Collaborative Agriculture Network

Our goal is to create collaborative agriculture network(s) in the 18 county region to support a just and sustainable food system with attention to equity, reparations, land access, and acquiring capital

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Our work:

• Group has been meeting since the Spring 2021. 

• Committed to a participatory, community-owned process for determining priorities of the Cooperative Agriculture Network, including:

  • A farmer-driven process relying on (and paying stipends to) 10-15 farmers and other food system stakeholders, with farmers being trained in Participatory Action Research (PAR) and conducting interviews of other farmers, then organizing that input into an action plan based on the needs and ideas of farmers. The report detailing the initial priorities from this research can be found here. 

  • Exploring the possibility of farmers filling the part-time staff positions to begin operating the Cooperative network.

  • Use a large portion of our budget to create a cooperative fund that would be managed through participatory processes by the network members.

  • Mary Yetter is an experienced Participatory Action Research professional who will facilitate our farmer interview and program development process. 

• Looking for additional folks for the organizing group who have one or more of the following:

  • Relationships to conduct farmer outreach especially to BIPOC and women farmers

  • Supply chain experience - what infrastructure needs should be considering, decentralized models, hubs, etc

  • Collaborative or cooperative farming experience

  • Social media expertise, how to reach our target farmers

  • Close relationships with representatives from ASAP, CFSA and other participatory farmers’ organizations

  If you would like more information about this Strategy Area, please contact Jennifer Tuft at Jenn@wndfoodjustice.com