Oregon Farmers Market Association 2020 Census Results

Oregon Farmers Market Association recently released results from its 2020 census of farmers markets in a webinar titled “What Happened at Oregon Farmers Markets in 2020.” This presentation holds interesting stats about sales, attendance, and vendor level trends. It also dives into subjects like how Oregon farmers markets responded to COVID-19, widespread wildfires, and calls for racial justice in their communities during 2020.

Click the image below to watch a recording of the webinar.

Access the full presenter slides here.

Podcast: Food X Design, An Equitable Food System

This podcast episode of Food X Design (an IDEO Podcast) digs into the decades of intentional policies that have created today’s inequitable food system. Plus, why language matters when talking about the challenges we face, and how agency is key to creating new food systems that work for Black, Indigenous and People of Color.

Measuring Racial Equity in the Food System: Established and Suggested Metrics

From the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems.

This tool offers an expansive list of metrics that U.S. food system practitioners and food movement organizations can use to hold ourselves accountable for progress towards a more equitable food system. The metrics are either currently in use or are recommended by food system practitioners and food movement organizations in the United States. They are described, cited, and organized by themes: food access, food and farm business, food chain labor, and food movement.

Includes a PDF Guide and link to a webinar introduction to the guide.

Soul Fire Farm: Food Sovereignty Action Steps

“If we are not acting to change the system, we are complicit, casting our silent vote to maintain the status quo.” The following food sovereignty action steps were compiled by the Soul Fire Farm community and Northeast Farmers of Color Alliance.

It is divided into seven sections #1 Policy Platform, #2 Individual Actions, #3 Reparations, #4 Alliance Building, #5 Internal Organizational Transformation, #6 Grantmaking and Funding, and #7 Self-Reflection and Education. This document is designed for anyone who has ever asked, “How can I help make the food system more just?”

Young Farmers Racial Equity Toolkit

This toolkit is a starting point. It aims to orient and incite members toward preliminary consciousness-raising and direct action. This toolkit does not detail a universally applicable pathway toward resolving pervasive racialized oppression; it is an initial resource for people who are overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of the problem, and need help determining how to start dismantling racism in their communities.

The Management Center: Equity and Inclusion

How to talk about what’s going on with your team

“Acknowledge to your whole team what’s happening and why it matters. If there’s one lesson we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s that who we are outside of work can’t be separated from who we are at work. And yet, many of us have mastered the art of compartmentalization. Sometimes, our privilege enables us to set aside horrific news and go about our days as usual. Often, compartmentalization is a survival mechanism. And for many Black staff, managers, and leaders, it is a suffocating performance of professionalism. As a leader or manager (especially if you’re not Black), merely naming what’s happening can help lift the burden of pretending that everything is okay.”

HEAL Food Alliance Webinar: Sowing the Seeds of Liberation

US agriculture’s roots in colonization and enslavement mean that Black and Indigenous and communities of color still have limited access to capital, financial support, and markets—this is changing, slowly but surely, thanks to the work of food and farm organizations, leaders and communities that are dismantling racism and white supremacy, and imagining alternate ways to be in relationship with land, nature and each other. Hear from some of these leaders and HEAL members in this webinar!

Dismantling Racism Works Web Workbook

This website is a web-based version of a workbook designed originally to support the Dismantling Racism workshop offered by Dismantling Racism Works, a training collaborative that is not offering workshops or consulting support at this time. The workshop was one step in a longer process developed initially by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun over three decades ago. It builds on the work of many people, including (but not limited to) Andrea Ayvazian, Cynthia Brown, Bree Carlson, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Eli Dueker, Nancy Emond, Jonathan Henderson, Vivette Jeffries-Logan, Michelle Johnson, Jonn Lunsford, Jes Kelley, Sharon Martinas, jona olsson, Suzanne Plihcik, Christina Rivera-Chapman, David Rogers, James Williams, Sally Yee, as well as the work of the Peace Development Fund, Grassroots Leadership, Equity Institute Inc, the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, the Challenging White Supremacy workshop, the Lillie Allen Institute, the Western States Center, and the contributions of the many participants in the DR workshops over so many years. Many people’s thinking and experience have contributed to the resources you will find here.

Leveling the Fields: Creating Farming Opportunities for Black People, Indigenous People, and Other People of Color

Farming offers a powerful path to build community wealth and resilience to challenges such as water pollution, droughts and floods, and lack of access to healthy food. However, US agriculture—particularly the pursuit of sustainable agriculture—is rife with obstacles for Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color (BIPOC), including immigrants, migrants, and refugees. These obstacles include difficulty securing capital, credit, land, infrastructure, and information. For these groups, such challenges are compounded by longstanding structural and institutional racism. We review opportunities for governments, the private sector, philanthropies, and others to contribute to simultaneously building socioeconomic equity and sustainability in US food systems. To begin overcoming the history of racist policies and exclusion, it is our primary recommendation that solutions be developed by and with—rather than for—Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color.

Tent Talk Podcast: Farmers Market Pros speak up

On this week’s episode, Tent Talk co-hosts have an important conversation about the civil unrest taking place in many parts of the country and what that means for farmers markets.

“Farmers market people are people who do things. Let’s band together. Let’s work for change.”

– Catt Fields White, founder of Farmers Market Pros

Black Lives Matter.