Agrarian Trust is a national land trust building a network of community-held land and agrarian property that supports sustainable food production, ecological stewardship, community vitality, and equitable land access for the next generation of farmers in the United States. By borrowing and merging the best of conservation land trust and community land trust models, Agrarian Trust is creating a new and innovative approach to address the crisis of exceedingly high land prices that are out of reach for many farmers, the abuse of farmland that is depleting the life of our planet, and the agricultural land which is lost to development at a rate of 2,000 acres per day.

The American Raw Milk Producers Pricing Association is a dairy farmer organization dedicated to setting a raw milk price that returns the cost of production plus profit to dairy producers. ARMPPA also serves as a milk-marketing agency aligned with no specific milk handler, cooperative or corporation to help small- and moderate-sized dairy producers survive as independent businesses not reliant on vertical integration.

The Ashtabula Lake Geauga Counties Farmers’ Union works to sustain economically viable family farms, sustainable agriculture and fair trade. The organization represents farmers in three counties of Northeast Ohio. These farmers advocate for fair prices, local food production and access, and food sovereignty.

The CDC is a statewide membership association of family dairy farmers that is recognized as a non-profit corporation. The CDC was formed to build a movement of dairymen who, by working together, can move the dairy industry to be more responsive to the needs of the family farm in this state. The goals of the CDC are to achieve an equitable dairy system that will return to dairymen a price that is fair, based on the cost of production and return on investment and management; to promote policies and husbandry practices that will lead to the responsible care of cattle and land to ensure safe and healthy food; to work at all levels to enhance the economic viability of the dairy industry for future generations; and, to support general farm policies that will maintain rural incomes at a viable level.

Community Alliance for Global Justice strives to strengthen the self-determination of local communities everywhere and to transform unjust trade and agricultural policies and practices imposed by corporations, large-scale philanthropic institutions and governments by supporting alternatives that embody social justice, environmental sustainability and democracy. CAGJ is now focused on bringing anti-corporate analysis of the global economy to the burgeoning local foods and sustainability movements.

Community Farm Alliance (CFA) is a statewide grassroots organization of persons committed to family-scale farming as the most efficient and sustainable form of producing the best quality food, while protecting the environment and strengthening rural community life. CFA believes that family-scale farming and people working together lay a foundation for community life. Current economic and political conditions eroded family scale farming so significantly that a new system of agriculture is needed-one that keeps people on the land. CFA seeks to ensure the health and well being of rural communities by advocating rural economic development whose first priority is the protection of family-scale farming.

In 1978, founders formed the Dakota Resource Council, a nonprofit, grassroots activist organization, to protect North Dakota’s land, air, water, rural communities and agricultural economy. DRC’s mission is to form enduring, democratic local groups that empower people to influence decision-making processes that affect their lives. DRC works for preservation of family farms, enforcement of corporate farming laws, soil and water conservation, regulation of coal mining and oil and gas development, protection of groundwater and clean air, renewable energy, and sound management of solid and toxic wastes.

Dakota Rural Action (DRA) formed in 1987 to create a better future for South Dakota’s rural communities, family farms, ranches, and main street businesses while preserving natural resources and a clean environment. DRA is working towards: opening and freeing livestock markets, challenging the spread of large scale corporate farming, protecting groundwater resources, and creating new opportunities for family farmers.

Family Farm Defenders (FFD) incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1994 and was granted permanent 501(c)(3) status by the IRS in 1999. FFD began as an outgrowth of two national grassroots campaigns: demanding a national referendum to end the mandatory check-off on raw milk that funds the lobby and propaganda efforts of the corporate dairy industry; and to defend consumer “right to know” in response to the stealth introduction of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) into the nation’s milk supply. Our mission is to create a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food and fiber system, based upon democratically controlled institutions that empower farmers to speak for and respect themselves in their quest for social and economic justice. FFD has worked to create opportunities for farmers to join together in new cooperative endeavors, form a mutual marketing agency, and forge alliances with consumers through providing high quality food products while returning a fair price to farmers. Family Farm Defenders (FFD) is committed to building a farmer-controlled and consumer-oriented food system. FFD developed its own cheese label: Family Farmer Cheese. Milk for its cheese comes from small dairy farms in South-central Wisconsin that use no artificial hormones. Cedar Grove Cheese Co. makes this cheese and pays farmers “the cost-of-production plus profit price.”

Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA) supports independent family farmers and protects a healthy and productive food supply for American consumers by promoting common sense policies for local, diversified agricultural systems. FARFA is based in Texas, with members around the country. One of our key areas of work is scale-appropriate regulation, including promoting cottage food laws, greater options for raw milk producers, and small-scale meat processing reform. We also work on water, eminent domain, and corporate consolidation issues, to help build a system that is both ecologically and economically sustainable.

The Federation of Southern Cooperatives is the only organization in the Southeast that has as its primary objectives the retention of black owned land and the use of cooperatives for land-based economic development. Its thirty-five year history has successfully provided self-help economic opportunities and hope for many low-income communities across the South. In fact, the Federation is the only organization in the Cooperatives of businesses that is locally controlled to build wealth through the participation of people. The Federation assists in the development of cooperatives and credit unions as a collective strategy to create economic self-sufficiency. The Federation strives toward developing self-supporting communities with programs that increase income and enhance other opportunities, focusing on assistance in land retention and development, especially for African Americans, but essentially for all family farmers.

Food for Maine’s Future is a state-wide food and farm advocacy organization working to raise awareness about the problems of industrial agriculture and fishing, genetic engineering, and the corporate control of our food system. We seek to work with creative, impassioned people and organizations who are dissatisfied with the destructiveness of industrial food production, who recognize that the current way of distributing food is unfair and promotes crisis and famine, and who are ready to make positive food system changes in their personal, community, and political lives. FMF is working to connect and learn from the struggles of people fighting for food sovereignty around the world with our own on-the-ground struggles in Maine to resist the corporate control and consolidation that undermine efforts to build just and sustainable local food economies. Through our activities, FMF is working to build a food sovereignty movement in Maine and to bring democracy to the food system at all levels.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) is a membership-based organization whose mission is to empower and unite grassroots people of all ethnic backgrounds to take control of their communities; involve them in identifying problems and needs and in taking action to address them; and be a vehicle for social, economic, and environmental justice. Iowa CCI began organizing family farmers and rural residents in 1981 to fight for fair farm prices and address problems associated with high interest rates and rapidly increasing farm foreclosures. Since then, Iowa CCI has focused on a variety of economic and environmental issues, including sustainable agriculture, credit and lending policies, conservation, and corporate concentration in agriculture. It works with farmers and other rural residents on a variety of local, statewide and national issues. Some of the main issues it is currently working on include federal farm policy, promoting family farms, stopping factory farms, protecting the environment, and working for healthy rural communities.

Kentucky Black Farmers Association advocates for BIPOC farmers and displaced persons in agriculture by creating a solid leadership foundation. We are a liaison for accountability from agriculture agencies and provide minority landowners with education and awareness for equitable economic development.

The Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) is a non-profit, public interest law firm created by the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers in 1983 to respond to the unprecedented decline in the number of family farmers and low income and minority landowners. LLPP’s mission is to use legal expertise, community education, and advocacy skills to help landowners who face legal, economic, and environmental challenges to their land ownership. The overarching mission of the organization is to re-enter African-American farmers into the food system.

Land Loss Prevention Project

The Missouri Rural Crisis Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 whose membership includes over 5,600 families. It is a progressive, statewide membership organization that works to empower farmers and other rural people. The mission of MRCC is to preserve family farms, promote stewardship of the land and environmental integrity, and strive for economic and social justice by building unity and mutual understanding among diverse groups, both rural and urban. MRCC is a leading advocate in Missouri to keep CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) from replacing family farms where livestock plays an integral role in sustainable farming practices. MRCC also organized a cooperative marketing effort of independent family hog farmers, called Patchwork Family Farms. MRCC also plays a vital role in developing and supporting public policies that focus on fair and competitive agricultural markets – supporting sustainable agricultural practices and securing nutritious affordable food for everyone regardless of income.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association is a non-profit organization of over 5,000 farmers, gardeners, landscape professionals and consumers working to promote healthy food, organic farming practices and a cleaner environment. NOFA has chapters in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Northern Plains Resource Council organizes Montana citizens to protect our water quality, family farms and ranches, and unique quality of life. We are a grassroots conservation and family agriculture group that gets the job done – protecting the Northern Plains and the people who make their home here. Other issues the NPRC supports include: fighting for reforms to stop price-fixing and other monopolistic practices by the meatpacking industry; exposing schemes to locate unsafe waste disposal facilities in Montana communities; standing up to the use of eminent domain by the Tongue River Railroad to seize control of private property for private gain; finding solutions to out-of-control growth and seeking ways for farmers and ranchers to stay on the land; working for trade policies that allow American agriculture to compete fairly; and defending the interests of citizens in the face of corporate political pressure.

The North American Marine Alliance was born in 1995 because, at the time, there was a critical mass of people in New England who believed there had to be a better approach to protect our oceans and manage marine resources. NAMA’s mission is to restore and enhance an enduring marine system supporting a healthy diversity and an abundance of marine life and human uses through a self-organizing and self-governing organization. For the past decade, we have set the standard for effective collaboration in the pursuit of one question: if we truly care about the health of our oceans, does it matter how, where and when we fish and who catches the fish that end up on our dinner plates? The answer is: definitely!

The Powder River Basin Resource Council formed in 1973 in response to unplanned rapid energy development and supports the conservation of Wyoming’s land, minerals, water and clean air consistent with responsible use of those resources. Powder River Basin Resource Council is committed to: the preservation and enrichment of Wyoming’s agricultural heritage and rural lifestyle; the conservation of Wyoming’s unique land, mineral, water, and clean air resources consistent with responsible use of those resources to sustain the livelihood of present and future generations; and the education and empowerment of Wyoming’s citizens to raise a coherent voice in the decisions that will impact their environment and lifestyle. Powder River Basin Resource Council is committed to the empowerment of people through community organizing. More than ever, it is crucial that Wyoming’s voice for responsible development, PRBRC, be a part of the debate that will determine Wyoming’s future.

Pro Ag is group of farmers from across the country, lobbying government for fair prices, especially for dairy farmers.

Progressive Agriculture

RAFI  is dedicated to community, equity and diversity in agriculture. While focusing on North Carolina and the southeastern United States, RAFI also works nationally and internationally. In a world where government farm programs are being phased out, RAFI is playing a leadership role in responding to major agricultural trends and creating something new: a movement to create unity among environmental, consumer farm groups in order to foster balanced agriculture. Our aims include: promoting sustainable agriculture–that is, systems of agriculture that strengthen the environment, family farms and rural communities; promoting crop genetic diversity and responsible use of new technologies; and reforming contract agriculture. RAFI’s programs address the trends and changes in agriculture that affect us from the local to the global levels. Working with a variety of farm, community, university and government groups, RAFI promotes sustainability, equity and diversity in agriculture through policy changes, practical assistance, market opportunities, and access to financial and technical resources. RAFI’s goals include maintaining a reliable supply of safe, healthy food that depends on: strong family farms and rural communities; close connections between consumers and food producers; and environmentally sound farming and safeguarding agricultural biodiversity.

At the heart of Vermont’s future, Rural Vermont is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to building a prosperous rural life. Rural Vermont supports a rural economic policy for Vermont that recognizes the importance of agriculture and natural resource based industries, support for small rural businesses, along with jobs, fair wages, and decent health care, housing and transportation for all rural citizens. We are committed to a broad-based sustainable agriculture in harmony with the needs of the family, community, and the environment for future generations. In addition to fighting the use of rBGH and adopting the rBGH labeling law, Rural Vermont has led the fight against corporate farm proliferation and the planting of GE crops in the state. Rural Vermont has expanded its advocacy for community access to good, affordable healthcare and to help farmers benefit from the Vermont's state Hemp program.

Founded in 1997, the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) was formed to address the absence of women’s voices in agricultural policy in the US and abroad. WFAN sees women and non-binary people as champions of healthy food and farming systems, food justice, and food sovereignty within their own communities, and have a mission to engage women and non-binary people in building an ecological and just food and agricultural system through individual and community power.