Recipient Organization
POCASSET POKANOKET LAND TRUST, INC.
44 BEDSON RD
CRANSTON,RI 029104902
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Agriculture in the United States has a diversity problem.Thirty years ago, half of the country's food supply came from small farms. Today, that number has dwindled to twenty-five percent, including a paltry ten percent for the dairy industry. In the last decade, we have lost over 100,000 farms as technology and the efficiencies of scale have made it nearly impossible for small farmers to competeagainst large-scale corporate operations. The long-term goal of this program is to support the growth of BIPOC beginning farmers in CentralMassachusetts, where diversity and educational resources are scarce.The mission of The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) is to organize Indigenous families, groups, clans and communities to be able to advocate on their own behalf by teaching tools of self-empowerment and skills to transform their life and to promote a healthier Indigenous Community. For this project, PPLT will partner with Nichols College and Global Village Farms (GVF), who has extensive experience supportinghistorically underserved farmers in the Northeast. Located in the heart of Central Massachusetts, GVF is an international initiative building center for education, training and movement building. They are part of creating a new sustainable economy and cooperative living spaces with low-income immigrant communities of color and other colonized and marginalized people. GVF works with 100% "socially disadvantaged" farmers representing indigenous, immigrant, and/or refugee communities.PPLT and GVF each have strong grant management experience with PPLT specializing in managing foundation and state administered grants. Currently, the two groups are collaborating on a three-year USDA program focusing on the implementation and outreach of conservation practices with land stewardship principles among land based Indigenous People and farmers of color in the Northeast. Both organizations are led/managed by people of color from historically underserved groups.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Goals / Objectives
Agriculture in the United States has a diversity problem.Thirty years ago, half of the country's food supply came from small farms. Today, that number has dwindled to twenty-five percent, including a paltry ten percent for the dairy industry. In the last decade, we have lost over 100,000 farms as technology and the efficiencies of scale have made it nearly impossible for small farmers to compete against large-scale corporate operations.1In addition, our farms lack racial and ethnic variety. The majority of farm workers are people of color, but the farm managers, the landowners have always been predominantly white. Last year the Union of Concerned Scientists and HEAL Food Alliance completed a comprehensive study on Black people, indigenous people and other people of color (BIPOC) in respects to farming and concluded the following:"The socioeconomic status of communities of BIPOC reflects a long history of theft and loss of land and capital, justified by racist ideologies and often perpetrated by official government Policies. Even though BIPOC represent nearly one-quarter of the US population, they operate less than 5 percent of the nation's declining number of farms, and cultivate less than 1 percent of its farmland. In contrast, a majority of the estimated 2.4 million farmworkers in the United States are people of color who do not own or operate farms of their own. Farmer and farmworker populations across the nation are diverse and include immigrants, migrants, and refugees and their descendants from all over the world, often from agricultural backgrounds, and each with distinct skills, knowledge, histories, and lived experiences.Longstanding structural and institutional racism has excluded BIPOC from access to land, financial resources, information, political standing, and educational and professional trajectories, which limits their ability to shape the food system. Such exclusion has prevented truly sustainable food systems from being established, and created enormous barriers for communities seeking to maintain or revive culturally appropriate foodways and to live in balance with their ecosystems. Strengthening support for BIPOC within the agriculture sector, on the other hand, can establish paths toward long-term prosperity while helping to secure the future of sustainable and resilient food systems."2These findings are consistent for Massachusetts where the farm sizes vary, but the race and ethnicity of the farmers do not. In 2007, 98.7 percent of the principal farm operators were white. That ratio has changed little since then, dropping slightly to 96.7 percent in 2017.3In addition, resources for beginning small farmers, including business planning are hard to come by, especially in the central region of the state (Worcester County). The figures below from the Beginner Farmers Network illustrates the lack of available education and training. Resources include training provided by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) and the New England Small Farm Institute.4,5,6 In short, BIPOC farmers in Massachusetts are being left behind. The long-term goal of this program is to support the growth of BIPOC beginning farmers in Central Massachusetts, where diversity and educational resources are scarce. We believe we are well suited for this project.The mission of The Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) is to organize Indigenous families, groups, clans and communities to be able to advocate on their own behalf by teaching tools of self-empowerment and skills to transform their life and to promote a healthier Indigenous Community. For this project, PPLT will partner with Nichols College and Global Village Farms (GVF), who has extensive experience supportinghistorically underserved farmers in the Northeast. Located in the heart of Central Massachusetts, GVF is an international initiative building center for education, training and movement building. They are part of creating a new sustainable economy and cooperative living spaces with low-income immigrant communities of color and other colonized and marginalized people. GVF works with 100% "socially disadvantaged" farmers representing indigenous, immigrant, and/or refugee communities.PPLT and GVF each have strong grant management experience with PPLT specializing in managing foundation and state administered grants. Currently, the two groups are collaborating on a three-year USDA program focusing on the implementation and outreach of conservation practices with land stewardship principles among land based Indigenous People and farmers of color in the Northeast. Both organizations are led/managed by people of color from historically underserved groups.Goal #1: Curriculum and Tool Development for BIPOC FarmersObjective 1.1: Pilot Program of Intensive CurriculumObjective 1.2: Pilot Program of Ongoing Support (Cohort, mostly remote)Goal #2: Understand Needs of Tribal Members and other BIPOC FarmersObjective 2.1: Complete a Needs Assessment Survey, accompanied by Interviews and Listening Sessions as needed, to gather quantitative and qualitative data from Tribal Community and BIPOC farmersGoal #3: Ecosystem DevelopmentObjective 3.1: Analyze, map, and assess the region's existing support resources for BIPOC farmers.Objective 3.2: Strengthen partnerships
Project Methods
Pilot Program of Intensive CurriculumThe six day Intensive Pilot will bring farmers from early startup phase to a full draft business plan or completed loan application. It will take place at Global Village Farm in Grafton, MA in the Hunab Ku Education Center. The in-person / residential, intensive, retreat-style experience is designed to build relationships between core team members and get a lot done while having a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Facilitators are experienced in team building, business governance, market planning, and business plan development. Participants will also be connected to further resources, drawing on the expertise of business developers and experienced farmers from MA and RI areas. This approach allows the curriculum to be tailored to fit the participants' stages of development. It is a specialized curriculum that takes into account the needs of BIPOC farmers, available in English, Spanish or Portuguese. Participants will be selected by application process, interview and the following criteria: strength of business idea, stage of development, core member skills and needs, participants connection to mission / community / networks, with priority to BIPOC, youth, formerly incarcerated, immigrants, poor and working class people, front line communities involved in social or environmental justice campaigns, and climate justice considerations in business idea. Some pre-reading is required. The pilot will be available at very low cost to initial participants, but aims to generate income in the future.Once participants are selected, curriculum improvement and tool creation will happen in a way that will fit the needs of the specific participants but will also be useful for future participants more generally. Many existing business resource sheets are either not very accessible or relevant to BIPOC farmers specifically. Our staff will adapt tools, resource sheets and training curricula to meet the language, cultural, literacy level and business type needs of the Tribal and other BIPOC farmer participants. For example, most resources assume a level of individualism that runs counter to the cultural approach of indigenous of black farmers. Our curriculum embraces the collaborative team approach.Pilot Program of Ongoing SupportIn this cohort, mostly remote (facilitated by Zoom) training and ongoing support pilot, participants will participate in a similar but more stretched out 6 month format. The cohort structure means multiple participants at similar stages in their business planning. Staff will facilitate peer sharing and peer feedback in training sessions and create channels for peer to communication and support such as email lists, slack channels, phone lists and events. The bulk of the online "classroom" time will be during the winter and more hands-on activities will wrap up the program in the beginning of the growingseason, but will not interfere with the busiest times for farmer participants. Some events will overlap with partner programming to introduce participants to other networks such as Northeast Organic Farmers Association or the US Federation of Worker Co-ops.We will also create a pilot mentorship program for ongoing, target-market specific support. For example, if grower participants are looking at institutional markets, appropriate mentors will be identified for that team. Graduates will maintain communication channels, have access to 5 hours yearly of troubleshooting staff support and be engaged in annual alumni events.Needs AssessmentWe will design and administer a survey to the Tribal Community and BIPOC farmers through email outreach, event follow-up and social media. We will ask where they have looked for resources, what additional technical assistance, resources and infrastructure support they need. To accompany this, we will conduct interviews and listening sessions as needed for deeper information gathering. We will strive to better understand the business related revenue generation challenges and the barriers between BIPOC farmers and markets. The result will be a list of high, medium and low priority business development needs, the identification of key challenges and some initial ideas for technical assistance related solutions.Resource MapWith support from Nichols College interns and faculty, we will analyze, map, and assess the existing support resources for BIPOC farmers in our region. This will primarily be a compilation of publicly listed offerings from support organizations, associations, networks and federations. Where needed, follow up direct contact will be made to obtain a full list of each organization's offerings. Students will help synthesize the data and create an accessible map. Staff will become familiar with these resources in order to know to whom and when to make referrals. As we do this process, we will be assessing the gaps in culturally appropriate materials and resources, and noting where our team can generate necessary tools.PartnershipsThrough the above pilot and assessment work, we will develop a clearer understanding of each partner's capacity, role and desired growth areas. Current PPLT partners in the initiative are Global Village Farms and Nichols College. Additional partners we are working with and hope to strengthen / formalize relationships to this project are Northeast Organic Farmers Association of Massachusetts, World Farmers, US Federation of Worker Cooperatives and North East Farmers Of Color Land Trust.We will generate a roadmap of partners' intentions and needs for increasing capacity for ramp up of BIPOC Beginning Farmers support programs in 2022-2023. With the formation of a formal advisory committee, strengthened communication and reporting systems among partners, we aim to be ready to submit a strong proposal for a standard BFRDG proposal in 2022.