On September 20, Farm Aid and nearly 300 advocates and farmers representing 42 states, plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, gathered for a day of building community power, fighting polarization and strengthening the rural-urban coalition of farmers and advocates that make up the Farm Aid community. The event, A Rural Call to Action for All, featured speakers from across the food system who spoke about issues facing farming and rural communities, while legislators and movement leaders called for action alongside Farm Aid.
Opened with a land blessing by Donna Collins-Smith and Gerrod Smith of the Shinnecock Nation, the day closed with testimony from Will DellaCamera, a Connecticut farmer who made an impromptu appearance to share his experience protesting lack of support for farmers facing natural disasters. Dãnia Davy of Land and Liberation LLC, Tim Gibbons of Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Jim Hightower and Deanna Zandt emceed.
We’ve captured the highlights from this day of community action advocacy and action to keep the fire and energy from the event bright and burning. Check out videos and key moments from the gathering below.
Legal experts and dairy farmer call attention to corporate concentration and regulatory rollbacks threatening rural communities
Our forum kicked off with a panel featuring David Muraskin, managing director for litigation at FarmSTAND, a national legal advocacy organization dedicated exclusively to taking on industrial animal agriculture; Kenya Crumel, director of the Black Land and Power Initiative at the National Black Food & Justice Alliance; and Eric Sheffer a 6th-generation organic dairy farmer and owner of Sheffers Grassland Dairy. The panel discussed the threat that corporate consolidation poses for family farmers and the potential to use the legal system to take on industrial corporate power, as well as the ways that changing laws and using legal tools could prevent and reverse Black land loss.
“The history of this country is built on land grabs. It is not new with Bill Gates. This has been happening since the Doctrine of Discovery.”
— Kenya Crumel“Access to capital is so important; large farms can weather the storms and get through the lows, but family farms can’t. Having access to programs is so necessary because that’s the safety net; that’s what farms like mine need to weather the storm.”
— Eric Sheffer“Our power structure has consolidated policy decision making in the hands of corporations.”
— Dãnia Davy
Advocates debunk false narratives around climate change solutions, including factory farms
A second panel featured Tracy Lerman, GrowNYC’s Assistant Director for Regional Agriculture; Għanja O’Flaherty, managing director of Animal Agriculture Reform Collaborative; and Robert Chang, Director of Policy with the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust. The panel discussed the need for a better safety net for farmers facing disasters and the danger posed by false solutions to the climate crisis, especially factory farm gas.
“Instead of treating [waste from factory farms], we’re creating a brand new product that is further entrenching [the oil and gas] industry that is doing well. We need to think about what could this room do with $50 million in climate smart funds? What could this room do with $50 million to actually feed people and make a better country and food system for all?”
– Għanja O’Flaherty“[As farmers], we work really, really hard to feed people; it is really catastrophic to see years of backbreaking work and investment disappear in a single day from a weather event that you have no control over.”
– Robert Chang
Panel of BIPOC advocacy leaders point towards collaborative organizing as a tool to fight discrimination and racism
A third panel was made up of Irene Ruiz, the Executive Director of the Idaho Organization of Resource Councils and an advocate for farmworkers; Toni Stanger-McLaughlin, Chief Executive Officer of the Native American Agriculture Fund; and Dorathy Barker, Executive Director of Operation Spring Plant and a leader and advocate for small family farms. The panel addressed ways that collaborative organizing can dismantle the urban-rural divide and push back on the racism and discrimination in our food system that fuels polarization.
“Farmworkers are farmers too.”
— Irene Ruiz“I support what is good for rural America, because when rural America is healthy, all of America is healthy.”
— Tony Stanger-McLaughlin
Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party, calls on Farm Aid community to support a “multi-racial, working class movement.”
The day’s keynote was delivered by Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party.
“The connections here, this is what the corporations fear. They… believe that it is an impossibility for white rural folks and recent immigrants from Central America and Black folks who built this country through soul and labor to come together and decide to transform the conditions of our lives together.”
— Maurice Mitchell
Forum highlights successful stories of coalition building and explores role of rural and local media
The second half of the day was dedicated to uplifting examples of successful coalition building and the important role of local media in rural communities. Deanna Zandt and Jim Hightower led an inspirational discussion and heard from members of the audience about what they are seeing in their communities.
“If there’s one thing I wish I could get rid of, it’s [the idea] that rural means, white, conservative, straight and Christian.”
— Deanna Zandt
Larry Long ties gathering to 1970s tractorcade and Farm Aid’s long history of activism
Minnesota musical artist and longtime activist Larry Long played a set of folk songs to close out the day, including a song about the famous 1979 tractorcade to D.C.
Connecticut farmer Will DellaCamera stops by on his tractorcade to DC; calls for more support for farmers facing natural disasters
Will DellaCamera, a vegetable farmer from Connecticut who lost his whole crop in a devastating hail storm in late August, made an impromptu appearance at the forum, closing the day by sharing his story and calling on the federal government to take action and help farmers who face climate change disasters.
“Rural Call” to serve as a foundation for Farm Aid’s future work
The event was full of lessons that Farm Aid intends to build on heading into 2025–our 40th anniversary year. Stay tuned for more information on Farm Aid’s goal of bringing together a coalition of farmers, rural organizers, labor leaders and urban activists led by the hard work, skills and ingenuity of family farmers!
Check out a gallery of photos from the event below.
