MOFGA's Equity and Justice Work
Organizational Mission and Vision
MOFGA’s vision is a future where local organic farming nourishes all people, and sustains thriving ecosystems, healthy communities, and fair economies. We’ll accomplish this through our mission to transform our food system by supporting farmers, empowering people to feed their communities, and advocating for an organic future.
Agricultural systems in the U.S. over the last several hundred years have been built on unceded Indigenous lands, and exploitation from enslavement and forced labor. Ancestral and cultural knowledge has been co-opted for the benefit of dominant agricultural systems from Black, Indigenous and each new community that has made its way to the U.S. throughout our shared history.
Our organization must be fully aware of the history of agriculture, and our role in these systems, in order to work towards our vision of a healthy and fair food system for all.
Our key strategies for achieving this vision are as follows. These strategies are integrated into all staff members’ work and are guided by MOFGA’s equity stewardship team as well as community accountability partners and external training.
- Empower and engage communities to shift power to transform the food system.
We trust that communities can best determine their own needs and develop equitable food systems. We will help create the conditions that are necessary for the change they aim to achieve (includes leadership opportunities and opportunities for rest and connection, safe spaces for learning).
- Find common ground to collaborate and share resources.
We are all eaters; a healthy food system for all involves everyone! We know that we can have the most impact by collaborating with other organizations, agencies, institutions, communities, and individuals.
- Center relationships and lived experiences especially of those historically and currently harmed in our food systems.
We listen and learn to provide more holistic support, accessibility, and representation.
- Respond to community needs.
We actively seek community voices and input in our programs as we adapt to changing landscapes (participatory, explore possibilities iteratively, and empower staff to navigate systems). Engage with language justice teams to reach a broader audience.
- Operate within a framework of abundance and resiliency.
When we work together, we are all stronger. We believe that the resources we share are not finite and that resource availability can expand as our community expands.
- Celebrate the process by which change occurs in addition to what is achieved.
- Support ongoing programming iteration. Monitor, evaluate, research, and learn in an interactive process for evaluating our work and shifting activities to meet our objectives.
More About MOFGA's Equity Platform
Organizations Invested in this Work
We are grateful for the ongoing and dedicated work of many other organizations and businesses and commit to using our platforms to raise up organizations led by those most impacted by systemic racism, colonization and other systems of oppression. Here are some other organizations and food and agriculture businesses that are working in our region and invested in this work. We recommend those interested in learning and engaging more check out and support:
Would you like to be added to this list? Send a note to [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some questions we have been asked and our responses at this time. We want to learn and listen with you and welcome additional questions and feedback from our community. Send questions and comments to [email protected].
Why is MOFGA spending so much time and energy working on diversity, equity and inclusion when it is an agricultural organization? How is this related?
As an agricultural organization, MOFGA is working to create a food system that is just and equitable for all. As part of MOFGA’s vision for the future everybody has access to healthy, culturally appropriate food and that power is more evenly distributed within the food system. We understand the U.S. food system — both historically and present-day — to be rooted in extractive systems including enslavement, land theft, and chemical-based agriculture. Therefore conversations of equity and justice are intrinsically linked to our mission as an agricultural organization. Economically, environmentally and socially sustainable farms are a permanent fixture of the community, and in order to support sustainability we must learn from and work to address inequities in the food system.
I don’t see inequities in the food system. Can you prove this is an issue?
As a place to begin learning, we offer the following resources and examples of how the white dominant culture impacts marginalized communities.
- “Dismantling Racism in the Food System” — An article from FoodFirst that offers an overview of racism in the food system.
- Milk With Dignity Campaign — This video from Migrant Justice describes the Milk With Dignity Campaign, which builds a movement of farmworkers and allies calling on dairy companies to ensure respect for human rights in their supply chains by joining the worker-driven Milk with Dignity Program.
- Leah Penniman’s keynote address at the 2020 Common Ground Country Fair — Leah Penniman discusses how some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices, from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative to the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, have roots in African wisdom – yet discrimination and violence against African-American and Black farmers have led to their decline from 14% of all growers in 1920 to less than 2% today, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land.
- What Happened to all the Black Farmers? — This video from NBC Left Field explores Black land loss in the United States through the perspective of sugar cane farmer June Provost, Jr. and the Pigford v. Glickman lawsuit that found discriminatory practices in the USDA.
- Winona LaDuke’s keynote address at the 2020 Common Ground Country Fair — Learn about LaDuke’s current project, Anishinaabe Agriculture, which is working to relocalize a food economy, to restore traditional food varieties that can adapt in a time of climate change and to create a hemp economy. The project is building a regional Indigenous and local food system based on transitioning away from fossil fuel economics and back to a restorative economy and farming system. Anishinaabe Agriculture focuses on Indigenous varieties of corn, beans, squash, potatoes, perennials, tobacco and hemp. Recognizing the instability of globalized food systems, the project is working to deepen its food work in the community and toward relocalizing a food economy.
How do I get involved?
This list of organizations led by BIPOC and other marginalized communities is a great resource for furthering your engagement. MOFGA also hosts events and facilitates discussions about anti-racism work and agriculture. Check out our events calendar for upcoming opportunities.
