Wobbly Flock Share: Community Supported Farming

The Atlanta IWW is partnering with Feed the People Farms to establish a free-range breeding flock of heritage chicken! With this GoFundMe campaign, we are raising funds to help cover some of the start-up costs of this endeavor. Once the breeding flock is cranking out eggs and chicken, a portion of annual profits will provide money for stipends for local labor organizers, emergency funds, prison labor outreach (or “inreach”), and education. We expect this program to be able to provide an average of $6,000 annually directly to our local, provide thousands of pounds of meat and eggs to local communities, and seedlings and laying hens to community gardens.

The funds from this campaign will pay for chicken shelters, electric fence energizers, and hatching and brooding facilities, and will also pay for the chicks that will become our very own breeding flock of Buckeye chickens! The Atlanta IWW and an angel investor have covered most of the start-up costs, and we are turning to you - our community- to pull together the remaining funds!

The connection between farms and labor was once a strong bond that was crucial for many labor struggles during some of the hardest fights of the 20th century. Miner’s struggles in Appalachia drew much of their strength in their ability to grow and procure their own food from the land; farmer-labor alliances forced the New Deal through Congress, where vast reforms were made that put working people back in the saddle; and even the original IWW Work People’s College had a farm that produced all of its own food! With this history in mind, and an eye on the future, the Atlanta IWW is embarking on a path that labor hasn’t visited in nearly one hundred years.

Supply chain interruptions are now resulting in food and fertilizer shortages, and the ability to grow food without fertilizer inputs is absolutely necessary for the future of our farms and the people they feed. This is where poultry can play a crucial role, with their poop. Our flock will help Feed the People Farms by providing fertility for crops and the pasture that feeds the oxen (which power the entire farm). The chickens will also fertilize adjoining pastures where another family raises cattle for some of their income. We want to offer this, not only as a model for other farms, but also as a broader economic model that can secure long-term food supplies for local communities.

Learn more about the IWW: https://www.iww.org/

Learn more about Feed the People Farms: https://ftpfarms.com/