While our food system – including and connected to the ways land is managed, commodified and sustained – is one of the greatest contributors to anthropogenic climate disasters, it is also one of the greatest promises for remediation and hope for a much more climate resilient future for us all.  

Blue Sky Funders Forum, in celebration of its 10th Anniversary, has curated this two-part series to explore the role Black, Indigenous, and other land stewards of color have played in advancing environmental restoration and education through igniting a just transition across our foodshed. 

Through an immersive and interactive luncheon and farm tours, we will explore farming’s role in connecting communities to nature and philanthropy’s role in building systems of self determination that advance our collective transition towards an economically just, and ecologically sound food and agricultural system. 

PART I:  GROWING FOR POWER PRE-INSTITUTE SESSION

Sunday, September 22, 2024, 12:30 – 2:00 PM

Liberating Investment in the Food and Farming Ecosystem (LIFE) and Blue Sky Funders Forum are hosting a luncheon discussion highlighting how funders can take action to ensure more just ways of giving and ensure greater impact at the intersections of food, land, power and justice.  A panel of solutionaries will explore the local context of farming as an engine for community power and the strategies needed to transform philanthropy for food and land justice.  They will then join participants in more intimate conversations during lunch about how to boldly support:

• grassroots-accountable intermediaries,
• multi-stakeholder partnerships,
• community organizing, and
• advocacy and cooperative development

Pre-Institute Speakers:

• Shantell Bingham, Co-Executive Director, Liberating Investment Investment in the Farm and Food Ecosystem
• Anthony Chang, Partner, Manzanita Capital
• Rebecca Tortes, Director, California Tribal Fund
• Malcolm Hoover and Mirabai Collins, Co-Founders, Black Futures Farm
• Shantae Johnson, Executive Director, Feed’em Freedom Foundation 

PART II:  GROWING FOR POWER FARM TOUR

Tuesday, September 24, 2024, 12:45 pm – 5:30 pm

During  this half-day tour of Black Futures Farm in Portland, OR and Mudbone Grown in Corbett, OR, we will highlight how farming and community control of financial resources is a powerful way for people, particularly those from Indigenous communities and communities of color, to restore ecological balance while nourishing whole communities, connect to nature and the outdoors, and address environmental concerns. Farm tour participants will:

• Enjoy a lunch provided by a local BIPOC-owner caterer featuring locally grown produce.
• Learn the importance of supporting community-based, non-industrial farming as a pivotal lever to address climate change and environmental collapse.
• Experience how frontline communities view farming as a vital and culturally significant way that Black (and indigenous) communities connect to nature and the outdoors.

• Engage with Black and Indigenous people of color farmers and advocates who provide vital ecosystem services through regenerative or agroecological farming.
• Hear directly from community members about how farming offers the benefits to their mental health, quality of life, social wellbeing, and cultural sovereignty. 

Farm Tour Speakers:

• Malcolm Hoover and Mirabai Collins, Co-Founders, Black Futures Farm
• Eric Rodriguez, Director of Food Equity at Ecotrust
• Shantae Johnson and Arthur Shavers,  Mudbone Grown
• Qiddist Ashé, Executive Director, Black Oregon Land Trust
• Jamese Kwele, Vice President, Community Resource Mobilization