Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Funders (SAFSF)

✳️ Join SAFSF Executive Director Clare Fox at #LATechWeek! She will be on a panel hosted by Supply Change Capital that focuses on the food and ag tech ecosystem in Los Angeles, California. In addition to the panel, Supply Change Capital will share research on how this ecosystem has evolved since 2010, including innovation highlights, diversity stats, who the investor players are, and where there are opportunities for increased investment. This event is on Thursday, October 17 from 9:00-10:30 AM PT, location provided at registration. RSVP below ⬇️ https://lu.ma/ty7pdnus Sending gratitude to All Places, Citizens, and PledgeLA for sponsoring this event.

Join us tomorrow from 11:00-11:45 AM PT for "Digging Deeper," a lunchtime condensed documentary screening and chat, focused on #climatechange. We will dive deeper into the role #philanthropy can play in combating climate change. Our guest speaker Kellee Matsushita-Tseng, Land Stewardship Manager at FoodWhat?! will be joining us to share their perspective and expertise. This 45-minute session is designed for you to enjoy on or off-screen and learn from field leaders. Recordings of the Digging Deeper series will be used in a multi-media discussion guide, which will be published in early 2025. This event is open to everyone, please register below. https://lnkd.in/e33m87Qs

#ClimateWeek starts today! Each year, thousands convene across 600 events to highlight climate action. Demonstrating the urgent need for food and agriculture systems to be included in climate change efforts, we are highlighting just a few of the important conversations hosted by SAFSF members and partners:    🟢 Monday: Food Tank and The James Beard Foundation hosts several advocates, industry leaders and funders for day-long event on “Restaurants and Farms: A Key Solution to the Climate Crisis” including a fireside chat between Anna Lappé of Global Alliance for the Future of Food and Bill McKibben (Author, Educator, Activist, and Founder of Third Act). 🟢 Tuesday: ClimateWorks Foundation hosts an event “Big Meat and Dairy narratives to derail climate action: can you tell fake from fact?” 🟢 Wednesday: Food Tank and American Farmland Trust are co-convening  “Climate Resilience through Agriculture.” Followed by a FoodxClimate Networking Mixer hosted by Food System Innovations. 🟢 Thursday: Global Alliance for the Future of Food presents a Roundtable Hosted on Cultivating Farmer Ownership in Holistic Food Systems Transformation, and Food and Agriculture is a Key Solution to the Climate Crisis Summit, hosted by Food Tank and the United Nations World Food Programme will be live-streamed at FoodTank.com. Where will you be? What do you hope will come out of #ClimateWeek2024? We look forward to tracking developments and sharing resources. #ClimateWeekNYC #FoodSystems #RegenerativeAgriculture #ClimateAction #Sustainability Links to more resources in the comments ⬇️

September 15th kicked off National Hispanic Heritage Month, an opportunity for us to reflect on the significant contributions and leadership of the Latinx/Hispanic community in food and agriculture. We celebrate the culinary contributions of influential leaders such as Chef Jose Andrés of World Central Kitchen and Karla Tatiana Vasquez of SalviSoul, and the advocacy and movement-building efforts of activists such as Helga Garza (Agri-Cultural Network), Vanessa García Polanco, MS (National Young Farmers Coalition) and Jose Oliva (HEAL Food Alliance).  According to the USDA Ag Census, Hispanic farmers and producers, 112,000 nationwide, represent the largest group of minority farmers in our country. Additionally, 80% of farm laborers, 44% of meatpacking workers, and 25% of restaurant and food service employees are Latinx/Hispanic. Despite their essential contributions in agriculture and across the food supply chains, Latinx workers face some of the highest rates of food insecurity, unsafe working conditions, discrimination, and poverty wages.  Despite the historic hard work of activists like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who pushed for the right for farm workers to organize around better pay and working conditions, the fight for respect, dignity and justice continues to this day led by organizations like FOOD CHAIN WORKERS ALLIANCE, La Via Campesina, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, Agriculture and Land Based Training Association(ALBA), and many others. Please join us in celebrating, supporting, and learning from these organizations and leaders. #HispanicHeritage #FoodJustice

SAFSF is excited to be co-sponsoring a funder learning tour on CAFOs the day before Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN) Annual Meeting in Durham, North Carolina. 🗓 On Monday, October 28, attendees will explore the intersections of environmental justice and sustainable agriculture in an interactive in-person learning tour that will travel to Sampson County, North Carolina. During the tour, they will learn about hog and poultry Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) and their impact on communities, the environment, and sustainable food systems. Topics will include corporate consolidation, the issues with so-called renewable biogas, and the possibility of non-toxic and humane animal agriculture. Whether you come from an environmental health, environmental justice, or food systems perspective, we hope you’ll come away from this visit with a deeper understanding of this web of systems, and how communities are working together towards resilience. ✳ Space is limited – register now to secure your spot!  We also encourage you to join HEFN’s Annual Meeting to learn more about their work creating healthy and just environments for all. SAFSF is proud to partner with HEFN on this learning tour, and many other events throughout the year to unite environmental and food funders. LEARN MORE + REGISTER ⬇ https://lnkd.in/eCBiergb

Registration has launched for our upcoming SAFSF On the Road event! Join us on Thursday, November 14 in Detroit, MI for Health and Wealth: Fostering Healthy Communities and Economic Self-Determination through Food Systems. Frontline communities of color have disproportionately suffered huge disparities in health and wealth due to multiple layers of systemic barriers. For every $100 in wealth white Americans hold, Black Americans only hold $15, and Black and Indigenous children are 2-3 times more likely to be food insecure than white families. Community-led solutions in food, health, environment, and climate offer significant potential for addressing these disparities. Over the past two decades, a number of food justice and food access initiatives have evolved from focusing primarily on access to healthy food to complex economic development and built environment projects developed by BIPOC-led organizations. These initiatives aim to improve food access and health outcomes through models of community self-determination, economic development, and wealth creation. This one-day event will explore the question: How can funding for food access, nutrition, and health equity support community self-determination and ignite equitable food economies? We will explore the intersection of health equity, economic development, and food justice to close racial wealth gaps through community-led approaches. Specifically, we will explore and learn from models of healthy food projects, organizations, and networks that focus on community ownership and asset-building led by and for people of color in and from frontline communities. The event takes place at the Detroit Food Commons (Detroit People's Food Co-op), a groundbreaking 30,000-square-foot multi-use facility with a community-owned grocery store, which was conceived of and built by the DETROIT BLACK COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY NETWORK INC (DBCFSN). Attendees will learn about DBCFSN’s powerful community organizing that led to raising $21 million to build the Detroit Food Commons, and how similar models are emerging across the country. Funders focused on health, community development, and food systems are invited to join us in exploring how we can resource and support communities addressing food and nutrition security through more just and sovereign food economies. Space is limited—so secure your spot today! REGISTER: https://lnkd.in/evZDCuJ2

The most effective way for foundations, investors, and philanthropists to support and benefit from the work of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders is to become a member. SAFSF is the leading national philanthropy serving organization (PSO) for funders seeking to drive change in support of just and sustainable food and agriculture systems. For more information, email Holly Enowski, MBA at holly@safsf.org Apply by October 15! Read more about the SAFSF membership at the link below! https://ow.ly/47Or50Q4lIu

Join us Thursday, September 12 for a funder-only webinar exploring the impacts of one of the most significant legal developments in recent years: the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Chevron deference in Loper Bright v. Raimondo. This ruling has profound implications for the regulatory interpretation of major legislation such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Farm Bill. Chevron deference required judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutory language. A bedrock of administrative law stemming from the 1984 case Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., the principle was grounded in the idea that agencies have technical and subject-matter expertise that judges and politicians do not. This decision, combined with that in Corner Post, Inc. v. Bd. of Governors of the Fed. Reserve System, which expands the statute of limitations the Administrative Procedure Act grants for challenging agency regulations, redefines the relationship between agencies and the judiciary. In this webinar, our panel of experts will address food, agriculture, and public health regulations that could be affected, potential impacts on both the way Congress legislates and agencies conduct rulemaking, and how this ruling may change the way funders conduct policy advocacy. Speakers: -Julia McCarthy, Senior Program Officer, New York Health Foundation -Radhika Fox, former Assistant Administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Water -Anne Knapke, former Deputy Chief of Staff to Secretary Vilsack at the USDA -Skye Perryman, President and CEO, Democracy Forward -Rebecca Riley, Managing Director for Food & Agriculture, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) This webinar is co-hosted by Chesapeake Bay Funders Network, Grantmakers In Health, and Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN). https://lnkd.in/dzXVJXxw

See you tomorrow for the first installment of our new series Dig Deeper! Join us for a lunchtime condensed documentary screening and chat, focused on concentration in the livestock and poultry industry. Digging In is SAFSF’s first documentary film, produced by Nathan.works and underwritten by the Vatheuer Family Foundation, and was designed as a tool for funders and their grantees to explore the wide-ranging challenges of land access, consolidation and concentration, and climate change on U.S. agriculture. The film uplifts on-the-ground perspectives and solutions across the country. This call will feature Claire Kelloway, Food Systems Program Manager at Open Markets Institute. Topics to be Covered:  -USDA’s New Fair and Competitive Livestock and Poultry Markets Proposed Rule  -Current state of the livestock and poultry industry  -What funders, non-profit and communities can do This event is open to everyone. Please register below. https://lnkd.in/dKMgDWjf

We are still seeking input from leaders involved in food and agriculture systems change. SAFSF has spent the past four months gathering insights from members and the field at large about the most pressing issues in food and agriculture, and the best ways for SAFSF, as a funder network, to make an impact and form our strategic direction. Please take a few minutes to take this short survey so we can learn about what resonates for you, and what would bring the most value to your work. The survey is open until Thursday, August 15. https://lnkd.in/empiMcuB