By Emily Buehler, Weaver Street Market Website Coordinator
In July of 2007, I visited the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI) in Pittsboro to learn more about the nonprofit, which seemed to be involved in everything under the sun: fighting in Congress for a fair Farm Bill, protecting the national organic standards from takeover by corporate giants, developing a “domestic fair trade” product label, and helping farmers transition to new, specialty crops or to organic production, to name a few. Last month’s Curds & Crafts Festival raised $4500 for RAFI!
The following is an excerpt reprinted from our August 2007 newsletter:
I drove out to Pittsboro to meet with Betty Bailey, RAFI’s long-time director. After an hour together, I had seven pages of notes plus the information contained in their Annual Report and posted on their website; condensing it into an article became a near-impossible task. How do they do it all with just twelve staff members? They collaborate with other groups, working in partnerships, both local and global.
The dual nature, local and global, of RAFI’s work is critical. RAFI’s work helping farmers is practical and hands-on, but they also work at the state and national levels, advocating for policy changes to help small farmers.
For example, RAFI provides guidance to a tobacco farmer who wants to transition to a more sustainable crop and keep farming on a small scale: information on growing without pesticides, on business planning and marketing an innovative idea, and on how to get a loan for a farm project that lenders may see as “different” (read “risky”). They also educate lenders about evaluating and accepting innovative farm projects.
“We are very grateful to Weaver Street Market and all of the folks who attended the Curds and Crafts event for their support. These donations go directly to help farmers in North Carolina transition to more sustainable enterprises, and to create an environment that fosters the kind of sustainable entrepreneurship represented by the cheesemakers and brewers featured in the event.”
–Scott Marlow,
Executive Director of RAFI
RAFI also supports the farmer at the national level. For example, RAFI works for changes in policy that make crop insurance available to organic farmers, who are traditionally not well covered in these programs. Some farmers don’t have big enough local markets. Since selling goods nationally requires a national label that lets consumers know the quality of the goods, RAFI has worked to protect the integrity of the organic label, which has been under assault by big business; RAFI is striving to develop and implement new labels that indicate that a product is fairly produced, at all levels of production from farmers to production workers to retailers.
Government funding for research goes mainly to projects that benefit big business, much of which is of little value to organic farmers. Also, large corporations often match the funding and then have access to the results, patenting them and making them unavailable to others. RAFI supports increasing funding for research in areas pertaining to organic production in proportion to organic’s share of the market, and keeping this research public. Another aspect of their work is establishing liability for GMO farmers and protection for organic farmers: entire organic crops can be lost because GMO pollen drifts into another field and renders the crop not-organic.
How has RAFI affected your life? Consider… Ward Brothers’ Farm, who [for years, supplied] us with Yukon gold potatoes, cucumbers, kale, much of our summer squash, and sometimes corn, got started as a produce farm with RAFI’s technical support and a cost-share grant in 2003. The cost share grant is the one that helps farmers transition from tobacco farming to a new, sustainable product, often organic. Other RAFI farmers sell to Eastern Carolina Organics (ECO), who supplies Weaver Street Market with produce. (Update: Cheesemaker Prodigal Farm received a RAFI grant to purchase and seed native plants into pastures, to improve goat health and increase milk yields. Taylor Fish Farm has a grant to construct a fish processing center, to filet and package fish on-site. Many of our Piedmont Farm Tour farmers, like Open Door Farm and Sunset Ridge Bison Farm, have received RAFI grants as well. See all grant winners online: http://rafiusa.org/2016-grant-awards/.)
No discussion about RAFI can be complete without a description of their headquarters in Pittsboro. The site originally contained an old farmhouse that could not be saved. Instead of demolishing it, the farmhouse was “deconstructed” and 70% of it was re-used in the new building. The farmhouse footprint was also re-used, resulting in only one tree being cut down for the new construction. (And that wood, of course, was used.) The floor is passive-solar concrete, keeping the space warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The windows maximize natural lighting. The RAFI building was the first commercial building in North Carolina to earn the EPA Energy Star award.
On our tour, Betty names the flowers in the garden. The larkspur visible today sprang up from the larkspur planted at the old farmhouse. It survives because it has adapted to the increasingly hot summers. These days, larkspur can’t be newly planted in our area; if the farmhouse and grounds had been destroyed, larkspur would not be an option. There is an important analogy here, but I haven’t been able to pin it down: it would involve respecting the land, valuing nature’s abilities as well as our own, adapting to change, and moving into the future in local, sustainable ways.
With RAFI in the neighborhood, there’s hope for us all!
Since our visit, RAFI has a new director, Scott Marlow, and has taken on even more tasks, like their Connect2Direct program that works to increase sales from farms directly to consumers, including consumers using EBT/SNAP, and their work to inform landowners about their rights regarding fracking. To read more about RAFI, visit their website at www.rafiusa.org.