 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
News and Press Releases
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FLAG HomeWays to Support FLAG
News & Alerts Litigation Special Sections Publications About FLAG Links Search:
|
New Report Says Federal Policies Discourage Farmers from Growing Fruits and Vegetables (8/3/10) Farmers’ Legal Action Group Calls on Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to Reinstate Shirley Sherrod (7/21/10) (Direct marketing from the farm) will be the topic for a field day discussion held at Seven Story Farm in southwestern Scott County, MN, on Tuesday, July 20 from 5:00 - 7:00 pm. Susan E. Stokes, FLAG's Executive Director, will talk to farmers about marketing directly to schools. Vegetables, Tension grow on Hmong-American Farm (PDF) by Laura Yuen, Minnesota Public Radio (July 9, 2010) view article on MPR website "Support Your Local Hmong Farmer" Commentary by Ly Vang, Executive Director, Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota; and Susan E. Stokes, Executive Director, Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (Star Tribune, June 30, 2010) Stronger Regulation and Enforcement Needed for Poultry Industry (5/21/10) Overview of Leasing Farm Land in Minnesota (5/18/10) New Fact Sheet on SURE-The Standing Crop Disaster Program (2/22/10) New Risk Management and Disaster Guides Available (11/17/09) USDA Announces FLAG Beginning Farmer Grant (11/3/09) Shirley Sherrod and Betty Bailey Receive FLAG’s Family Farm Champion Award (10/26/09) SAVE THE DATE: 5th Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference (10/7/09) News and Press Release Archive News Release Contact: New Report Says Federal Policies Discourage Farmers from Growing Fruits and Vegetables ST. PAUL, MINN., August 3, 2010 — Federal policies discourage farmers from producing and marketing fruits and vegetables, according to a report released today by Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG). As a result of administering farm commodity programs for many years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has developed a rich body of knowledge about historical yields and prices for crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton. This information enables the federal government and private businesses to offer loans and financing, as well as crop insurance and other risk-management tools, to farmers producing commodity crops. However, similar yield and pricing information has not been collected for fruits and vegetables, and this lack of information poses a problem—especially for farmers who market their fruits and vegetables directly to retailers and consumers, rather than to wholesalers. Farmers who direct market tend to use a business model that relies on higher prices and lower volumes, but federal programs are based on farm business models that rely on lower prices and higher volumes.
The report, Planting the Seeds for Public Health: How the Farm Bill Can Help Farmers to Produce and Distribute Healthy Foods, offers a legal analysis of the 2008 Farm Bill and explains key agriculture and nutrition programs that were enacted into law. The report was commissioned by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Key findings include:
In addition to providing policy recommendations to help farmers grow and distribute fruits and vegetables, the report emphasizes that many of the recommended changes could be made by the USDA without the need for additional direction from Congress. However, if such policy changes do not occur, Congress will need to make changes in the reauthorization of the Farm Bill. The report also recommends that Congress and USDA explore possible changes to planting restrictions, which prohibit farmers from planting fruits and vegetables on land that is enrolled in the commodity program. It further recommends that farmers work with public health leaders and consumer advocates to make sure demand for fruits and vegetables will keep pace with the increasing supply. The report can be downloaded at no charge from FLAG’s Web site. A bound copy of the book is available for $20 plus shipping and handling, and orders may be placed by calling FLAG’s office at 651-223-5400 or by visiting the FLAG Web site. Orders also may be placed directly with FLAG’s online publisher, www.lulu.com. ### About Farmers’ Legal Action Group About Healthy Eating Research News Release Contact: Farmers’ Legal Action Group Calls on Agriculture Secretary Vilsack to Reinstate Shirley Sherrod ST. PAUL, MINN. — Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG) today called on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to immediately reinstate Shirley Sherrod to her position as Georgia State Director of USDA Rural Development. Ms. Sherrod was forced by the Secretary to resign after right wing extremists released a selective and misleading excerpt of a speech she gave to the NAACP earlier this year. “For the Secretary to call for Shirley Sherrod’s resignation before he had all the facts was wrong. The point she was making in her speech was in fact the opposite of racist; she was saying that her life’s lessons taught her that race does not matter – poor people are poor and without power, regardless of race,” said FLAG’s Executive Director, Susan E. Stokes. Ms. Sherrod was a member of FLAG’s Board from 1994 until last September, when she resigned due to her new position with USDA Rural Development. She served as FLAG’s Board President from 1995 to 2001. During Ms. Sherrod’s tenure on FLAG’s Board, FLAG provided legal and technical assistance to thousands of family farmers of all races across the country. In addition, FLAG provided legal and technical assistance to Ms. Sherrod and the many farmers she served while at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives. FLAG’s Board President, Lois Wood, added: “For decades, Shirley Sherrod has worked tirelessly on behalf of family farmers, regardless of their race. No one was more zealous or competent than Ms. Sherrod in her mission to help keep family farmers on the land.” At its annual meeting in October 2009, FLAG presented Ms. Sherrod with FLAG’s Family Farm Champion Award. In a letter sent to Secretary Vilsack earlier this morning, FLAG called on the Secretary to immediately reinstate Ms. Sherrod so that she can get back to the work of helping Georgia’s rural poor. Georgia has the 15th highest poverty rate in the United States. View Letter to Secretary Vilsack Direct Marketing From the Farm Direct marketing from the farm will be the topic for a July 20th field day walk-n-talk held at Seven Agenda:
Directions:
Contact for this event: Jeff Jensen – Rural Advantage, 507-238-5449 jeff@ruraladvantage.org Copyright 2010 The Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch. Some rights reserved View article on SleepyEyeNews.com Support Your Local Hmong Farmer If you walk through the emerging bounty of your local farmers market this weekend -- the season's first local strawberries seem to be arriving ahead of schedule -- remember this: The two of us have spent much of the past week in police stations and in District Court processing orders of protection for Hmong-American fruit and vegetable farmers who were threatened by a neighbor. It is important for our region to know that the many Hmong-American farmers who bring so much wonderful, fresh food to our markets are living enormously challenging lives. Most of us know the basic story of the Hmong -- people who fought on the side of the United States in Vietnam; survived squalid jungle refugee camps; immigrated by the thousands to places such as Minnesota, Michigan, and California; built productive lives for themselves and their families, and, in huge numbers, reclaimed their traditions in farming. Probably half of the vegetable and fruit vendors at the main Minneapolis and St. Paul farmers markets are now Hmong Americans. It is an inspiring true history. But there is a more complex and less idyllic story about these new Minnesotans, one that those of us who work with or among them have not done enough to share. Hmong-American farmers -- bountiful producers, icons of the enlivening impact of immigration in our state -- nonetheless live every day with misunderstandings, suspicions, and even dangers. An incident last week in Eagan is an extreme example. A man confronted a Hmong-American couple working in their field, which is adjacent to his land. He was agitated; their English wasn't great. He said he was going to kill them, and then left and returned with a loaded shotgun, according to the farmers. The farmers called us; we called the police. The man was arrested and charged with a felony, making terroristic threats, and we ultimately acquired an order for protection for 43 Hmong-American farmers who are growing vegetables on the farmland that borders that man's neighborhood. In less dramatic ways, Hmong-American farmers often feel unsafe as they farm in their fields on the edges of the metro region. They get suspicious looks or a slow drive-by on the road. Police officers -- sometimes on patrol, and sometimes in response to neighbors' calls -- visit Hmong American farmers to ask if they are legally working their land. "Do you belong here?" seems to be the most common question. Such moments are difficult for immigrants who fled a country where the police were feared, and who, in any case, almost always lack a signed lease. (Like most farmers in Minnesota, they rent their land based on a handshake.) The fresh fruits and vegetables lining the tables of our farmers markets do not arrive by magic. Much of the produce is raised by Hmong Americans from the Twin Cities who commute out to fragmented plots of rental land they've cobbled together on the edges of the metro region. Farming is almost always a second or even third job. Many Hmong-American people work on the land late into the evening, or before dawn, or before and after they go to their day jobs. It is not uncommon for Hmong American farmers to sleep on their rented land overnight -- not because they don't have a home, but because they don't have the time to return to their homes between their jobs and their farming. This information is not offered by way of complaint. Most people who are new to this country -- and many who have been here for years -- work extraordinarily hard in difficult circumstances to raise their families and launch their kids into the world. But we should know where our food comes from and how it gets to us. We want more people to know that those Asian people working at dusk among the tomatoes, basil, raspberries, beets, potatoes, melons, peppers and zucchini are getting ready for your local market. They wouldn't mind if you waved hello, rather than calling the police. Ly Vang is executive director of the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota. Susan E. Stokes is an attorney and executive director of Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. View commentary on Star Tribune website For Release: May 21, 2010 Stronger Regulation and Enforcement Needed for Poultry Industry ST. PAUL, MINN. — On the eve of an unprecedented joint hearing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Justice into competition in the poultry industry, the National Chicken Council released a commissioned report asserting that the chicken industry is a competitive and thriving sector with sufficient regulation to balance the interests of all parties. However, Farmers’ Legal Action Group, in conjunction with poultry growers and grower organizations, will submit comments to demonstrate that the poultry companies’ actions toward farmers that grow the companies’ birds on contract are fraught with unfair, deceptive, and unjustly discriminatory practices. FLAG and the poultry growers urge USDA and DOJ to take much more aggressive enforcement actions under the Packers and Stockyards Act to rein in the poultry companies in order to restore competition. The National Chicken Council report draws upon a study, Assessing the Impact of Integrator Practices, published by Farmers’ Legal Action Group. The 2001 study was a collaborative effort of agricultural economists, attorneys, and poultry growers and included the results of a survey of contract poultry growers conducted in 1999. The National Chicken Council report selectively discusses the survey results, attaching particular importance to one statement that “Getting into broiler growing has been a good decision for me,” which 75% of growers agreed with. The National Chicken Council report, however, omitted the responses to the question immediately following, in which only 35% of growers agreed that they “would encourage others to become broiler growers.” Jill Krueger, a senior staff attorney at Farmers’ Legal Action Group, believes that the disparity is not hard to understand. “Chicken growers like to grow chickens. They enjoy farming. That does not diminish their serious concerns about the structure of the industry and the power of the poultry companies which prevent them from recommending it to others.” The poultry growers’ concerns identified in the 1999 survey are myriad, including:
The 1999 survey was conducted during a time of relatively stable returns in the poultry industry, and comparatively good times for poultry growers. The growers’ concerns reported in the 1999 survey have only been heightened in the intervening decade, as growers faced much more significant negative net returns. The legal analysis in the 2001 report concluded that the short term nature of the contracts (often for just one eight-week flock grow-out period), and the lack of a commitment from the companies to the timing, nature, size, and number of flocks during longer term contracts are significant problems stemming from the disparity in bargaining power in the contractual relationship between the companies and the growers. Notes Krueger, “This is a problem because of the large capital investments that the growers make in facilities and equipment that can be used only to grow the companies’ birds and the threatened loss of the growers’ farms and homes if the company does not continue the contract. Moreover, the quality and timing of the primary inputs that account for level of the growers’ pay – from feed and chicks to the number of days growers are given to raise the birds and the number of days in between flocks – are almost entirely in the companies’ control.” Farmers’ Legal Action Group commends the Departments of Agriculture and Justice for their inquiry into the state of competition in agriculture in general, and the poultry industry in particular, and calls for quick and decisive action by the federal government to correct unfairness in the poultry industry. News Release Overview of Leasing Farm Land in Minnesota ST. PAUL, MINN. — On February 19, 2010, Susan E. Stokes, Executive Director of Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG), presented a workshop entitled “Leasing Farm Land in Minnesota” at the Fifth Immigrant and Minority Farmer Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. The presentation covered basic lease terms, landlord and tenant rights and obligations, merits of choosing verbal or written agreements, negotiating farm land leases, basic requirements for legally enforceable written leases, and brief notes regarding dispute resolution, payments, and potential problems. The presentation can be downloaded at no charge from FLAG's website. View Leasing Farm Land in Minnesota New Release New Fact Sheet on SURE-The Standing Crop Disaster Program ST. PAUL, MINN. - Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) announces the availability of a new fact sheet about the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program, or SURE. SURE is also known as the "standing disaster program" under the 2008 Farm Bill. SURE is a federal program to provide payments to farmers for crop disaster losses in the 2008 through 2011 crop years. The Farm Service Agency (FSA) published detailed rules for SURE on December 28, 2009. The fact sheet explains:
"SURE is a complicated program," says Jill Krueger, a FLAG senior staff attorney. "The fact sheet includes an overview of the most important questions farmers might have about whether they qualify for SURE benefits, and how to apply if they believe they are eligible. Many farmers may have heard that you must have crop insurance or NAP (Non-insured Crop Disaster Assistance Program) coverage for your crops in order to be eligible. The fact sheet explains that there are exceptions to this requirement. There are exceptions for farmers who paid the 'buy-in fee' for 2008 or 2009, and for limited resource farmers and ranchers, beginning farmers and ranchers, and farmers and ranchers of color." The fact sheet can be downloaded at no charge from FLAG's website, www.flaginc.org. Additional information about federal disaster assistance for farmers, including FLAG's detailed book, Farmers' Guide to Disaster Assistance, is also posted on the website. View SURE Program Now Available for 2008 and 2009 Crop Disaster Losses News Release New Risk Management and Disaster Guides Available ST. PAUL, MINN. - Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) has posted on its website a trove of new risk management and disaster publications for family farmers and farm advocates. These mini-guides to federal programs were prepared for a series of risk management trainings conducted this summer and fall, funded by the USDA's Risk Management Agency. The new publications, which are accessible without charge in the Publications section of FLAG's website, include these topics:
News Release USDA Announces FLAG Beginning Farmer Grant Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, in Elgin, Minnesota, today announced the award of more than $17 million in grants to 29 institutions – including Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) – to address the needs of beginning farmers and ranchers and enhance the sustainability and competitiveness of U.S. agriculture. Merrigan said, "The training and education provided through these grants will help ensure the success of the next generation of farmers and ranchers as they work to feed people in their local communities and throughout the world." View USDA News Release (PDF) News Release Shirley Sherrod and Betty Bailey Receive FLAG’s Family Farm Champion Award ST. PAUL, MINN. (October 26, 2009) – At a celebration dinner following its annual in-person Board meeting held last week in Albany, Georgia, Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG), honored Shirley Sherrod and Betty Bailey, two long-time Board members who recently retired from FLAG’s Board. Shirley Sherrod and Betty Bailey each received FLAG’s Family Farm Champion award for serving family farmers and rural communities as tireless advocates for justice during some of the toughest decades for smaller farms in the past 50 years.
The first recipients of FLAG’s Family Farm Champion award were Minnesota family farmers and leaders Anne Kanten and Lou Anne Kling, who were given the honor at FLAG’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2006. FLAG applauds these two remarkable women, Betty Bailey and Shirley Sherrod, for their hunger for justice, and for their courage, kindheartedness, and tenacity. And we wish them all the best in their future endeavors, as Betty and her husband enjoy their “retirement” by farming and selling their produce in and around Durham, NC; and as Shirley serves as Georgia Director for Rural Development by appointment of USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. For Release: March 16, 2009 Farmers Urged to Learn about GMOs Before Planting 2009 Crops ST. PAUL, MINN. — Farmers who plant seeds that have been genetically modified (GMOs) need to understand the serious legal risks and implications of using those seeds, says Farmers’ Guide to GMOs, just released in its updated second edition by Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG). Whether farmers grow GMOs, conventional seeds, or are certified organic, the use of GMOs in commercial agriculture can affect operations and have costly legal ramifications. GMO contamination is one of the primary GMO-related problems. “In a world of widespread production of GMO crops, what one farmer plants may seriously affect all of his neighbors’ crops. Certain crops, such as corn and canola, cross-pollinate, causing genetic material to migrate,” said attorney Lynn Hayes, author of the updated edition of the Guide. “Farmers may be unable to market contaminated non-GMO crops, and GMO growers may face liability for unintentional contamination of their neighbors’ crops.” Hayes said farmers assume significant obligations and legal liabilities when they sign GMO contracts—or even open a bag of GMO seeds. “Common obligations include how and where to plant, including creating ‛refuges’ of non-pest-resistant varieties; giving up the right to save seed; opening up their fields and all records—including filings usually subject to the Privacy Act—to inspections; and agreeing to specified remedies if the farmer violates the agreement.” In most cases, saving seed—an age-old practice among farmers—is prohibited as to GMOs, and there are stiff penalties for doing so. “Farmers may not save seed containing ‛patented’ genes resulting from accidental cross-pollination from a neighboring GMO group or any other source,” Hayes said. Farmers are urged to know all of the legal implications of planting genetically modified seeds before they plant. The Guide can be downloaded (1,064 KB) at no charge from FLAG’s website at www.flaginc.org (under “Publications”). A bound copy of the book is available without cost to financially distressed Minnesota farmers by calling 1-877-860-4349; for other persons, the charge is $18 per book, plus shipping. Orders can be placed by calling FLAG’s office at 651-223-5400, or by ordering directly from the publisher through FLAG’s website. The book is also available on CD for $5. FLAG is a nonprofit law center dedicated to providing legal services to family farmers and their rural communities to help keep family farmers on the land. This updated Farmers’ Guide to GMOs was made possible with financial support from the CornerStone Campaign, Patagonia, Inc., and The John Merck Fund. View the Farmers' Guide to GMOs For More Information: Ly Vang, 651-255-0799 or 4th Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference on Friday and Saturday, March 20-21, 2009, in St. Paul, MN St. Paul—The Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, Minnesota Food Association, and USDA-Farm Service Agency will jointly co-host the 4th Minority and Immigrant Farming Conference on March 20-21,2009 at The Wilder Foundation’s Auditorium on 451 South Lexington Parkway at the corner of University Avenue in St. Paul, MN. The conference theme is “Helping To Grow Profits On Your Small Farm.” Farmers’ Legal Action Group is one of the conference’s sponsors. The two-day conference will focus on important topics for the farmers that include knowing your production costs, composting, transitioning to organic farming, managing agricultural risks, food safety, marketing, Farm Bill and policy, and applying for grants and loans. According to survey results conducted by the University of Minnesota, the major barriers for success in farming for minority vegetable growers in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area are: lack of farming skills and knowledge, access to and knowledge of markets, and language and cultural barriers. The upcoming conference provides opportunities for the betterment of minority and underserved farmers that have the greatest needs for sustained successes in their small farm operations. The 2007 Census of Agriculture shows that immigrants are among the fastest growing sector of farmers today. Immigrant farmers are passionate about and experienced in agriculture, and have shaped the character of U.S. agriculture throughout American history. While the number of farms in our country has been declining since WWII, the census now shows a leveling of this trend which can be accredited to the increasing numbers of immigrant farmers across all demographic groups. Immigrant farmers are diverse in terms of country of origin, where they live, what they produce and how they sell. By supporting these new and aspiring farmers, we not only will ensure that there will be adequate supply of local foods available in our communities, but also contribute to local economic development and healthy communities. The conference will be interpreted into Laotian, Hmong, Spanish, Karen and Cambodian languages. The conference hosts invite farmers of any language to register. Interested participants please call the hosts with translation or other needs. The training conference is intended to foster partnerships between non governmental community based organizations, MDA, and the USDA Agencies to assist minority, limited resources and underserved farmers in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. The deadline to signup is Monday, March 9, 2008. Registration is on line at www.mnfoodassociation.org;
Interested farmers and CBOs can register online at or by calling MFA at 651-433-3676, or the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota at FLAG Memo Effect of the White House Hold on Administrative Agency Rulemaking on 2008 Farm Bill Implementation and Other Recent Rules Affecting Farmers On January 20, 2009, the Obama administration directed the heads of all federal departments and agencies to put a hold on further rulemaking until an appointee or designee of the new administration has had an opportunity to review and approve any new rule. This memo attempts to address questions we have had regarding the impact this hold will have on 2008 Farm Bill implementation and some other significant rulemaking affecting farmers. What the White House Directive Says
The rulemaking hold does not apply to rules subject to statutory or judicial deadlines. There are also exceptions for rules affecting critical health, safety, environmental, financial, or national security functions, but the need for an exception has to be reviewed by the OMB Director and is not entirely up to the agency head. Effect on 2008 Farm Bill Implementation and Other Rulemaking of Interest to Farmers As you will see in the table, almost every rule reviewed took effect before January 20, 2009, and therefore would not be affected by the rulemaking hold in the White House directive. Two rules took effect on January 20, 2009, and their status is not certain, but it seems likely that they would also be considered to have taken effect before the directive was issued. A proposed rule affecting animal identification numbers and premises identification numbers was issued on January 13, with a comment deadline of March 16, 2009. It seems likely that this rule will not be affected by the White House directive because, as a proposed rule, it does not have an “effective date” and because the public comment period already extends more than 30 days past the date of the directive. Of particular note, the final rule for country-of-origin labeling (COOL) was issued on January 15 and is to take effect on March 16. Under the White House directive, AMS must consider postponing the effective date of this rule for another 60 days beyond March 16 and, if the effective date is postponed, must re-open the comment period for another 30 days. Note that the interim rule for COOL, which took effect on September 30, 2008, will remain in place until the final rule is adopted. How to Have an Impact For rules that are still in the works – for example, rules implementing the remaining 2008 Farm Bill provisions and follow-up on proposed rules whose comment periods are long over – it seems that this regulatory review initiative by the new administration is an opportunity to revisit previous advocacy efforts. Even if the comment period for an interim or proposed rule has passed, it could be worthwhile making contact with the agency, either to advocate directly or to push for a re-opening of the public comment period. For example, on January 26, Secretary Vilsack announced that he would be extending for another 60 days the comment period for the interim rule on payment limitations; the comment period was scheduled to end on January 28. This interim rule was already effective on January 20, so Secretary Vilsack’s action extending the comment period was on his own initiative and was not required by the White House directive. View: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thank you for visiting FLAG's web site. Please note that the information located on this site is not intended to provide specific legal advice. You should consult an attorney and not rely on any information contained herein regarding your specific situation. 
Special SectionsDisaster | Shared Appreciation | Federal Register
Comments to Rules | FSA News & Notices | Contracts LitigationDisclaimer | Privacy Statement Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. © 1997-2010, Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shirley Sherrod, who recently was named USDA Rural Development Georgia State Director, has dedicated her life to social justice. Shirley and her husband, Charles, are icons of the civil rights movement, having led the Albany movement since the early 1960s. Shirley worked on behalf of small and limited resource farmers throughout Georgia at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives since 1985, and was a fellow under the prestigious Kellogg National Fellowship program. In 2000, she helped launch the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, which now is working to improve the lives and communities of women in 77 counties throughout Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi. Shirley joined FLAG’s Board in 1994, and served as its President from 1995 to 2001.
Betty Bailey joined FLAG’s Board in 1997 and served as its President from 2001 to 2005. Betty, who comes from a farm family, has worked with family farmers her entire life. From 1982 to 1990, she directed the Farm Survival Project, which provided assistance to farm communities in 83 Carolina counties. She is a founder of the 50-organization member Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, and served as the Executive Director of Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA from 1990 until her “retirement” to full-time farming earlier this year. 
Susan Stokes, Executive Director of FLAG, thanked Ms. Sherrod and Ms. Bailey for their decades of service to those who have struggled to earn a living off the land. “We have been incredibly blessed that these extraordinary women have for so long shared with us their wisdom and talents gained from a lifetime of organizing and working on behalf of family farmers and social justice. We can’t think of two people more deserving of the title of Family Farm Champion.” 
Join Email List
