Rally for Resilience in DC

RAF Associate Director Ahna Kruzic traveled to Washington DC in early March to join hundreds of farmers and ranchers from across the United States to advocate for more resiliency in our food system. As climate change induces more severe weather events like floods and droughts, farms that can withstand these shocks will be more important than ever. Healthy soils increase the water-holding capacity of farm fields and can serve as a buffer to extreme weather events. Regenerative farming practices tend to build soils and provide greater resiliency. 

The Agricultural Resilience Act, introduced by U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree from Maine and U.S. Senator Martin Henrich of New Mexico provides an array of policies for mitigating climate change and building agricultural resilience through research, farmland preservation, increased soil health, greater use of pasture, and on-farm renewable energy. 

Primary organizers National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAD), Rural Advancement Foundation International USA (RAFI-USA) and Farm Aid worked to get farmers to DC and send a unified message to lawmakers that small, diversified farming operations are essential to the future of agriculture in the US and to building resilience in response to climate change. Our agricultural landscape thrives with a diversity of production systems and a diversity of creative farmers experimenting with regenerative approaches. 

RAF provided a small grant to assist with the organizing and travel assistance.