Take Action: Close the Stockwatering Loophole!

Oregon’s water shouldn’t be up for grabs. Yet, an exemption loophole in Oregon law has allowed mega-dairies in Eastern Oregon to use water from an endangered aquifer that has otherwise been off limits to new wells since 1976. Please add your voice to urge the Oregon Water Resources Commission to restrict the use of groundwater in eastern Oregon where special protections are needed. The deadline for comments is today! Read more about it here.

FoFF Election Update

As we waited patiently, or maybe not so patiently, for the 2020 elections to wrap up, we posted our final blog in the Democracy School series. In this 5th and last of the series, we recap the ballot measures FoFF endorsed this year (both of which won!) and discuss our policy priorities for the 2021 session.

Did you miss any of them? You can find them here: Blogposts # 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Monthly Farmer Chats

Join us Monday, November 16th at 7pm for our virtual Farmer Chat: Food and Racial Justice. Mutual aid has always been part of the landscape for communities not served by the existing system. Many have expressed interest in forming partnerships with organizations doing this work, and would like more information on how to get involved.

If you're a producer with experience working with mutual aid groups or running your own program to provide food, come share your experience. If you are looking to connect with other farmers across the state to get involved, join us to learn what's worked for others. All farmers, farm workers and agricultural producers are welcome to this conversation. 

InFARMation: Racial and Food Justice 

Join us November 19th at 6:30pm for the last of our Racial and Food Justice InFARMation series to watch a free screening of the documentary film Gather, followed by a discussion led by our friend Spring Alaska Schreiner from Sakari Botanicals. "Gather" is an intimate portrait of the growing movement among Native Americans to reclaim their spiritual, political and cultural identities through food sovereignty, and how this reclaiming and recovery of ancient foodways can bring back health and vitality to their people.

Support Local Farms for the Holidays

Eat local for the holidays! With winter coming up, it's time to start thinking about the special meals we share during the holiday season. There is so much tradition, love, and gratitude tied up in these times, and it is also an opportunity to support the healthy food system you want to see here in Oregon. Visit the Oregon Pasture Network and buy your holiday turkey or roast straight from producers in your local community. Don't delay! Many farmers have deadlines for holiday orders. Check out our blog for more reasons to eat local this season.

Small Farms Wildfire Resilience Fund

Through the immense generosity of supporters, Friends of Family Farmers and Portland Area CSA Coalition have raised $30,000 to help Oregon small farms recover from the September wildfires and wind. Grants up to $1500 will be awarded for repair and rebuilding, or compensation for lost crops and sales due to evacuation. Farms do not have to have sustained fire damage to qualify.

All farmers are encouraged to apply, and because of systems of historic inequity, farmers of color, immigrant farmers, queer-identifying, and undocumented farmers will receive special consideration.

The application period is open until November 18th.

 Willamette Week's Give!Guide

We are pleased to announce that we have been handpicked to join 174 of Portland’s most impactful nonprofits in the 2020 WW Give!Guide.  

As long as industrial agriculture continues to put profit over people, FoFF will keep advocating for a more ecological and equitable system of agriculture in our state. Unless there is sustained pressure, corporate agribusiness will keep perpetuating the systems they built and exacerbate systematic inequality in Oregon. With your ongoing support, we can plan for the future and all the challenges it brings, and continue to provide opportunities for local farmers to connect with eaters.

Give $10 or more and you'll receive $4,000+ worth of free and discounted products from your favorite Portland brands. Every donor will get full access to 100's of local coupons in the Chinook Book app, and a few exclusive freebies! 

As an extra incentive, FoFF has gift baskets for three donors at the $100 and above level. Baskets include $50 gift certificates to ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria, Coastal, Linnton Feed and Seed, Dove Vivi Pizza, plus two bottles of Hot Winter Hot Sauce, a Friends of Family Farmers hat, and two pint glasses.

Portland Fill Your Pantry Week

Friends of Family Farmers is thrilled to announce our partnership with Slow Food Portland to present 2020 Portland Fill Your Pantry Week, December 5-13th. For the past 5 years Portland Fill Your Pantry has been a 1-day bulk-buying event to help local farms and ranches sell large quantities of vegetables, fruit, beans, pasture-raised meats, grains, canned goods, and other products. Approximately $85,000 dollars were circulated in our local economy at last year's Fill Your Pantry. 

As with so many things in the pandemic era, this year will look a little different. The online pre-order will be open from November 17th - 30th, and vendors will POP UP at the following winter Farmers Markets for pick up:

Hollywood - Saturday, December 5 | 9 am to 1 pm
Hillsdale - Sunday, December 6 | 9 am to 1 pm
Lloyd - Tuesday, December 8 | 10 am to 2 pm
Montavilla - Sunday, December 13 | 10 am to 2 pm

To preorder beginning 11/17, go to www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org

Looking for Volunteers

FoFF is a small team with big ambitions and we need more volunteer support! Do you want to help us organize? Or write blog posts about sustainable ag issues that you care about? Perhaps you’d like to help with policy research or data collection. Maybe you are interested in increasing access to land for BIPOC and beginning farmers and can aid our FarmLink Team, or want to see acreage grow under the Oregon Pasture Network -- both could use volunteers. Our indefatigable Executive Director would love help to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes. If you would like to volunteer with FoFF, please send an email to info@friendsoffamilyfarmers.org briefly letting us know what you’d like to focus on and we’ll connect you with the right team member. Thanks!