The National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) has worked diligently for the past three years to truly represent and serve our stakeholders: young, beginning, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) farmers. As such, we determined our collective organizational focus as shifting power and changing policy to equitably resource a new generation of working farmers. Since then, we maintained a singular focus: to transform agriculture through a decisive, national commitment to equitable land access for young farmers. We determined that we would achieve this mission through storytelling because young farmers, when adequately resourced and connected, are their own best advocates. We set our goal to achieve a $2.5 billion federal investment in equitable land access for young and BIPOC farmers, equating to one million acres of land made affordable and accessible to the next farming generation. Our 2022 survey of more than 10,000 young farmers found that accessing affordable land was the top issue young and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers face. And nearly half of all farmland in the United States will transition ownerships in the next two decades.
Since launching our One Million Acres for the Future campaign in November 2021, the Young Farmers’ team has been working hard to build power for our farmer leaders and to change federal policy—and we have started to see this work pay off! With the north star of land access in mind, we have made historic gains for young and BIPOC farmers, the most significant of which is a federal investment of $300 million towards equity-centric, community-led land access projects through the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Land, Capital, Market Access Program in 2022 that was a direct result of the efforts of Young Farmers and our partners. Recognizing the immense opportunity but lack of awareness and capacity on the ground, Young Farmers mobilized a rapid response with partner organizations and community groups to conduct outreach and offer grant writing support to organizations to ensure equitable access to the program. As a result of this effort, we:
- Supported 19 applications, the majority of which were submitted by BIPOC-led organizations, ultimately requesting over $130 million and involving 91 partner organizations across 30 states. 13 our of those 19 applicants have been awarded funds!
- Submitted a letter on behalf of 99 partners asking USDA to allow more time for equitable access to program funding. We received an extension of three weeks which was a game changer for organizations applying.
- Conducted outreach to 339 organizations to ensure program awareness and supported 92 organizations with technical assistance.
- Held over 100 in-district meetings focused on land access with key members of Congress, including multiple in-person farm tours and roundtable discussions;
- Held the largest-ever young farmer fly-in to D.C. in March 2023, where we conducted 155 meetings with members of Congress as well as with the USDA and the House and Senate Agriculture Committee staff;
- Coordinated with our partners to publish a land policy platform in English and Spanish;
- Engaged in multiple Congressional hearings, including supporting farmer Julia Asherman in delivering a powerful live statement to the House Agriculture Committee on the intersection of land access and finance. We also submitted comments to the House and Senate Agriculture committees on credit access, foreign ownership in agriculture, and national data gathering on farmland ownership;
