The Farmstand: RAFI’s Blog

724 posts

RAFI’s Hurricane Farmer Relief Fund Activity Wraps Up 

August 22, 2025
RAFI’s Hurricane Farmer Relief Fund raised over $290,000 to help farmers recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton with emergency grants, rebuilding support, and technical assistance. Building on this response, RAFI has created a permanent Disaster Response Team to strengthen readiness for future climate-driven disasters.
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Puerto Rico Farmers Learn Solar Pumping Techniques

August 5, 2025
On July 30, RAFI hosted a field day at Finca Don Cotto in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, where about 20 farmers learned to install and use solar-powered water pumps. Led by RAFI staff and a solar electrician, the hands-on workshop addressed irrigation challenges and cost barriers. RAFI is helping reduce equipment costs through bulk purchases. More field days are planned to expand access to sustainable, affordable water solutions across the island.
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Birthing Sovereignty: Soul Fire Farm’s Model for Land-Based Liberation

July 31, 2025
What does it mean to return to the land — not just to farm it, but to reclaim it? Hope Ostane-Baucom of RAFI’s Farmers of Color Network reflects on her powerful week at Soul Fire Farm’s BIPOC farmer immersion, where farming becomes a practice of healing, resistance, and liberation. This is not just a training — it’s a homecoming.
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[CLOSED] Project Manager, Resources for Resilient Farms

July 21, 2025
The Program Manager will provide support to RAFI’s Gaining New Ground project and NRCS-funded project that is housed within RAFI’s Resources for Resilient Farms program. This individual will be instrumental to ensuring appropriate communication to project partners and subwardees, collection and analysis of financial and programmatic data, and overseeing the projects activities/ deliverables.
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Food & Control: A Q&A With RAFI's Melanie Canales

June 10, 2025
Learn from RAFI's Melanie Canales on how corporate consolidation in the U.S. grocery industry impacts food access, food prices, and food security. Utilizing the Grocery Gap Atlas to map grocery consolidation, Canales shows how corporate dominance manipulates our food systems.
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Black Cotton: Legacy and Liberation

June 4, 2025
On a spring morning in Northampton County, NC, Julius Tillery stood in his cotton fields — not just planting a crop, but continuing a legacy. At Black Cotton, history, innovation, and purpose meet in every row. What began with his time at RAFI has grown into a movement to reclaim cotton as a symbol of power, not pain.
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A Growers Network to Connect and Empower

May 29, 2025
In Mecklenburg County, NC, a grassroots network of farmers is reshaping local food systems through mutual aid, shared wisdom, and community power. Founded by Cherie and Wisdom Jzar, the Growers Network is redefining what it means to farm — together.
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