National Young Farmers Coalition

Field and National organizing: the Coalition organizes a grassroots network of Farmers, rancers, and supporters fighting for a more bright and just future for agriculture, in 2022, the Coalition published a new report, building a future with Farmers 2022: results and recommendations from the National Young farmer survey. The report collates data from the National Young farmer survey that reached 10,000 Farmers, and shares the voices of a generation of Young Farmers who are working hard to feed their communities despite the significant challenges they face, including access to land and capital, student loan debt, access to healthcare, affordable housing, and the increasing impacts of climate change. The survey report is accompanied by the 2022 Young farmer agenda, a comprehensive policy platform which translates Young Farmers' needs into a vision for the 2023 farm bill.to support farmer leadership and advocacy in the 2023 farm bill, the Coalition launched the National land advocacy fellowship, designed to build the skills of a black, indiginous and people of color (bipoc) majority cohort of 100 farmer leaders from across the country and advance bold land access policy. In addition, to support Young Farmers leaders in water advocacy, the Coalition completed the new mexico water fellowship and launched the 2022 Colorado water fellowship, engaging 20 farmer fellows in the Colorado river basin.in 2022, the Coalition laid the groundwork for more intentional and deeper engagement of its network including redesigning the chapter model, supporting 45 chapters in 31 states. The Coalition also created a new membership structure, including more accessible community memberships, reaching nearly 3,000 dues-paying members.

Farmer mental health: the farmer and rancher stress assistance network (frsan-northeast), rebranded in 2022 to cultivemos, is building an inclusive network of service providers dedicated to advancing the mental, emotional, social, and financial well-being of agricultural producers, workers, and their families in the northeast. Cultivemos is a partnership led by National Young Farmers Coalition, university of Maine cooperative extention, migrant clinicians network, northeast Farmers of color land trust, farm first, and farm aid. The network includes a focus on service providers working with farmworkers, Young Farmers, and under-resourced Farmers, in particular, black, indigenous, and people of color (bipoc) Farmers becasue these producers face unique challenges with more limited access to services. In 2022, cultivemos reached 153 individual members, representing 91 organizations. Together, they expanded the available stress assistance resources to Farmers in the northeast, including a farmer hotline and an online search tool, the farmer resource network (frn). Cultivemos held over 24 trainings related to farmer mental health in 2022, reaching 500 total participants. Cultivemos distributed over $530,000 to network members for participation in network activities and cohorts of agriultural service providers to conduct projects to address the root causes of farmer stress.

Policy campaigns and land: the Coalition works to advocate for policies that address the structural challenges preventing Young people from succeeding in farming, such as access to land, credit, skilled labor, climate challenges, racial injustice, and student loan debt. The release of the 2022 Young farmer survey and Young farmer agenda addressed these and other challenges faced by Young Farmers and identified solutions that will drive the Coalition's advocacy for the 2023 farm bill. In 2022, the Coalition embarked on the one million acres for the future campaign, which seeks to win a historic investment in equitable land transition for Young Farmers and Farmers of color through the 2023 farm bill. In support of this campaign, the Coalition successfully advocated for the usda increasing land, capital and markets program, which made $300 million available for community-led land access projects.to expand access to farm service agency (fsa) programs, in 2022, the Coalition entered a five-year cooperative agreement with the usda to provide technical assistance to Young bipoc Farmers in accessing fsa programs, to addr4ess long-standing systemic discremination and establish more equitable access to the usda for Farmers and marginalized in the food system.