Harvesting Hope

Fall 2023

Harvesting Hope

From the Editor

Dear Friends,

We’ve had a busy summer here at RAFI and thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many of you at site visits, conferences, farmers markets, work days, and online during webinars.

Creating this magazine is a labor of love for RAFI staff. As you can see from the number of staff writers and contributors, we enjoy sharing our knowledge, experience, and connections to help farmers and their advocates grow and prosper. We hope Living Roots provides you with some food for thought, opportunities, and access to resources.

We would really love to hear from you. What you like about the magazine, what you wish we would include, a suggestion of something you might contribute — we are open to your feedback and hope you will take us up on it. It’s easy! Email [email protected] or text us at 800.513.2803 (text only/no calls).

With best wishes for a continuing successful harvest,

Beth Andrachick Hauptle

RAFI Senior Communications Manager

United we Grow

by Carolina Alzate Gouzy, Jaimie McGirt, and Angel Woodrum
Across generations, farming communities have relied on shared labor, trust, and reciprocity to survive — principles that live on today in agricultural cooperatives. RAFI profiles three active cooperatives that are navigating the highs and lows of joining forces on the farm. 
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Harvesting Hope

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What would it look like for faith communities to be in sustainable, mutually beneficial, and practical relationships with farmers? RAFI's Farm and Faith Partnerships Project pairs churches with local farmers of color to create community supported agriculture programs aimed at strengthening local food systems.
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Nurturing a Neighborhood

by Mary Saunders Bulan
M. Dominique Villanueva runs Fountain Heights Farm in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband Christopher Gooden. The farm has blossomed from their front yard garden to five city lots, producing thousands of pounds of food annually.
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Keep It Covered

by Mary Saunders Bulan
Cover crops build soil health by reducing compaction, improving water infiltration, preventing erosion, fixing nitrogen, adding organic matter, suppressing weeds, and feeding beneficial microbes. Learn more about cover crop benefits and planning.
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Grocery Goliaths

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Local and regional farmers once relied on independent grocery stores to market their products. But as massive corporate grocery chains tighten their stranglehold on the market, how can these local stores — and the farmers they source from — stay afloat?
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Q & A

From Soil to Supper

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Feast Down East is a nonprofit organization based in Wilmington, NC, offering farmer support, hunger relief programs, and a food hub distribution program. The organization partners with local farmers to purchase food which is distributed to the community via its mobile farmers market, food hub, and Emergency Food Relief Program. Learn more about the food hub in this Q&A with FTE Operations Manager, JT Crawford.
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Field and Feast

Book Review — The Farmer's Lawyer

by Jennifer Fahey
Sarah Vogel’s The Farmers Lawyer: The North Dakota Nine and the Fight to Save the Family Farm is essential reading for farmers and farm advocates. This true story of a young attorney and her lawsuit on behalf of farm families is many things: a compelling memoir; an important history lesson; a crash course in law; an epic David vs. Goliath struggle; and a warning for us all about the challenges farmers continue to face that threaten their very existence.
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