Future Farmers Fund: Advancing Equity in Farming
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From May 16 - June 5, we are calling on our community to help raise funds for tuition scholarships to RFC's Farmer Training Programs for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+, low-income people, and others who have been historically excluded from agriculture in Oregon. Offering scholarships is one of the ways RFC works to make farmer training more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming to participants with diverse backgrounds and life experiences. We believe that supporting beginner farmers is key to ensuring the long-term viability of a more just and sustainable food system.
We have all witnessed the pervasive harms of white supremacy in the U.S., across every sector of society. American agriculture is a stark example of how unjust and deeply entrenched this system of racism is. As a society and as an agricultural community, we have a long way to go to address historical harms and build a food system that truly works for everyone. Rogue Farm Corps (RFC) strives to center equity in our work and to dismantle systems of oppression that exist in agriculture, in ourselves, in Oregon, and in society. Part of this work includes making hands-on farm training and technical assistance more accessible.
RFC’s Farmer Training Programs include paid, season-long, hands-on farm immersions at host farms, an in-depth series of educational events that explore ecologically regenerative agricultural practices and social justice issues in our food system, farm tours, and ongoing programming support for participants, program graduates, and host farms. Last year, our scholarship fund supported 20 participants in RFC’s Changing Hands Program and 11 beginning farmers who participated in RFC’s Farm Training Programs.
With each growing season, RFC is increasing the pool of well-trained, equity-informed, sustainability-focused farmers entering the field of agriculture. For example, one of RFC’s 2021 scholarship recipients graduated from the Internship Program with a long term goal “to create a non-profit incubator farm center with an on-farm restaurant that would be a place specifically for BIPOC folks to learn and engage in farm or food industry work in a safe, non-judgmental environment, where cultural diversity is encouraged and land and nature is cared for.”
Can you support our Future Farmers Fund with a donation today?
With support from a fantastic group of businesses rooted in equity and food systems, we are able to match every dollar raised until we hit our goal of $6,000. That means your support will have double the impact!
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Why do we need a Future Farmers Fund?
Only 3% of farm owner-operators in Oregon identify as a race other than white. This is a legacy of land theft from Indigenous communities and several generations of institutionalized racism including Oregon’s Black Exclusion Laws of the mid-1800s, Sundown Laws, redlining, and exclusionary lending policies stretching into the 1990s and beyond.
There is an urgent need to prepare the next generation of farmers. According to the USDA Census of Agriculture, the average age of farmers in Oregon is approaching 60, sparking concern for who will steward our agricultural lands and continue to produce food into the future. Only 4% of farmers in Oregon are under 35.
64% of Oregon’s farmland is slated to change hands by 2036 as the baby boomer generation of farmers retires. With many adult children of farmers leaving the farm to pursue other careers, this farmland is at risk for development, consolidation, and being taken out of agriculture. Who this land is transferred to and whether it continues to produce food will have enormous implications for the future of agriculture in Oregon. This impending mass transfer of farmland is both a threat to the future of our food system, and an unprecedented opportunity to center equity, redress past harms, and prioritize land access and farm ownership for farmers of color and other historically marginalized groups.
Help us shift these demographics and advance equity in agriculture! Support a more just and diverse agricultural community by donating to RFC’s Future Farmers Fund.
Donate today and your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our generous business supporters! HUGE thanks to our business sponsors for providing this match!
Thank you so much for your support!
We have all witnessed the pervasive harms of white supremacy in the U.S., across every sector of society. American agriculture is a stark example of how unjust and deeply entrenched this system of racism is. As a society and as an agricultural community, we have a long way to go to address historical harms and build a food system that truly works for everyone. Rogue Farm Corps (RFC) strives to center equity in our work and to dismantle systems of oppression that exist in agriculture, in ourselves, in Oregon, and in society. Part of this work includes making hands-on farm training and technical assistance more accessible.
RFC’s Farmer Training Programs include paid, season-long, hands-on farm immersions at host farms, an in-depth series of educational events that explore ecologically regenerative agricultural practices and social justice issues in our food system, farm tours, and ongoing programming support for participants, program graduates, and host farms. Last year, our scholarship fund supported 20 participants in RFC’s Changing Hands Program and 11 beginning farmers who participated in RFC’s Farm Training Programs.
With each growing season, RFC is increasing the pool of well-trained, equity-informed, sustainability-focused farmers entering the field of agriculture. For example, one of RFC’s 2021 scholarship recipients graduated from the Internship Program with a long term goal “to create a non-profit incubator farm center with an on-farm restaurant that would be a place specifically for BIPOC folks to learn and engage in farm or food industry work in a safe, non-judgmental environment, where cultural diversity is encouraged and land and nature is cared for.”
Can you support our Future Farmers Fund with a donation today?
With support from a fantastic group of businesses rooted in equity and food systems, we are able to match every dollar raised until we hit our goal of $6,000. That means your support will have double the impact!
----
Why do we need a Future Farmers Fund?
Only 3% of farm owner-operators in Oregon identify as a race other than white. This is a legacy of land theft from Indigenous communities and several generations of institutionalized racism including Oregon’s Black Exclusion Laws of the mid-1800s, Sundown Laws, redlining, and exclusionary lending policies stretching into the 1990s and beyond.
There is an urgent need to prepare the next generation of farmers. According to the USDA Census of Agriculture, the average age of farmers in Oregon is approaching 60, sparking concern for who will steward our agricultural lands and continue to produce food into the future. Only 4% of farmers in Oregon are under 35.
64% of Oregon’s farmland is slated to change hands by 2036 as the baby boomer generation of farmers retires. With many adult children of farmers leaving the farm to pursue other careers, this farmland is at risk for development, consolidation, and being taken out of agriculture. Who this land is transferred to and whether it continues to produce food will have enormous implications for the future of agriculture in Oregon. This impending mass transfer of farmland is both a threat to the future of our food system, and an unprecedented opportunity to center equity, redress past harms, and prioritize land access and farm ownership for farmers of color and other historically marginalized groups.
Help us shift these demographics and advance equity in agriculture! Support a more just and diverse agricultural community by donating to RFC’s Future Farmers Fund.
Donate today and your contribution will be matched dollar-for-dollar by our generous business supporters! HUGE thanks to our business sponsors for providing this match!
Thank you so much for your support!
Organizer
Rogue Farm Corps
Organizer
Portland, OR
