NFFC has been the primary family farm voice in the fight to secure fair trade policies since the negotiations of the North America Free Trade Agreement, which became effective January 1, 1994. From supplementing research to organizing rallies, protests and press conferences, NFFC has provided grassroots wisdom and leadership.

At what became known as the 'Battle of Seattle', NFFC joined several member organizations, La Via Campesina, AFL-CIO, Public Citizen and many others to protest meetings of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Third Ministerial Conference in November 1999. Our contingency disapproved of WTO's proposed enforcement of free trade rules that favored corporate interests over those of the environment, local governments, farmers and other workers - a message that has been repeated during free trade negotiations ever since.

NFFC also had a significant presence in Cancun and Miami during the 2003 negotiations of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement. As agriculture subsidies became the debate focus, other interest groups paid increasing attention to alternative agriculture solutions like those posed by NFFC, and the FTAA negotiations failed.

NFFC continues to play a significant role in defending the rights of family farmers and fishers through Via Campesina North American Region, and was recently invited to participate in the Civil Society Mechanism of the UN's Committee on World Food Security.

As an early proponent of fair farmer access to credit, NFFC co-authored this report on the credit conditions affecting farmers. It provided the basis of briefings with White House Domestic and Rural Policy Councils, and of policy proposals for 2012 Farm Bill credit title.

Following the 2007 Nyeleni Forum for Food Sovereignty, NFFC and allied members of the US Working Group on the Food Crisis founded the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. The Alliance lifts up grassroots fights for the rights to water, land, and food,  with several member organizations serving as strategic partners in NFFC's campaign to expose and end investments in US and Brazilian farmland by pension fund holder TIAA.

NFFC staff and farmers organized the April meeting where farmer John Bunting presented his white paper - Questioning the Future of Dairy Policy - assessing the sustainability of large dairy farms (more than 500 milking cows). This paper and meeting launched the Department of Justice investigation into price manipulation at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and extensive research by journalist Andrew Martin at the Chicago Tribune.

NFFC and member organization Iowa Citizens for Community Involvement led a successful two-year campaign to defeat Bush nominee Thomas Dorr for USDA Under Secretary of Rural Development.

NFFC used the Dorr nomination to highlight the damaging nature of Dorr's vision for the future of agriculture: increased corporate concentration, mega-farms, and opposition to sustainable agricultural initiatives, and to highlight our own policy alternatives. NFFC coordinated the nationwide grassroots opposition to Dorr's nomination, circulating sign-on letters endorsed by 190 different organizations, as well as action alerts that generated constituent calls, letters and email to Senators at key moments. NFFC Executive Committee members testified at the 2002 Senate Agriculture Committee confirmation hearing. To avoid a Senate floor nomination defeat, President Bush appointed Dorr to the USDA during the 2002 summer recess. The Senate finally defeated the Dorr nomination on November 18, 2003, when it voted against bringing the nomination to a floor vote. Despite this rejection, USDA appointed him to a Special Adviser position that did not require a hearing, in December 2003.

Through the Farmer Declaration on Genetic Engineering, released just prior to the 1999 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, NFFC rallied 34 farm organizations throughout the United States to protect the rights of farmers seeking to save their seeds and to purchase non genetically engineered, unpatented seeds. For the next 10 years, this broad-based campaign opposing the release of Monsanto's Roundup Ready genetically engineered crops gained media attention for farmer concerns about genetic engineering, disseminated information about their risks, and stopped the release of Monsanto's Roundup Ready wheat. The Campaign's Out of Hand Report, published December 2009, outlined the problems farmers have faced through concentration in the seed industry, including diminished options, higher costs, and the increased use of toxic herbicides.

NFFC's work with the Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) in 1996 helped achieve enactment of a new program providing $15 million in USDA matching grants for community food projects in the 1996 Farm Bill.

This program was extended in the 2002 Farm Bill and the government doubled its annual funding to $5 million annually. These projects enable communities to better provide for their food and nutrition needs, through mechanisms such as processing facilities, marketing strategies, farmers’ markets, and community gardens. CFSC developed a focus on rural food security, due in large part to NFFC's leadership.

In 2012, CFSC closed its doors and transferred its programs to other organizations.

NFFC worked with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, Land Loss Prevention Project, Rural Coalition, and several members of Congress to draft and pass the Minority Farmers Rights Act of 1990. This act materialized as the Section 2501 Program for Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers in the 1992 farm bill.

NFFC acted as the main force in securing reform of federal farm lending practices through the 1987 Agricultural Credit Act.

The law gave 70,000 farmers, many of whom faced foreclosure, the opportunity to refinance their debt and remain on their land. NFFC, in coordination with the Farmers Legal Action Group (FLAG), conducted a series of training sessions for farm leaders and advocates, provided tools to assist farmers with credit problems, and helped them secure their rights under the law. NFFC’s work in 1998 meant that tens of thousands of borrowers had their eligibility restored for Farm Service Agency loans and enabled more minority farmers to file discrimination claims against USDA due to the historic congressional waiver of the statute of limitations. NFFC has worked ever since to retain these important provisions and to force accountability of USDA at the national and field level in their implementation of credit laws, both access and servicing of the programs to all.