Help me write my book on food justice & fair trade

My name is Dana Geffner – I am a food justice and fair trade movement organizer, an activist of over 25 years, and the former Director of the nonprofit advocacy and watchdog organization, Fair World Project. To my friends reading this: I am taking on one of the most ambitious projects of my life, and I need your help. To new friends, I am glad you found this page, and I need your help too.

I have exciting news! The independent publisher (Chelsea Green) will be publishing my first book. The book will draw on my 25 years of experience working in food justice movements and the role I’ve played in working to transform our food systems into a just one for everyone by exploring grassroots solutions to transform our food systems through grassroots organizing efforts by small-scale farmers, global north family farmers, farmworkers and alternative businesses.

Again, I need your help to get this book written. The publisher is only able to provide a small advance – which I am grateful for, but it’s not enough to allow me to focus entirely on writing the book this year. Therefore, I need to raise some money to ensure I have the financial support to allow me to focus my time on research and writing.

Your support through this GoFundMe campaign will enable me to pay my bills while I complete the book. The result will educate and inspire readers about the work that many people in the dedicated fair trade and food justice movements have been doing for so many years—work that has yet to be explored in the level of detail this project will allow. Most importantly the book will help to chart a path for the future success of our food justice movements.

GoFundMe supporters will be included in the acknowledgements of the book. Those who donate $50 or more will be listed by name, and those who donate $75 or more will also receive a signed copy of the book.

This process of developing the concept and engaging publishers to secure a partner in producing and marketing the book has been over a year in the making. I am excited to now be able to write this book and highlight the crucial work in fair trade and food justice that I’ve had first-hand experience with.

The book will focus on food and farming and explore the work of farmers and farm workers to change the systemic issues that have negatively impacted their communities. Included will be how the food and farming sectors are big contributors to climate change and what organizing efforts and fair partnerships are doing to deal with this catastrophe that impacts everyone. I plan to honor in detail the work of grassroots farmer organizations, farmworkers fighting for their rights to organize, global north family farmers organizing to take back the organic movement that they started, and ethical brands working in fair partnerships with organized farmers. I will also highlight the policy work needed to transform food systems and how regenerative organic agriculture can reverse the climate catastrophe we are all living in.

Any help you can provide will allow me the time and space to craft an uplifting book for the food and farming movements. It will help us all continue to pave the way for future generations to participate in transforming the systems that so many of us have tirelessly worked to transform.

I am partnering with Grow Ahead, an organization that partners with farmer organizations in majority countries in marginalized communities to provide funding to implement agroforestry and climate resilience programs to help reverse this climate catastrophe. A portion of all funds generated through this platform will be donated to the Grow Ahead Foundation.

Thank you for reading, and hopefully, for your support. It means the world to me and will allow me to create what I hope to be a tremendous resource for food justice movement organizers, activists, and supporters.

Love and Solidarity,

Dana Geffner

Artwork created by Katie Gardner