Jim Goodman, NFFC Board President

As people face empty grocery shelves during the COVID-19 crisis, and as farmers are forced to destroy their own crops, the fragility and instability of our highly consolidated industrial food system has become even clearer.

Throughout our history, NFFC has been shedding light on these flaws and working with family farmers to find solutions.

Since 1986 we’ve been advocating for farmer rights, fair prices, clean air and water, and strong local economies. We’ve been fighting for the right to sell and buy locally-grown and processed food, the right to be free from corporate domination, and the right to live in vibrant and healthy communities.

Food shortages during this COVID-19 pandemic reinforce our long-standing vision for a better society and a better food system.The pandemic has revealed the failures of our consolidated food system, or what we call “normal.” We just can’t return to “normal”, because “normal” hasn’t been working.

What we called “normal” is a system that lacks the resiliency to shift supply lines in order to fill those empty shelves, despite the abundance of food, such as milk, pork, poultry and beef.

So-called “normal” has not been providing fair wages to farmers and has treated workers throughout the food chain, often minorities and immigrants, as expendable. These are the workers who today are deemed “essential” and are expected to put their lives on the line to harvest, process, and deliver our food.

“Normal” has been led by agribusiness that has pushed small farmers off the land they have farmed for generations into marginal lands and wild areas, the latter forcing farmers to further compete with nature.

Our fate depends on whether or not we honor nature and pay farmers and all the workers who grow, process, and distribute our food fairly.

This is our work at NFFC. Our mission has never changed. And as long as these efforts are necessary, NFFC will keep fighting. We have always recognized that local communities can better provide for their food and nutrition needs. They offer shorter supply chains, fresher and more culturally appropriate food options, and fair prices for both farmers and consumers.

Thank you for considering a donation to support our work and our vision for a food future that is rooted in the principles of food sovereignty where indigenous communities can practice their food ways; farmers are paid for their real cost of producing our food; communities are fed and supported by local food producers; and, food workers are economically empowered and lead healthy lives with dignity.

Please join us in this fight, and donate to NFFC today