FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: https://www.youngfarmers.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Screen-Shot-2021-08-17-at-2.19.49-PM-2-1.png, Communications Director, National Young Farmers Coalition
press@youngfarmers.org, 518-643-3564 x 722

Washington, D.C. (May 13, 2021) – Yesterday, the National Young Farmers Coalition released a new resource for professionals in the food and agriculture sector, the Young Farmers Accountability Report. The report aims to share the overarching framework of the organization’s racial equity transformation, including goals, achievements, and missteps. Though Young Farmers’ equity transformation is still very much in progress, this may serve as a model for historically white organizations and institutions seeking to improve their service and accountability to Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) stakeholders.

“If we’re serious about lessening the impacts of systemic racism for Black and Brown people in agriculture, we have to re-evaluate and even reinvent the structures of mission-based work and organizations,” said report author and Equity and Organizational Change Director for the National Young Farmers Coalition, Michelle A.T. Hughes. “Investing in equity-centered processes affords us a creative and impactful framework to design, execute, and elevate our work.”

Featuring direct input from BIPOC farmers and BIPOC-led partner organizations, the Accountability Report details specific efforts that took place throughout 2020 that now shape the way the Coalition operates and makes decisions.

The Coalition is in the process of redefining its mission, vision, and guiding principles, revisiting its theory of change, and developing internal values that will help strengthen its culture through an intensive strategic planning process. The report is being utilized as a guiding document in the strategic planning process, which requires the organization to pause, reflect on, and evaluate their current progress towards embodying anti-racism. The development of a strategic plan informed directly by the first-hand accounts featured in the report will create space for Young Farmers equity work to expand by building stronger, more accountable relationships with BIPOC farmers and partners.

The report release will be accompanied by a series of webinars beginning June 23rd focused on facilitating deeper conversations about specific sections of the report including communications, operations, and grantmaking. The Coalition is also launching consulting services, which will provide partner organizations with assistance in implementing similar equity work and host space to workshop or troubleshoot a specific system, policy, or process.

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The National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) is a national grassroots network of young farmers fighting for a brighter, more equitable future for U.S. agriculture. Visit Young Farmers on the web at www.youngfarmers.org, and on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.