Food is fundamental, and how we grow it can play a big role in mitigating the effects of climate change. As Project Drawdown notes, the food, agriculture, and land use sector are crucial to addressing climate change. This sector contributes ~24% of greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key pathway to pursue significant reductions in emissions. By improving our land use and agricultural practices, we maximize the potential for land-based carbon sequestration, helping to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In addition, growing more healthy food locally will improve affordability and access, foster community vitality and connection, and reduce reliance on food grown elsewhere through industrial farming.
Our vision is to address the negative impacts of climate change while fostering a thriving local and regional food system and more equitable access to local, healthy, and sustainably grown food. To do this, we will invest in organizations that are addressing farmland stewardship, increasing the sustainability of farm businesses, supporting farmers, strengthening the regional food system infrastructure, and promoting the adoption of climate-resilient, organic, and regenerative farming practices. We will prioritize opportunities for organizations serving historically excluded communities given the historic and systemic barriers they face to land access, access to healthy food, and sustainable farm enterprises, as well as being disproportionately burdened by the negative impacts of climate change.
Funding Priorities
Our funding priorities include investing in organizations to:
Support Small Farmers
- Invest in organizations that offer comprehensive support to small farmers, enabling them to establish sustainable farm enterprises.
- Emphasize accelerating the learning curve for the next generation of new farmers through training, technical assistance, financing, and business acumen support.
- Facilitate pathways to ownership or shared ownership of farmland, fostering long-term stability and growth.
- Promote apprenticeship, mentorship, and networking or peer-to-peer opportunities for farmers.
Adopt organic, Regenerative and Climate-resilient Farming Practices
- Support organizations that provide education, training, technical assistance, and access to best practices for farmers interested in transitioning to organic and regenerative practices.
- Support programs that facilitate the adoption of climate-resilient practices in agriculture.
- Encourage farmers to pursue certification for organic and regenerative farming practices.
Develop Regional Infrastructure
- Invest in the creation of regional infrastructure that benefits farmers at a local and regional level.
- Prioritize projects that establish sustainable market pathways for farmers’ products, facilitating access to consumers.
- Develop shared resources that can be more affordably and efficiently accessed by multiple producers (such as cold storage, wash/pack facilities, etc.).
Support Local, Non-commercial Food Growing
- Foster hyper-local, non-commercial food growing and sourcing projects.
- Support activities such as backyard gardening, gleaning, and community gardening, which promote self-sufficiency and community resilience.
