Annual Report 2011
Small Investments
Big Benefits Our Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund gives small grants – an average of $10,000 – to farm enterprises that are modeling creative new ways to make a living on the farm. In 2011, RAFI granted $1.9 million to 181 innovative farm entrepreneurs. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro evaluated the impact of those grants over a three-year period. What they found was staggering. • Each of our grants created an average of 11 new jobs within one year. • For every one dollar awarded to a farmer, $205 new dollars of economic activity took place in the state within one year. • In total, the program awarded $3.6 million in three years to 367 farmers, created 4,100 new jobs, and had an economic impact of more than $733 million. Why does it work? We believe it’s because farmers know their business, know their communities, and have a lot at stake. They already have equipment, buildings, land, and expertise that they can re-purpose. And there’s another benefit for rural economies: family farmers don’t pick up and move overseas. If you want to have a big impact on the economies of rural communities, it’s hard to find a better bet than a family farmer.
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e are a growing community of neighbors feeding neighbors with fresh local food. In 2011, our second year, we created $300,000 in farm income and sold fruit and vegetables from 25 farms to 1,250 subscribers - 3.5% of the people in our rural county. -Fenton Wilkinson, Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative, owned by farmers, consumers, & staff. RAFI grantee & workshop leader
At Happy Land Farms, Harold Wright is using a RAFI grant to add pastured poultry to his diversified farm, where he already raises pastured pork, row crops, and berries. “My grandchildren will be the fifth generation on the land my grandfather farmed in 1910. I’m just trying to keep it in good shape and pass it on,” Wright says.
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n the first year of operation, we bought over $50,000 worth of food from local farmers, hired six people, and stimulated the local economy through rent and other operating expenses. Since then, we opened the Harvest Moon Grille at the Dunhill, a brick-and-mortar restaurant, where we have a staff of 49 folks and have spent over $164,000 directly with local farmers in only nine months. Given the multiplier effect, each of those dollars has the impact of $7 being spent in the local economy. In only two years, the impact of that little $10,000 grant we got has been over $1.5 million. -Cassie Parsons, Executive Chef and Proprietor of Harvest Moon Grille at the Dunhill and farmer at Grateful Growers Farm
Saving Seeds For 12,000 years, slow, careful selection by farmers has improved wild plants and animals into the crops and lievestock we recognize today. Each variety of seed and each breed of animal carries thousands of particular genes that combine to produce its unique traits – resistance to disease, ability to cope with too much water or too little, ability to weather frosts or scorching heat, unique tastes and textures, and more. These diverse traits are necessary for our food supply to adapt to changing conditions and future diseases. Now global climate change is making them more important than ever. But these resources are disappearing fast. RAFI’s 1983 study, which received its own full-page spread in the July, 2011, National Geographic article on dwindling crop diversity, found that about 93 percent of seed varieties sold in the US in 1903 were extinct by 1983. These diverse, publically-owned varieties are being replaced by corporately-owned, patented crops. We need a parallel public system that values and improves publically owned seeds and breeds, which belong to everyone. Public ownership allows farmers to save seeds. Because of RAFI and our coalition partners, the 2008 Farm Bill prioritized funding for the development of public, open-source varieties through classical breeding - but according to a May, 2011 report by RAFI and the National Organic Coalition, only one of 168 grants from the USDA AFRI program supported this research. After releasing the report, RAFI met with Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan and the head of the USDA research division to discuss solutions. In June, we joined the National Cooperative Grocers Association in convening more than 60 organizations in Boulder, Colo., to agree on a shared strategy to protect public plant and animal varieties, prevent contamination from GMO crops, and ensure fair choices for farmers and consumers. Attendees included such organic and sustainable agriculture industry powerhouses as Organic Valley, the Organic Trade Association, and Clif Bar.
Farmer Kenny Haines and RAFI’s Michael Sligh talk in front of seed cleaning equipment, purchased with a RAFI grant. Kenny and his son Ben operate Looking Back Farm, where they grow organic grain, participate in a breeding project with RAFI and North Carolina State University, and work with their neighbors to cooperatively sell organic wheat to a local flour mill. Hear Ben talk about his project: bit.ly/lookingbackfarm.
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Food, Faith & Community “Food ministry is secondary. The real issue is who we are in community with,” wrote one of the participants in facilitated discussions at the Come to the Table Conferences in North Carolina in early 2011. The Project’s third biannual conference series brought together almost 400 faith and community leaders for workshops, meals, field tours, and discussion. Our community of participants included farmers, farm workers, clergy, nonprofit and church leaders, state employees, professors, dieticians, and leaders of local ministries. In 2007, the program’s first conferences had a goal of bringing leaders in farming, hunger relief, and faith to the table to identify opportunities for ministries that would benefit both farmers and families in need. Four years later, the conference agenda was full of successful ministries ready to share their work - buying local for institutional events, hosting congregation-supported agriculture sites, teaching healthy cooking, growing gardens, hosting donation stands at farmers’ markets, making healthy local food accessible for EBT customers, donating land, and supporting new food and farm entrepreneurs. The Project has now worked with more than 700 people across the state. It is a national model for fostering community food security through faith-led action. In a recent survey, more than 50 percent of respondents said they had been inspired to start or grow a ministry in their home community because of the Project, and more than 80 percent said they had made changes in their personal relationship to faith, farming, and food.
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Guillermina Garcia of Mujeres sin Fronteras, a group of women farmworkers, leads a seed-planting field day with students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, farm worker group NC FIELD, and youth members of Coley Springs Missionary Baptist Church, as part of the Eastern North Carolina Come to the Table Conference.
Food Justice The Agricultural Justice Project, the goldstandard food justice labeling initiative led by RAFI and three partners, liscensed its first certifiers in May, 2011. The kick-off training hosted 20 participants, a combination of organic certifiers and representatives of farmworker organizations. AJP standards certify fair treatment for all who labor in agriculture - workers, farmers, and food business employees alike. The project builds a chain of honest, open, and respectful relationships from farm to table. Food Justice Certification is open to any farm or food business. AJP’s label, Food Justice Certified, rewards businesses for a deep commitment to fairness and transparency, empowers people who labor at all points on the supply chain to advocate for their own rights, and enables consumers to choose food that was produced with dignity and respect for human rights. The certification process is developed to integrate with the process for organic and other certifications, enabling farms and businesses to add Food Justice Certification to their products without an unnecessary burden of dealing with separate certifiers. A farmworker organization participates in every certification.
RAFI is proud to be a founder and board chair of the Domestic Fair Trade Association, which promotes and protects the integrity of domestic fair trade principles and practices through education, marketing, advocacy and endorsement.
Certified AJP certifier events train staff and farmworker inspectors in the project’s rigorous standards, and then let them apply what they’ve learned on visits to real farms and businesses undergoing the certification process. Participants leave ready to carry out certifications in their home communities.
Protecting Landowners from Exploitation Before July, 2011, landowners who signed a gas lease in North Carolina were often signing away their right to go to court, authorizing company personnel to enter their property without any notice, and agreeing to receive no compensation and take legal responsibility for damages resulting from the gas companies’ actions.
RAFI began the year with intensive outreach to landowners and local residents, educating them about exploitative contract terms and urging them to seek legal advice before signing a contract. After our education meetings and media campaign began, only four new leases were filed.
Gas companies began signing leases with North Carolina landowners in 2010, after studies showed that natural gas in shale under Lee, Chatham, and Moore Counties would be able to be extracted using hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking. Although fracking was not yet legal, gas companies had filed more than 80 lease agreements in Lee County alone by late 2010. Often, landowners signed away gas rights at $1-2 per acre, a sharp contrast with states where fracking is legal, where landowners often get $2-5,000 per acre.
RAFI also began to work with legislators in order to better protect the rights of rural landowners. In July, the Governor signed a law that protected landowners from some of the most immediate concerns. The bill also charged the state Department of Energy and Natural Resources and Department of Justice with researching the possible impacts from fracking. The bill named RAFI as the sole nonprofit that the state was required to consult when writing the report. Learn more at www.rafiusa.org/gaslease.
Thinking about leasing your mineral rights?
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS 1) Talk to a lawyer
• Gas leases are BINDING LEGAL CONTRACTS. They are usually WRITTEN TO BENEFIT THE COMPANY not the landowner. • CONTRACTS TAKE PRECEDENT OVER any VERBAL AGREEMENT that you may have with the company.
2) Don’t accept responsibility for the gas company’s actions.
2040 people attended community education meetings in 2011. Here, RAFI’s Jordan Treakle explains the kind of clauses landowners can expect to find in a gas rights lease.
• Mineral rights leases may put LIABILITY for ENVIRONMENTAL HARMS or other liability issues ON THE LANDOWNER, not the drilling company. • Make sure that the company is responsible for complying with local regulations, paying any fines and compensating you for lost income from government conservation programs.
• Some contracts ALLOW COMPANIES leasing mineral rights to BUILD BUILDINGS, pipelines, and ROADS or to USE A WELL on the property even if it interferes with other activities such as farming or hunting.
3) Know the impact on your land
For help finding affordable legal representation contact Jordan Treakle at RAFI at (919) 444-1321 or jordan@rafiusa.org. More informatio at www.rafiusa.org/gaslease.html
Thousands more landowners in affected regions of North Carolina were reached through flyers and mailings.
The Right to a
Fair Contract A USDA Grain Inspectors, Packers, and Stockyards rule, finalized in 2011, extended new rights to contract poultry farmers, who often incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and have contracts that may last only a few months: • Companies can no longer force farmers to spend money on expensive equipment upgrades, which often have no financial return for the farmer, in order to keep their contracts • The federal Packers and Stockyards Act, which has provided some key protections for broiler chicken farmers, now protects pullet growers and breeders as well. • Farmers have some protection from financial loss when they receive a flock late through no fault of their own. Find out more at www.rafiusa.org/rule.
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The Long Road In 2011, contract poultry farmers won important new federal protections from unfair treatment (see previous article.) The victories of 2011 were only possible because of decades of advocacy from farmers and supporters like you.
1990
RAFI’s Contract Agriculture Reform program founded to organize contract poultry farmers.
1998
Because RAFI stood with farmers to reform contract agriculture:
The Campaign for Contract Agriculture Reform begins to advance national policy that protects contract poultry growers.
USDA publishes draft rules, which are written based on input from RAFI and the Farmers’ Legal Action Group. Growers hold a D.C. briefing for Congressional staff
500 growers in eight states come to community meetings about the rule.
More than 1,200 people send comments in support of a strong poultry section of the rule. More than 425 growers risk retaliation to send a letter.
2008
USDA/Justice Department hearings on concentration in agriculture include a special session on poultry. More than 60 growers testify. They get coverage in news outlets like BusinessWeek, the Associated Press, and the Washington Post.
2011
7,000 people, supporters of RAFI and coalition partners, call the White House to ask for the rule to be issued.
RAFI’s Becky Ceartas and growers Mike Weaver, Mickey Box, and Craig Watts outside a Congressional office building during a day of Senate visits.
to Reform The Farm Bill directs the USDA to write a rule protecting contract poultry farmers from unfair treatment.
2010
2009
Dudley Butler, long-time supporter of contract growers, is appointed to a key USDA post and meets with growers.
This ad ran in local papers throughout North Carolina during President Obama’s visit to the state in mid-2011. Growers visit 55 Senate offices in three days and hold a second briefing for Congressional staff.
Growers speak out in letters to the editor, opinion editorials, and calls to legislators.
Growers recieve information about their new rights. RAFI continues to monitor enforcement and defend the rule.
190 farm organizations sign a letter in support of the rule
The USDA issues the final rule, giving poultry growers historic new protections from unfair treatment.
An attempt to kill the rule through the US Congress’s Appropriations process is defeated although the USDA is prevented from finalizing certain parts of the rule.
Fair Markets, Farmer Choice, and GMO Contamination Genetically engineered crops can contaminate organic or other non-engineered crops through the movement of pollen or seed. Pollen and seeds from GMO crops can travel miles, contaminating the fields of nearby farms. Current U.S. regulations fail to prevent or mitigate this contamination. Farmers whose crops are contaminated may lose substantial income. Many markets do not accept GMO crops or non-GMO crops contaminated with GMO material. For instance, worldwide organic farming regulations prohibit the use of genetically engineered seeds or feed, and many non-organic import markets will not accept GMO foods. In addition, farmers with contaminated crops be held liable for growing patented crops without paying the patentholder - even if they were unaware of or unable to prevent the contamination.
RAFI and the National Organic Coalition coauthored GMO Contamination Prevention and Market Fairness: What Will It Take?, a white paper that lays out 11 principles that should guide strategies to protect farmers from the impact of unwanted GMO contamination of their crops, including protecting consumer choice, defending farmers’ ability to choose the crops they grow, assigning liability fairly, and protecting genetic diversity. The paper was written in response to testimony and questions at the US Senate’s hearing on the 20th anniversary of the organic program, which made it clear that the interactions between organic agriculture and genetically modified crops would become a major issue for American farmers. It laid the groundwork for the upcoming 2012 Farm Bill campaigns. Read it at bit.ly/gmofairness.
reet. t s y a w o is a tw n o i t a n rom GMO i f m a t t i n f o o c r p e, and t o reventing m onomic o c r e p e , h t n w r o o o sible f n o p s Those wh e r d l e he ause. b c t y s a u m m y s g t produc irness r technolo i e h t m r Fa ha t e k d Market r n a a n m o i t d n e an Prev amination
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A Lifetime of Service to Farmers in Trouble For more than 20 years, farmers facing bankruptcy or foreclosure have called RAFI’s Benny Bunting for help. When the poultry plant in Siler City, N.C., closed its doors last summer, almost 200 farmers lost their contracts. Benny was there to help. By the end of the year, Benny had twice his normal caseload, and 70 percent of farmers receiving intensive assistance were poultry farmers. In November, RAFI added a full-time position assisting the former poultry growers, increasing our capacity to offer advocacy and support.
In 20 11 86 fa , Benny a mi s finan lies faci sisted n c saved ial crisi g s farm $14 milli and on in asset s.
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still don’t understand what was wrong with me farming. If I was good enough to drive a tractor, why couldn’t I farm? If I could drive the big trucks to the grain elevator, why couldn’t I farm? If I hadn’t had Benny, I would have been like a fish on the riverbank. I couldn’t have done it without him. I didn’t have a penny to pay him. I am sure he was having a hard time, too. But he would stop his life to help other people, and one of them was me. -Margaret Odom, Georgia farmer, Farm Advocacy client, and one of the lead plaintiffs in a women’s discrimination lawsuit against the USDA
Benny Bunting with Farm Aid President Willie Nelson. Benny recieved a Certificate of Honor from Farm Aid for his years of service to America’s farmers. RAFI’s founding director, Betty Bailey; Just Foods Program director Michael Sligh; and current director, Scott Marlow, were also honored.
A Gathering of Advocates
More than 100 farm advocates and advocates-in-training from around the nation joined RAFI and Farm Aid in Kansas for the first National Meeting of Farm Advocates. This year’s gathering was the first time since the farm crisis of the 1980s that a national group of advocates like Benny came together to tell old stories and new ones, and continue the work of advocating for farmers. The three-day gathering included workshops on lessons learned for the next generation of farm advocates, what discrimination looks like today, and new initiatives in farm finance. Discussion group topics included Farm Bill 2012, young farmer initiatives, federal resources, and land loss prevention.
Veteran advocates Betty Puckett, Ben Burkett, Benny Bunting, Linda Hessler, Lou Ann Kling, and Shirley Sherrod
to put is difficult it , s e m ne ti t RAFI has do t a h w s d r o into w s. At to do for u s e u n ti n o c and on the farm, e if l y m g in r ough one point du ting. But thr ta s a v e d d e m a very things see we now have t, n e m e v l o e v RAFI’s in on and we hav ti a r e p o y ir a hter successful d son and daug a g in r b to e t, been abl ncouragemen e s I’ F A R . m r a AFI’s back to the f port, and R p u s d e u n ti things RAFI’s con orts to make f f e r u o e in belief immeasurabl n a n e e b e ute to better hav y to contrib it il b a r u o factor in community. the farming nor and rmer, RAFI do a f , m a th n a r - Tom T board member
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RAFI is supported by: Anonymous Alces Foundation BB&T Clif Bar Family Foundation Corporation for National and Community Service C.S. Fund The Duke Endowment Elise Jerard Environmental and Humanitarian Trust The Episcopal Church of the Advocate The F.B. Heron Foundation Farm Aid The Fenwick Foundation First Citizen’s Bank Gaia Fund GBL Charitable Foundation Golden Leaf Foundation Hillsdale Fund Lawson Valentine Foundation Lefort-Martin Fund The Mary Lynn Richardson Fund The Mary Norris Preyer Fund Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation The New York Community Trust
North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services North Carolina Tobacco Trust Fund Commission The North Pond Foundation Oak Fund of the Triangle Community Foundation Park Foundation, Inc. Patagonia Presbyterian Hunger Program Dan and Sue Rothenburg Rural Economic Development Center Silicon Valley Community Foundation Southern Risk Management and Education Center Tivka Grassroots Empowerment Fund of Tides Foundation Unitarian Universalist Funding Program The Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Inc.
...and the generosity of more than 500 individual donors.
Putting Dollars to Work for Farmers Income Other
Individual gifts 9%
Contracts
Individual donations give RAFI flexibility to invest in cuttingedge work, while grants and contracts enable us to provide diverse, nationally recognized work for socially-just, environmentally sound, thriving family farms.
13%
22% 59% Foundation & government grants
Expenses
91% of RAFI’s budget goes straight to programs and grants that support family farms.
Programs 41%
50%
9% Administration & fundraising
Farmer grants
2011 Staff Scott Marlow, Executive Director
Robin Iten Porter, Financial Officer
Alix Blair, Information Specialist, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund
Jackie Murphy Miller, Program Assistant, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund
Regina Bridgman, Director of Annual Fund & Major Gifts
James Robinson, Development & Research Associate
Benny Bunting, Lead Farm Advocate
Edna Rodriguez, Grants Officer
Becky Ceartas, Contract Agriculture Reform Program Director
Joe Schroeder, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Program Director
Sarah Gibson, Come to the Table VISTA
Michael Sligh, Just Foods Program Director
Claire Hermann, Director of Communications & Come to the Table Project Director
Julius Tillery, Field Coordinator, Tobacco Communities Reinvestment Fund
Francesca Hyatt, Field Coordinator, Tobacco Communities Rienvestment Fund
Jordan Treakle, Mineral Rights Project Coordinator
Sally Lee, Just Foods Program Associate
Kathy Zaumseil, Director of Administration
Carmen Moa Rivera, Crop Insurance Project Coordinator
Announcing Scott Marlow, Executive Director Scott Marlow, RAFI’s newest Executive Director, has been at RAFI for 17 years. Most recently, he directed RAFI’s Farm Sustainability Program and oversaw work on crop insurance, risk management, access to credit, food and faith, and advocacy for farmers in financial crisis. He has served on the steering committee of the National Task Force to Renew Agriculture of the Middle, the Organization Council of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, the Board of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, the Board of the NC Farm Transition Network, and serves on the NC Agricultural Advancement Consortium and the Advisory Committee of the NC Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. He has a Masters Degree in Crop Science from NC State University, and a BA in Political Science from Duke University. We’re proud to have him as RAFI’s third Executive Director.
Board of Directors Archie Hart, President Special Assistant to the NC Commissioner of Agriculture, Knightdale, N.C. Alex Hitt, Vice President Farmer, Peregrine Farms, Graham, N.C. Randi Ilyse Roth, Treasurer Attorney at law, St. Paul, M.N. Alton Thompson Provost, Delaware State University, Summerfield, N.C.
Mary Hendrickson Director, Food Circles Networking Project; Associate Director, Community Food Systems and Sustainable Ariculture Program and University of Missouri Extension; Associate Professor, Rural Sociology, University of Missouri, Columbia, M.O. Tom Trantham Farmer, 12 Aprils Dairy & Happy Cow Creamery, Pelzer, S.C.
RAFI staff at work: (clockwise from left) Claire Hermann at a Come to the Table Conference work day; Julius Tillery, Joe Schroeder, and Francesca Hyatt advising farmers on distaster assistance programs; Sarah Gibson returning from a farm visit; Becky Ceartas speaking on a Farm Aid panel.
RAFI cultivates market, policies and opportunities that support thriving, socially just, environmentally sound family farms.
MAILING ADDRESS P.O. Box 640 Pittsboro, NC 27312 STREET ADDRESS 274 Pittsboro Elementary School Rd. Pittsboro, NC 27312 Phone: (919) 542-1396 Fax: (919) 542-0069 Email: communicator@rafiusa.org Website: www.rafiusa.org