From farmworkers’ rights, to issues of racial injustice, to the Farm Bill, there are a lot of farm-related issues to organize around. But how to efficiently and effectively create a grassroots campaign isn’t always clear. The resources below—from veteran rabble-rousers and activists—provide tools to get a successful grassroots campaign off of the ground.
National Young Farmers’ Coalition
The National Young Farmers’ Coalition has published its Young Farmers Organizing Handbook [PDF link]. This is a great resource for beginning farmers looking to create a regional support network and take action on an issue. The Coalition’s Racial Equity Toolkit is a resource for majority-white organizations, farmers, and organizers seeking to initiate conversations and organize efforts around racial equity.
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, or SRAP, offers a collection of activist resources for those working to protect their communities from factory farms. They have a guide to confronting a factory farm, factsheets and state-specific resources.
The Western Organization of Resource Councils
The Western Organization of Resource Councils has a comprehensive collection of publications on building organizations, winning issues, working with the media and garnering voter participation. Their guides include step-by-step documents on recruiting members, developing a fundraising plan, holding successful meetings, working in coalitions, holding a press conference and much, much more. WORC holds regular Principles of Community Organizing trainings to develop the skills to build powerful organizations and launch winning-issue campaigns.
Planning to Win
The Farm Aid staff is a big fan of Planning to Win:The Just Enough Guide for Campaigners, a guide that lays out a roadmap for starting and managing a campaign. It also provides handy resources such as tip sheets, case studies, and tip sheets on everything from “Building Your Planning Dream Team” to “Creative Campaign Tactics.”
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is an alliance of grassroots organizations that advocates for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and rural communities. Their website offers a great overview of what’s going on in our agriculture system on a broad scale as well as detailed information and analysis on policies and current events. Their advocacy toolkit is a good place to start if you want to get involved in advocating for better farm policy.
Soul Fire Farm
Soul Fire Farm, an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm committed to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system, has a guide that includes an adoptable policy platform for ending racism in the food system, actions that individuals can take in their local communities, guidance on interracial alliance building, tools for internal organizational transformation and more.
Local Chapters
You may not need to reinvent the wheel! Find out what organizing is already happening in your area and leverage resources of existing groups. Many advocacy organizations, including National Farmers Union and the National Young Farmers Coalition have local chapters you can join.
CONNECT WITH FARM AID
Not finding what you need? Request one-on-one assistance from our Farmer Services team, by filling out our Online Request for Assistance form or by calling 1-800-FARM-AID (1-800-327-6243). Farm Aid staff are happy to listen and help you however we can. Also check out our Online Directory of farm service organizations and get inspired with our Farmer Hero stories (like this story and this one!) for more information and ideas.
Updated December 2023
