm Bill and how to strategically advance racial equity throughout our work. NFFC 2023 Farm Bill Platform includes as priority campaigns: 

  • ending the dairy crisis through a pricing reform with supply management and price floors; 

  • farm justice issues like debt relief for BIPOC and family-scale farmers and improving agricultural credit terms, and farm foreclosure moratorium;

  • an anti-land grab campaign that includes strengthening land access for BIPOC producers, tracking corporate land investments and more.

NFFC has also offered its solidarity and support to Rural Vermont in pursuing potential changes to federal law in the Farm Bill or otherwise to protect itinerant slaughterers and on-farm slaughter.

Shelby Girard