Since 1974 we have been calling for natural resources to be tended by those who work the land.
Our Mission
To further the economic and social development of rural America, and to promote and assist the growth and development of small farms and farming cooperatives.
The primary objective of this corporation will be to benefit the rural community by creating new self-employment opportunities easing rural poverty and reducing out-migration from rural areas to overcrowded cities, reducing welfare rolls, increasing self-sufficiency & protecting the rural environment.
In 1970:
People Food & Land began as National Land for People (NLP) in 1974. Founded primarily by a journalist and former labor organizer for the AFL-CIO Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), George Ballis, NLP advocated for environmental issues, farm worker rights and most notable land reform. In particular NLP was focused on enforcing a 1902 Reclamation Act statute meant to increase the number of small to mid scale farms in the western US by limiting the size of farms allowed to access water from government sponsored water projects to 160 acres. In practice many large scale farms made up thousands of acres relied on government subsidzed water and though required by law to give up the water or sell into smaller parcels many eager buyers, many of whom immigrant farm workers, were denied the right to purchase the land.
In 2023:
Today with the advancements in civil rights brought by the sacrifice and sweat of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color movement leaders and communities the United States is reckoning with the broken promises and denial of access to land for the people who have historically worked the land. Using the tools of environmental justice law and policy, state and federal grant programs aimed at meeting the joint goals of climate change mitigation and social justice, and the data that has been gathered about the environmental health crises caused by the compounded impacts of conventional agriculture, People, Food and Land Foundation aims to carry out the historic mission of our organization to ensure that small diverse farmers and practitioners have the tools to restore, steward and cultivate our soils.