NEW Research: Selling Out the Delta

Our new report, "Selling Out the Delta", with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and researchers from UC Santa Cruz highlights the alarming and fast-rising trend of corporate land investment in the Mississippi Delta area - an area renowned for its fertile farmland.

Accessing affordable farmland is a huge barrier to millions of farmers in the US, with farmland prices the highest since the 1970s. Rampant, unregulated corporate land investment is fueling this fire. Corporations and wealthy individuals are pouring money into already-competitive farmland markets, lining their pockets at the expense of family farmers, especially Black farmers, in the region.

The report includes powerful quotes from Black farmers in the region about their experiences, as well as policy recommendations to limit corporate land investments in the 2023 Farm Bill.

Photo by Elsa Calderon

NFFC Joins Coming Clean Coalition Fly-In

On March 25, NFFC staff and members joined a Congressional lobby day hosted by Coming Clean urging legislators to prioritize community food sovereignty, farmworker protections, and reduced pesticide use in the 2023 Farm Bill reauthorization. We can achieve this agricultural system by addressing the harmful corporate control dominating our current agricultural system and supporting agroecological farming methods based on environmental and social justice.

Anthony Pahnke, VP of Family Farm Defenders, joined the meetings and said: "We know that small-scale farmers cool the planet. For this reason, we need to make sure our legislators craft a Farm Bill with adequate pricing provisions and that checks corporate power. Lawmakers need to seriously consider parity pricing policies, so that farmers do not feel pressure to overproduce and use chemicals to increase their yields."

Photo, from left to right: Jessica Swan (Agri-Cultura Network), Latrell Kaye (Agri-Cultura Network), Rep. Sharice Davids (D- KS), Antonio Tovar (National Family Farm Coalition), Jim Irby (Coming Clean)  

Stop the Kroger-Albertsons Merger!

A proposed $24.6 billion deal was announced last year by the two largest grocery chains in the US - Kroger and Albertsons. NFFC is proud to join the Stop the Merger Coalition, calling on the Biden administration and the Federal Trade Commission to keep their promises to ensure fair and open markets, and stop the Kroger-Albertsons merger as a clear anti-trust violation.

This merger would further tighten the chains’ hold on the grocery industry, threatening competition in an industry already difficult for independent stores to survive in, while limiting consumer choice and further shrinking farmers’ share of the food dollar. The US food system does not need more corporate consolidation!

Graphic by Stop the Merger

Stand in Solidarity!

April 17 is the International Day of Peasant Struggles

The International Day of Peasant Struggles is commemorated by La Via Campesina (LVC) annually on April 17 to remember the Eldorado do Carajás massacre in 1996 and highlight the continued criminalization, oppression and repression of peasants, workers, and indigenous people communities worldwide.

La Via Campesina is the global leader of the food sovereignty and peasant movements - NFFC participates as a member of LVC's North American region. Former NFFC President, George Naylor, contributed a blog outlining how global governance that follows LVC's example would lead to a food system that works for all peoples.

Graphic by La Via Campesina.