Our Work
in soilDarity – webinar series
The In SOILdarity webinar series is a first time collaboration between the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts and the National Farmers Foundation, designed to dig deep into the transformative potential of community-owned farmlands. This free series will explore innovative and time-tested models of alternative farmland tenures that prioritize community-based stewardship, equitable access, and long-term sustainability.
Blending Farmland Access Models: Creating a Cooperative Land Trust – October 23, 2024 2:00 to 3:30 pm (ET) To Register
Protec-Terre: Lessons Learned over 30 years of Quebec Farmland Trust Experience – October 30, 2024 2:00 to 3:30 pm (ET) To Register
Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust: Regenerative and Reparative Agriculture – November 6, 2024 2:00 to 3:30 pm (ET) To Register
To download more information on the webinars
Supporting Young Farmers
Your donations allow the NFF to support activities like the NFU Youth Retreat and the newly released podcast, “Sow and Grow.” Both urban and rural communities benefit from the education, activism, and momentum these projects create as the next generation of farm leadership builds its capacity and networks.
Supporting Food Sovereignty
The National Farmers Foundation works in partnership with the NFU and other family farm/peasant, indigenous and rural workers organizations within the global movement, La Vía Campesina, to build food sovereignty.
Food sovereignty is about empowering people – farmers and eaters – to make the important decisions about food and agriculture. It is the condition where people define their own food and agriculture systems to produce healthy and culturally appropriate food for people through ecologically sound and sustainable methods. The concept of food sovereignty is expressed through six pillars:
- focuses on food for people
- values food providers
- localizes food systems
- puts control locally
- builds knowledge and skills
- works with nature
Supporting Research and Education for Farmers and Family Farms
In collaboration with the National Farmers Union, the NFF supports research and education to drive policies and decisions that deliver social and economic justice for farmers, eaters, and the earth. Among the current priority areas are farmland ownership and control, climate change and seed sovereignty.
The NFF is engaged in the following three research and outreach activities geared to better understand farmland tenure transitions in Canada.
Transforming Farmland Tenure
This project investigates what lessons we can learn from the experiences of alternative land tenure models in the United States and France. The research will help us to determine the potential for a national organization to foster and support farmland tenure transitions in Canada. We are particularly interested in learning more about what organizations and groups in Canada are already doing and understanding the institutional opportunities and barriers they face as well as the policy changes and recommendations needed to incentivize the building of innovative and more secure farmland tenure models for food sovereignty. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Partnership Engage Grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada for this research.
Engaging Legal Research
This research is geared towards building our understanding of the feasibility of charities to accept and manage land donations and making those lands accessible to small-scale farmers interested in practicing socially-just and ecologically sustainable agriculture. By investigating the legal opportunities and barriers while also engaging with the Canada Charities Directorate, we hope to set a precedent for Canadian charities seeking farmland tenure transformation. This research is supported by the Law for the Future Fund of the Canadian Bar Association.
Creating Rural-Agricultural Community Land Trusts (CLT)
This project focuses on integrating rural-agricultural CLT models as viable options in government policy frameworks and identifying legal reforms to support the creation of rural-agricultural CLTs. The NFF is doing this work in partnership with the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts and two local groups advocating for the creation of a rural-agricultural CLT model – Crow’s Commons in Nova Scotia and Stratford Affordable Housing Alliance in Ontario. The project aims to support the establishment of two rural-agricultural CLT projects (in operation or development) and create a cross-Canada network. This network will raise awareness and inform decision-making around the interconnections between farmland and housing access and contribute to the design of funding programs and policy reforms to advance rural-agricultural CLT development. We are thankful to the Catherine Donnelly Foundation for the funding of this project.