Land, Capital, & Markets: KTA’s Ecosystem Building Program
March 29th, 2023
[Read time: 8 minutes]
Drawing on the wisdom and needs of our clients, over the last few years we have developed our Ecosystem Building program to focus on creating more equitable access to land, capital, and markets for small sustainable producers. As our clients continue to navigate challenges and barriers extending from climate crises to social injustice, we are committed to supporting institutional-level change around land, capital, and markets that fosters resiliency rooted in their self-determination and voices. We see the farmers and ranchers we support as innovators and guides in transforming our food system, knowing that what they’re able to realize on an individual farm or community-level will have greater ripple effects in our food system.
The following highlights provide a glimpse into a few collaborative projects focused on land, capital, and markets that we are supporting through our Ecosystem Building program, revealing some incredible stories of partnership, resiliency, and transformation.
Ujamaa Farmer Collective | Land
Inspired by the work of the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s BIPOC Advisory Committee, KTA client Nelson Hawkins (We Grow Farms), alongside Brian Pinkney, Nathaniel Brown, and Keith Hudson, has begun to collaboratively build upon a vision for a project dedicated to the empowerment of Black and BIPOC farm businesses in and around Yolo County. Known as Ujamaa Farmer Collective, the project arose from the collective knowledge and experience-sharing within the Advisory Committee as well as many other farmer equity advocates. Collectively, they identified the systemic barriers that have historically disallowed Black and BIPOC farmers to thrive – central to this being land access and security.
Ujamaa Farmer Collective’s focus is to provide land for BIPOC farm businesses to steward through long-term, affordable leases. These leasing opportunities, ranging from ½ acre to 20-acre plots owned by the collective, will enable existing farm business owners to grow their operations on secure land parcels. The collective also aims to provide on-site housing for the farmers, allowing these business owners to fully immerse themselves in their farms while also raising and tending to their families.
Learn More: Black Land Loss
In 1910, Black farmers owned 14% of the nation’s farmland. However, by 2000, almost 90% of that land – approximately 16 million acres – had been lost, leading to a capital loss of approximately $326 billion. This land loss was a direct result of racist, discriminatory practices by banks and financial institutions as well as the state of California and federal government, who limited Black farmers’ access to low-interest rate loans, federal farm benefits, and grant programs leading to record-breaking land loss through foreclosures and forced partition sales. By being forced off their land, many Black farmers and their families may have lost an opportunity to create lasting generational wealth. Several attempts to remedy these wrongdoings have been proposed, to varying degrees of success. Most recently, earlier this year several senators introduced the Justice for Black Farmers Act which aims to address the historic discrimination and harm within federal farm assistance that caused Black farmers to lose their farmland.
Although the starting point for Ujamaa Farmer Collective’s work surrounds land access, their vision stretches beyond. The project ultimately aims to create a thriving community through cooperative economics, including collective purchasing of equipment, labor rotation, and knowledge sharing. These collaborative approaches will not only dismantle cost and access barriers many BIPOC farmers face, but will also empower these farmers to grow their own businesses while creating a community foundation that can continue to serve future generations of BIPOC land stewards. In creating a Black-led project serving BIPOC communities, Ujamaa Farmer Collective is committed to fostering an agricultural space for BIPOC farmers to live and farm safely and freely.
After successfully advocating the state for money to support the project and finding a fiscal sponsor through Possibility Labs, an organization dedicated to resourcing marginalized communities and our planet, Ujamaa Farmer Collective is now looking towards acquiring a piece of land while building out their organizational structure and capacity. KTA Regional Director Thomas Nelson, having worked with Nelson as an advising client starting in 2020, has provided support for the project since its creation and now serves on the project’s Advisory Council.
As Ujamaa Farmer Collective continues to work toward fulfilling its shared vision, it’s not only transforming the landscape around BIPOC land access and security, but, more broadly, uplifting stewardship and community as defined by the self-determination of Black and BIPOC farmers.
Core Project Partners: Kitchen Table Advisors, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Center for Land-Based Learning, People’s Land Fund
To learn more about Ujamaa Farmer Collective and support their vision, we invite you to follow them on Instagram at @ujamaafarmercollective as well as directly contribute through CAFF’s donation page and Ujamaa’s GoFundMe.
The Fondo Solidario | Capital
In the winter of 2021, sixteen Latina farmers from KTA’s Central Coast region convened in a supportive space dedicated to empowerment, connection, and community leadership. For many participants, these gatherings marked the first time they had been able to mutually share, empathize, seek advice, and problem-solve with other Latina farmer-leaders. Through their continued conversations and with guidance from KTA’s Farm Business Advisor Tania Zuñiga, the group – who named themselves Red Solidaria de Mujeres en Agricultura – began development of the Fondo Solidario, a revolving loan fund centering the needs of Latina farmers with limited access to capital.
Led by Latina farmers from whom the idea originated, the Fondo Solidario provides quickturn, zero-interest, character-based loans. These loans are designed with the flexibility to support applicants primarily as they respond to emergent needs, like the recent winter storms, and secondarily as they invest in their businesses to prevent future issues, such as cash flow shortages. The Fondo will be initially composed of a Governance Council of 14 members and led by an advisory board of four Governance Council members, two KTA staff members, and one field ally; together, they will review and present applications to the full Council as well as provide loan coaching and follow-up assistance. The fund will be open to active members of the Fondo Solidario Governance Council whose loan applications will be evaluated based on the barriers to capital (such as immigration status, assets, years of experience, number of dependents, income sources, and existing networks for support) applicants are facing. By both governing the fund and being able to apply for it, these women are empowered to support one another with a unique and rare source of funding that will strengthen the longevity of their businesses and create a nurturing community.
In navigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and recent climate crises where public safety nets were appallingly absent, the Fondo represents a critically important capital resource among Latina co-owned farm businesses. As the project has evolved over the past year and a half, Tania and Mariela Cedeño of Manzanita Capital Collective have provided vital support facilitating conversations and leveraging their business expertise to guide the Council in the formation of the fund and its structure. Over the course of 2022, Tania helped the women of the Fondo assemble their leadership structure, raise capital for the fund, establish key relationships with community partners, and, most importantly, encouraged them to not only access, but govern this capital. The fund is poised to distribute its first loans at the end of summer 2023.
Through its structure and purpose, the Fondo Solidario will not only create a new, accessible source of capital specifically for Latina farmers, but will also provide these farmers with leadership and learning opportunities, marking a more supportive space for their voices and visions in our foodshed.
BIPOC Regenerative Pilot | Markets
This feature is part of a series authored by our previous Value Chain Manager (currently Owner & CEO of SupplyChange) H Nieto-Friga highlighting our on-the-ground market access work in deepening sales relationships and developing new supply chains between KTA clients and regional procurement partners. We invite you to also connect with parts one and two of this series.
In 2021, H Nieto-Friga launched the BIPOC Regenerative pilot, a program aiming to connect larger, values-aligned buyers in the foodservice sector with BIPOC farmers using regenerative practices. The program connected 10 pilot participant farmers from KTA’s Central Coast region with seven clients – including LinkedIn and PayPal – from Sodexo, a national foodservice management company, who were committed to sourcing from regenerative suppliers. A BIPOC-oriented sourcing pilot had been explored in other regions, but this program was the first that specifically engaged tech companies in cultivating lasting relationships with regenerative, BIPOC farmers. Initially, the pilot started with farmers selling eight products to buyers; as relationships deepened and the project progressed, farmers expanded their inventory to up to 24 products. Together, the farmers and corporate chefs began brainstorming ideas for menus featuring climate-friendly varietals of produce and even started building out full crop plans for each farmer.
The initial success of the pilot’s first stage – which stemmed from research and recommendations that informed KTA’s value chain strategy – motivated H to expand the program by incorporating more farmers and strengthening the existing sales relationships between participant farmers and buyers.
In the next stage of the project, which is focusing on expanding the pilot, H and Value Chain Coordinator Angie Estrada-Bugarín started working with farmers to develop a collaborative crop planning framework. These crop plans not only support consistency for the buyers, but also provide stability for the farmer participants who will use this tool to plan what to plant, how much to grow, and when the sales will take place. This approach departs from a typical farmer/chef buying relationship where buyers would pre-order produce a couple weeks out. Instead, it allows farmers and chefs the ability to jointly plan their year, offering greater transparency and alignment for both parties. H and Angie are also collaborating with KTA’s Central Coast business advising team to support and prepare the farmers as they navigate these new sales channels and explore their commitment to the program, expanding both the amount of produce they grow as well as the varieties. The final step of this stage is to create a more formal intake process – which includes access to tools and resources – for interested KTA farmers who are eager to grow their wholesale business.
In opening and expanding market channels to BIPOC farmers, the BIPOC Regenerative pilot is contributing to the financial stability of these farm businesses by providing a secure source of income, limiting crop waste, and fostering collaboration between chefs and farmers. As the pilot continues to transform foodservice supply chains, H and Angie hope that this project can forge long-lasting, institutionalized buying relationships between regenerative, BIPOC farmers and large-scale sourcing companies.
Check out the Just BIPOC Sourcing website to learn more about the pilot program and how its framework can be applied. To explore our market access work, we invite you to dive deeper into our value chain strategy.
Photo Credits: Ujamaa Farmer Collective, Tania Zuñiga, H Nieto-Friga
Citations: The Nation, “In California, a Case of Black Land Loss Is Finally Being Made Right”, American Bar Association, “The Contemporary Relevance of Historic Black Land Loss”, NPR, “Black Farmers Call for Justice from USDA”