Since 1975 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 1975:
People Food & Land began as National Land for People (NLP) in 1975 and was 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 notably, 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, occupying thousands of acres, relied on government-subsidized water. Though required by law to give up the water or sell into smaller parcels, many eager land buyers, many of whom were immigrant farmworkers, were denied the right to purchase the land.
Today:
With the advancements made 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 its broken promises, including the denial of access to resources 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 its timeless mission to ensure that small diverse farmers and practitioners have the tools to restore, steward and cultivate our soils and other natural resources.
Ecology: Soil as our critical linkage
Soil health is fundamental to human health. Soil erosion is often accompanied by the erosion of community life. Breathable air, safe and healthy drinking water, access to nutritious food, sustainable waste management, and the mitigation of the impacts of climate change are all achieved in the protection of precious soil resources.
Community building: Start with the most impacted
People, Food and Land Foundation comes from a decades-long legacy of critical social research and political activism addressing the impact of large-scale conventional agriculture on the life and livelihood of rural communities and workers. We take the position that small-scale, diversified food, farm, and waste management businesses hold the key to improving civic life and ultimately, environmental health outcomes for rural America.
Policy: Climate solutions from the soil up
Environmental injustice threatens the health of our climate and our rural communities. People, Food and Land Foundation’s projects are rooted in environmental equity as a way to reach bold climate solutions. We seek to move climate law and policy toward civil rights and equitable access to land, capital, and markets. Our policy initiatives seek to maintain financial and natural resources in place through responsible cyclic management to improve local health, economic, and environmental outcomes.