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NORTHEAST FARMERS OF COLOR LAND TRUST

2019

OUR FIRST THREE YEARS

2021

contents WE----DANCE----UNTIL THE----------------LAND REMEMBERS---------US

------------COLLECTIVE ------------LEADERSHIP

ORIGIN----------STORY

SIBLING----PARTNERS

REPARATIONS-----MAP

6 8 10

EMERGENT---INREACH AND--------OUTREACH

OUR-------------VALUES

NEFOC-----PROGRAMS

14 16 18

LAND---------NETWORK

ALLIED------PARTNERS

POSTER----(FOLD OUT)

EVERY------------TOWN ----------------VERMONT

------------COMMUNITY -------CONSERVATION

RELATIONSHIPS--&------------RECIPROCITY

REGENERATION----&-----------RESTORYATION

25 --------------GRATITUDE 26 -----------------DONORS 28 THE-GIFT-OF-THE-LAND

WE DANCE UNTIL THE LAND REMEMBERS US The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust was co-created to reclaim the deep-time relationships we have with the land, each other, and the Universal Truth, as Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) elder Sakokwenionkwas (Tom Porter) puts it, of our small, young role in relation to Creation. In 2019, when we planted this tender seed, there were fewer than 20 member farms and fewer than 100 members in our network. Three brief years later and our members have grown fivefold and our member farms and cross-cultural land-based projects are hiving off into beautiful expressions of land relationship, inoculating the territories they live and grow on with the same love and care.

We are nothing if not innovative: by hybridizing agriculture and conservation land trusts, we are both/and, a non-binary evolution of the potential of what land trusts are capable of in the Anthropocene. Imagine it….a land trust built by the communities we belong to and are accountable to! We hold the cross-cultural myriad of ancestral relationships like precious embers, weaving our love for kin in each seed we plant, each word we express, each small patch of earth we reinoculate with mycorrhizae, reconnecting humans as land stewards and calling upon global Indigenous Knowledge as the best practice to ensure food sovereignty, biodiversity, climate resilience, and community care. We are proud and humbled to pick up the responsibilities of land stewardship our ancestors tasked us with and are moving into this role with care while bearing the expectations and urgency of the communities who envisioned and called us into being. Because we love our kin, we are working from the spirit of the Good Mind, rooted in ubuntu, moving slowly, intentionally, asking ourselves what trappings of colonialism need de-centering as we go. As Michelle Obama once stated, “when they go low, we go high.” When they speak of “deals,” we speak of relationships. When they affirm “ownership,” we affirm stewardship. When they hoard land-based wealth, we redistribute it. They call land “property,” we call it kin. When they speak of us in the past tense, we dance until the land remembers us. We are a tender, young sapling now, just unfurling our first delicate leaves to receive nourishment from our sibling the Sun. We are beginning to transform the light that, you, our community of supporters and extended

relatives, have provided, into the nourishment needed to grow big, strong, flexible, and deeply rooted. As we begin to co-create the first of what will be many ceremonies to celebrate the enfoldment of land into our care in 2022, we will remember the teachings of the cattail, known in Kanienkeha as onó:ta, which translates to “wraps humans in her gifts.” We will wrap our kin in our gifts, our balm of protection. By offering holistic, wrap-around “services” (moreso, acts of love) to the communities we’re responding to, we’re able to create the interdependent, fractal, iterative, de-colonial approach to land relationship that doesn’t merely offer business planning, soil mapping, and easements but an ancestrally-rooted, relational, co-creative approach. Emerging as overlapping circles of programs centering the values we’re aligned with and responsible for holding sacred, these are life-affirming values that are the “go high” response to “go low” settler colonial violence written over the surface of these lands. The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust is a love letter to our ancestors and future generations, a song quietly sung to the land that we remember. We remember a time when we were all connected, when we were not separate or above, but equal to and responsible for our role in our short times on this long-lived Earth. As our network of ancestrally-rooted land care begins to extend throughout the territories of the Northeast, our greatest hope is to spark that remembering in others. We are so grateful to each of you who have moved along this road with us back home, and we are so excited to share with you the fruiting bodies of this work you believe in! We take care of the land, and the land takes care of us. Simple, right?

COLLECTIVE LEADERSHIP Christine Hutchinson (She/Her) Clerk, Board of Directors

Rafa Aponte (He/Him) Treasurer, Board of Directors

OUR ANCESTORS RETURNED TO THE VERY SOIL THAT WE MAKE A LIFE ON NOW, AND THE BEINGS THAT GROW FROM AND ARE NOURISHED BY THAT SOIL ARE INFUSED WITH THE SPIRIT OF OUR ANCESTORS

Nia Holley (She/Her) Board of Directors Gaby Pereyra (Ella, She/Her) Land Network Co-Director Keely Curliss (She/Her, They/Them) Board of Directors Larisa Jacobson (All pronouns) Climate Justice & Policy Co-Director

Kenya Lazuli (She/They) Vermont Land Network Coordinator

(THIS---IS---ANCESTOR---WORK)

Carmen Mouzon (They/Them) Christine Hutchinson (She/Her) Elizabeth O’Gilvie (She/Her) Diana Warwin (She/Her) Keely Curliss (She/Her, They/Them) Larisa Jacobson (all pronouns) Nia Holley (She/Her) Neftali Duran (He/Him) Ulum Pixan (She/Her)

Carmen Mouzon (They/Them) Board of Directors

Çaca Yvaire (He/Li) Community Conservation Co-Director

Stephanie Morningstar (She/Her, They/Them) Relationships & Reciprocity Co-Director

INAUGURAL INTERIM COUNCIL

John Steven Deloatch Giraldo (JD) (He/Him, She/Her They/Them) President, Board of Directors

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

From the Inaugural Interim Council to our current staff and Board of Directors, we carry our ancestors with us, and bring diverse skill sets in community organizing, cooperative development, radical cosmologies, climate justice, land tenure models development, holistic network services, food and land sovereignty, farming, education, ecological restoration, herbalism, and global Indigenous ways of honoring the land and each other. Together we build a land trust with clarity of focus, intentionality, and lived experience that centers the voices of farmers, land stewards, and earth workers of the communities we represent.

In 2017, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and migrant farmers and earth workers of color gathered for winter potlucks to break the isolation of rural life, share skills, and discuss the circumstances that would care for and feed our communities and the land.What began as a way to connect quickly became a movement to reclaim our relationships to the land and each other.

ORIGIN STORY

During initial gatherings, one of the key barriers to food sovereignty named was permanent access to environmentally healthy, affordable land – a barrier that in turn directly influences a food system built upon the seized land peoples Indigenous to Turtle Island and the labor and forced displacement from our ancestral territories of people Indigenous to Africa and Asia. We decided to wait no longer for the systems and structures that maintain inequity to be corrected. We decided to reclaim our place as stewards of the land, continuing to move into our responsibilities to feed our people and conserve ecologically precious land in the face of a changing climate, by working to advance land and food sovereignty through sustainable farming, native ecosystem stewardship, and facilitation of access to land for Northeastern Indigenous communities. It was at these collective gatherings that the seed of NEFOC Land Trust was planted. Since its inception, NEFOC network membership has quintupled and become a hub of community building, skill sharing, and ideation advancing land and kincentric community care.

CORE TO THE LAND TRUST IS GROWING INTERDEPENDENT AND RECIPROCAL COMMUNITY RELATIONS THAT RECOGNIZE THE LAND AND LABOR STOLEN TO BUILD THE CURRENT DOMINANT SYSTEMS. To this end, NEFOC-LT’s core values center rematriation, reparations, and a just response to crises of climate migration. We as Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian people developed covenants with land rooted in mutual respect and belonging, having invented technologies for sustainable and regenerative stewardship of the land. With this inheritance from our ancestral lineages, we are decolonizing the food system – rebuilding it for us and by us as a pathway to find our way home to sacred relationship with land, whole health, and the joyful existence we deserve. We are grateful to our original fiscal sponsor Soul Fire Farm Institute for providing the initial nourishment to grow that seed through offering administrative and technical assistance. As we know, as seedlings grow, they can become rootbound if they expand beyond the capacity of their container, so we are excited to now be a fiscally sponsored project of Movement Sustainability Commons, a project of Resist, Inc.

SIBLING PARTNERS We planted and tended the seed of this vision in January 2019 and have been cultivating the essential foundation of an organization that is meant to last “in perpetuity.” While challenging systems that marginalize, we are partnering with siblings and allies, building public awareness, and growing support to address inequities in food and land access systems. Beyond strengthening our connectedness and collective efforts, our partnerships are sprouting kinship, gifts, challenges, epiphanies, knowledge transfer, and pivots In national attention that ultimately continue to inspire those with land-based wealth and organizational capacity to redistribute their resources.

SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS BY US FOR US

THROUGH THIS EMBODIED, BIPOC-LED MYCELIAL NETWORK, WE HAVE...

We choose to embrace the covenant of working together to advance liberation for all, rejecting scarcity in all forms. We are committed to radical equity, sovereignty, and agency. By rematriating land and creating regenerative practices based in gift economies and reparations, we (re)connect BIPOC with the land, fortifying the longevity of our communities’ elders, contributing to the vitality of our young people, and carrying our ancestors’ seed stories - of spirit ecology, resistance, inter-generational collaboration, agricultural ingenuity, and the indeliable connection between healthy land and the sustenance offered. By reimagining connections to land, policy, food, and economies that are sustainable, regenerative, and hyper-local, we will house, nourish, and protect our families, communities, and nations.

Reshaped the binary U.S. land access system that separates community from conservation, instead reconnecting humans to their reciprocal responsabilities to the land and inspiring a hybrid, kincentric land trust model

WE ARE RESHAPING THE SYSTEMS THAT CONTINUE TO MARGINALIZE OUR COMMUNITIES Our overarching goal is to co-create a critical mass of self-determined communities generating scalable knowledge together, while synthesizing, sharing, and embodying mechanisms and expressions of land-based solidarity. We thank our siblings - the organizers, the visionaries, and the doers working within communities, in organizations, and in collectives to co-create a more liberatory world for us, for everyone.

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

Co-created an integrated Ecosystem in New York to support and nourish Black farmers’ access to capital, land, education, training, and markets Begun Braiding Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty in Solidarity (BLISS) Shared our ancestral Food Stories Co-created safer spaces for BIPOC farmers and earth tenders to engage in skill sharing, education, and convening Tended our relationship with the land and each other through holistic technical assistance Challenged inequitable philanthropic practices and Liberated Investment in the Food & Farm Ecosystem (LIFE) Called for and built a framework for shifts in policy that champion BIPOC land access in Every Town in Vermont Nurtured the seedlings of our first land relationship projects with Wildseed Community Farm & Healing Village in New York and farmers of color in Vermont

Black Farmers Ecosystem

RELEAF COLLECTIVE BRAIDING SEEDS FELLOWSHIP SUSU COMMUNITY FARM IN LIVING COLOR MINNOW BLACK FARMER FUND BLACK FARMERS UNITED OF NEW YORK STATE CORBIN HILL FOOD PROJECT FARM SCHOOL NYC SOUL FIRE FARM

South New England Farmers of Color Collaborative Building and Strengthening Social and Economic Sustainability among New York State Black Farmers FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT BUFFALO GO GREEN

Braided Bliss Partners CENTER FOR WHOLE COMMUNITIES LAND PEACE FOUNDATION BOMAZEEN LAND TRUST KUNSIKEYA TAMAKOCE RACIAL EQUITY & JUSTICE MINNOW West New York Food Stories FOOD FOR THE SPIRIT BUFFALO GO GREEN URBAN FRUITS & VEGGIES BUFFALO FREEDOM GARDENS

LIFE – Liberating Investment in the Food and Farm Ecosystem NATIONAL BLACK FOOD AND JUSTICE ALLIANCE HEAL FOOD NOW ALLIANCE BROOKLYN MOVEMENT CENTER MINNOW RAFI-USA LA SEMILLA FOOD CENTER KITCHEN TABLE ADVISORS BLACK DIRT FARM COLLECTIVE OPERATION SPRING PLANT UPROOTED AND RISING AGRI-CULTURA COOPERATIVE

ALLIED PARTNERS VERMONT LAW SCHOOL CENTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SYSTEMS COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE CULTIVATING COMMUNITY EARTH LAW CENTER FIRST LIGHT LEARNING JOURNEY HARVARD LAW TRANSACTIONAL CLINIC KALLIOPEIA FOUNDATION NORTH THETFORD CHURCH, Thetford, VT AGRARIAN TRUST SEEDING POWER VERMONT SUFFOLK LAW TRANSACTIONAL CLINIC VERMONT LAND TRUST FARMERS AND RANCHERS STRESS ASSISTANCE NETWORK NORTHEAST (FRSAN-NE) PACE LAW SCHOOL FOOD & BEVERAGE CLINIC SUFFOLK LAW HUMAN RIGHTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S CLINIC NEW SCHOOL – ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

ALLIED PARTNERS IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Values-aligned allies collaborating to advance our mission in the Northeast

Moving at the speed of trust often ensures that those with the most structural power and resources reciprocate through offerings of in-kind intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual labor that support our ability to focus on our mission and vision. By advancing the redistribution of land-based wealth, leveraging technical assistance, advocating in ways that respect our communities’ collective self-determination, linking arms to transfer knowledge in right relationship, sharing and co-creating pathways for innovations in land stewardship and land tenure, and leaning into ancestral accountability, our allied partners work alongside us to repair the harm caused by a legacy of extraction, enslavement, and land dispossession. We are grateful to our Allied partners, commiserators, and disruptors of the colonial system who have stepped back, made space, and transferred resources, including land and other generational wealth.

THROUGH THESE BRIDGES OF PARTNERSHIP WE HAVE... Challenged inequitable philanthropic practices and Liberated Investment in the Food & Farm Ecosystem (LIFE) Developed legal tools to build our hybrid land trust model, human rights frameworks to defend our communities from racialized violence, and a fulsome Indigenous Consultation policy Moved into stewardship of Thetford Church, now as a BIPOC community center for the purposes above, as well as education, cultural activities, and events Co-created policy that acknowledges the Rights of Nature and Personhood for more-than-human beings Nurtured the seedlings of our first land relationship projects with Wildseed Community Farm & Healing Village in New York and farmers of color in Vermont

Co-developed the Faithlands Toolkit, which provides vital information on ways to activate churches, temples, and other places of worship, religious, or spiritual study in the work of rematriation and/or building land commons Called for and built a framework for shifts in policy that champion BIPOC land access in Every Town in Vermont Improved behavioral health awareness, knowledge, access, and outcomes for farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers of color in the Northeast by developing a service provider network that can assist and meet the unique needs of agricultural workers Strengthened the roots of farmers of color in Maine through co-created skill building workshops and networking opportunities, including education with and for New American farmers, Indigenous farmers, and other Farmers of Color to gather, deepen, and nourish relationships in the Northeast region

reparations map “To be truly regenerative, we must be reparative” - anonymous The food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and people of color. Members of the Northeast Farmers of Color Network are claiming our sovereignty and calling for reparations of land and resources so that we can grow nourishing food and distribute it in our communities. We are so excited about this powerful opportunity for peer-to-peer solidarity. Catatumbo Cooperative Farms recieved $3,000 for their farm!

Roots2Empower received $10,000 for program development!

REPARATIONS MAP EXPERIENCES CONTINUED... “The reparations map is a revolutionary opportunity for truth and reconciliation between American descendants of slave owners and enslaved Africans.” Sia Alexander, Heal Love Now Farm (Stewarding land in Lumbee and Chesapeake territory, aka Norfolk, VA)

“I really appreciate the Reparations Map, it's such a thoughtful tool to encourage support and community and allow folks to find organizations near them to give to and elevate. For me specifically it means a lot to be featured on the map, to feel validated and supported in the work we do on our farm. Land access is so complicated and difficult that raising this awareness is very important for the future of farming.” Michelle M. Week, x̌ ast sqit (hast squeit) in Sinixt, translates to (Good Rain, OR)

“It means we can find each other as well as determine and name our needs directly. I love seeing how many of us are here working on the land and I’m hoping some sort of collective reparations map funding can happen in the near future.” Vivíana Moreno, Catatumbo Cooperative Farm (Stewarding land on the overlapping territories of: Peoria, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Myaamia, Kiikaapoi, Kaskaskia and Bodwéwadmi, aka Chicago, IL)

REPARATIONS MAP EXPERIENCES “As queer Black and Latine women with no generational wealth, the map provides tools for building an equitable community with allies.” Dawn Martin, Yara Farm (Stewarding land in Munsee-Lenape territory, aka Middletown, NY)

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

“Reparations means expanding the community and healing for both the giver and receiver. This is step number 1 as we all heal towards a better future together!” Randy S. Woodley, Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice and Eloheh Farm & Seeds (Working in the territory of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Rhode, aka Yamhill, OR)

CATATUMBO COOPERATIVE FARM

ELOHEH INDIGENOUS CENTER FOR EARTH Confederated Tribes of Grand Rhode territory

Peoria; Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Myaamia, Kiikaapoi, Kaskaskia and Bodwéwadmi territories

HEAL LOVE NOW FARM Lumbee and Chesapeake Territory

GOOD RAIN FARM Confederated Tribes of the Grand Rhode, Siletz Indians, Warm Springs, and tribes of Yakama, Chinook, and Cowlitz territories

$171,363 reported reparations in 2021

YARA FARM Munsee-Lenape Territory

170 projects and counting

emergent THE CORE OF NEFOC IS OUR NETWORK. THIS NETWORK OF 506 FARMERS OF COLOR, LAND STEWARDS, AND EARTH WORKERS IS AN INFORMAL ALLIANCE OF BLACK, LATINX, INDIGENOUS, AND ASIAN FARMERS MAKING OUR LIVES ON LAND IN NEW ENGLAND AND UPSTATE NEW YORK. TOGETHER WE COLLECTIVELY ENVISION WAYS TO BE IN RECIPROCITY WITH LAND, IN THE PROCESS

inreach

REDEFINING WHAT THE WORD "FARMER" STANDS FOR.

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

WE REACHED OVER 6,500 AT WORKSHOPS, PRESENTATIONS, PANELS, AND WEBINARS

AND

OUTREACH SINCE THE BEGINNING OF 2018 OUR MEMBERS HAVE................ Planted the seeds of sovereignty by connecting in rural areas and building community and safe spaces to develop self-determination and systems of collective healing

MENTIONED IN 41 MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS, JOURNALS, RADIO, SHOWS AND PODCASTS

Catalyzed and coordinated reparations for bipoc farmers and land stewards in the Northeast positively impacting our collective and individual wellbeing Knitted solidarity exchanges and systems that support and grow network stewards/leaders, reflecting range of interest and diversity on ancestral knowledge “I'm feeling hopeful. I have to thank you and the NEFOC network for that. I am meeting BIPOC and LGBTQ growers out here because of it. I've been isolated from my peeps for so long in following this farm dream." Betsy Ho, NEFOC member since 2018

"It has been amazing to see the growth of our beautifully diverse community of land stewards. NEFOC continues to create spaces for us to share ideas, gain skills and find financial and technical support. I really appreciate how Northeast Farmers of Color shows up to represent our interest and always advocates for farmers first. NEFOC is not an institution, it is a thriving community and I am so proud to be a part of it." Arian Rivera, The Black Yard Farm Collective

our values KINCENTRIC CONNECTION WITH LAND

We are the land and the land is us

RIGHT RELATIONSHIP We honor and prioritize working together in regenerative, non-extractive relationships

ANCESTORS ACROSS THE GENERATIONS

LIBERATION THROUGH VISION and ACTION We commit to envisioning and acting to realize liberatory futures of food and land sovereignty

RADICAL EQUITY and INCLUSION Language justice, disability justice, and inclusive spaces are essential to the work of land sovereignty and liberation

CLIMATE STEWARDSHIP and REGENERATIVE LAND CARE We root in our ancestors' approach to land care as sacred practice of climate stewardship

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

We steward the land for past and future generations

MUTUAL SUPPORT and ACCOUNTABILITY We believe cooperative - rather than individual or private land stewardship and transformative justice approaches are key to ensuring the future well being of land and our communities

NORTHEAST FARMERS OF COLOR LAND TRUST APPROACH TO BIPOC LAND AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

LAND NETWORK

CLIMATE JUSTICE & POLICY

Holistic Technical Assistance Market Connections Land Tenure Access Network Mapping Braiding Seeds en español

Regional and National Policy Platforms

ADVOCATES & FORTIFIES Land Network

SEEDS & STRENGTHENS Relationships and Reciprocity

RELATIONSHIPS & RECIPROCITY Indigenous Partnerships & Consultation Braided B.L.I.S.S. Developement & Fundraising Biocultural Restoryation

Policy, Partnerships and Climate Justice

Collaborative Stewardship Climate Justice Advocacy

DEFENDS & AMENDS

Community Conservation

RECIPROCATES & STEWARDS

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION Climate Migration Multi-species Jurisprudence Kincentric Conservation Soul of Stewardship

ARE

THIS

WORLD

but

not

THIS

WORLD

nefoc programs Though many BIPOC land stewards enact practices proven over generations to support ecosystem health and fortify resilience to climate change effects, we also find our vulnerability heightened by land dispossession, insecure land tenure, systemic discrimination, inaccessible capital, and a lack of culturally relevant technical assistance and research. Recognizing this, NEFOC’s initiatives aim to pick away the threads of historically unjust food and land systems, stitching a vibrant new quilt of policies and programs along the way. In collaboration with sibling organizations in Fall 2020, we surveyed our network of current and aspiring Black, Indigenous, and other land stewards of color about their needs, dreams, challenges, triumphs, and more. Through member responses and ongoing requests, we have designed and hope to continue honing multi-faceted, strategic Land Trust programs that meet our communities’ vital needs.

“IN THE LEGEND ARE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE LANGUAGE OF THE LAND, HOW IT WAS WE FORGOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE GIFT, AS IF WE WERE NOT IN IT OR OF IT. FRESH COURAGE GLIMMERS FROM PLANETS. AND LIGHTS THE MAP PRINTED WITH THE BLOOD OF HISTORY, A MAP YOU WILL HAVE TO KNOW BY YOUR INTENTION, BY THE LANGUAGE OF SUNS." Joy Harjo, poet of the Muscogee Nation, in "A Map to the Next World"

acting for climate justice As always, this work will root in NEFOC's reparations and rematriation frameworks and in our ancestors' approach to land care as sacred practice of climate stewardship. As we strive to ensure that considerations of structural racism and historical land and labor theft factor into state, regional, and national decisionmaking, we will demand investment in BIPOC-led training, research, and technical assistance programs and in policies that expand access to resources for current and aspiring land stewards. We will underscore that policies beholden to life of ecosystems must channel resources to the original land stewards and to our communities currently dispossessed of land, while creating pathways for BIPOC stewards to build livelihoods and communal wealth across generations. Throughout, all of our programs will collaborate to propel legal and policy "Rights of Nature" protections for the land - recognizing the essential lives of urban and rural forests, waterways, and other beings along with those of our human relatives.

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

our newest programs CLIMATE JUSTICE POLICY Entering its inaugural year, the Climate Justice Policy (CJS) Program will advocate for relationships and policy supports that together can crystallize NEFOC's purpose and goals into collective action. Recognizing the disparate impact climate change will have on BIPOC land stewards, this program facilitates leadership, engagement, and collaborative policy development among and in support of our land steward network. Together we will craft and promote NEFOC's policy platform and calls to action with feedback from members and forge climate justice links with other Black and Indigenous-led land trusts across Turtle Island.

BLACK LAND STEWARDSHIP While the role of the industrial agricultural complex has grown, the presence of Black Land Stewards on Turtle Island has declined over the last century, leading to alienation from land, poor social determinants of health, and multiple forms of disconnection, yet Black Land Stewards have a rich lineage of sustainable land relationship. Today, just 1.4 percent of farmers identify as Black or mixed race compared with about 14 percent 100 years ago. These farmers represent less than 0.5 percent of total US farm sales and operate at 70 percent of US peer-level farm revenue with a 14 percent operating margin gap versus white farmers. The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust was co-created by Black Land Stewards to, in part, address this. Due to the project of capitalist white supremacy operationalized through settler colonialism and capitalism, ongoing discriminatory federal programs and policies that have exluded Black folks from systemic supports for maintaining land relationship; the absence of legal protections that transfer

the inheritance of land relationship to the next generation (heirs' property); limited access to capital through discriminatory lending practices; and limited access to culturallyrelevant, sustainable, spirit-connected land relationship practices, multiple barriers have impeded Black Land Stewards in enacting their desired roles and responsibilities to their communiities and the land. The Black Land Stewardship (BLS) program operationalizes NEFOC Land Trust's vision through development, maintenance, and refinement of the structures, systems, and processes required for Black Land Stewards to thrive. In partnership with the Bundle held by NEFOC-LT Program Co-directors, the BLS Co-Director will enhance the vision and mission of NEFOC Land Trust by first developing and then deliverying and administering the inaugural Black Land Steward Program. This includes cultivation and collaboration across communities, sibling, and allied organizations in the Northeast and nationally who make up the spectrum of supports with and for Black Land Stewards.

land network program Network services and holistic technical assistance The Land Network program is a means to advance land sovereignty in the Northeast. Within the system we inhabit today, we are weaving relationships that facilitate mutual responsibility between the land and her people. From the individual to the collective, our current work embraces the complex reality of implementing land tenure models that nurture the land, speak to our self-determination, and enrich our communities through healing, consent, trust, and responsibility. Worked with

"TO US, MOTHER EARTH IS NOT ONLY A SOURCE OF ECONOMIC RICHES THAT GIVES US THE MAIZE, WHICH IS OUR LIFE, BUT SHE ALSO PROVIDES SO MANY OTHER THINGS THAT THE PRIVILEGED ONES OF TODAY STRIVE FOR. THE LAND IS THE ROOT AND THE SOURCE OF OUR CULTURE." JRigoberta Menchú Tum, K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize aLureate

Supported

125

farmers supporting in their native language the process of creating non-extractive lease agreements

BIPOC farmers starting or scaling up their farm operations Advised BIPOC land stewards in the process of acquiring means to practice right relationship to

100 acres of land

Re-weaving a new tapestry for regenerative BIPOC tenure relationships with land requires inter-generational and interregional collaborations in the Northeast. By building communities based in cooperative economics, regenerative agriculture, and cultural celebration, we are seeding and strengthening holistic services to land stewards and farmers with a kaleidoscope of intersectional identities who are moving respectfully and ethically into consensual land-based collective or individual projects. In the last year, we worked on identifying elements, processes, and practices at a range of scales. In our micro-scale, through direct one-on-one holistic assistance, we worked with more than 125 BIPOC farmers in the Northeast who are starting their farm businesses or scaling up their operations. We advise BIPOC land stewards in the process of acquiring means to practice stewardship in right relationship to 100 acres of land in

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

Wabanaki, Munsee-Lenape, and Haudenosaunee territories. We worked for six farmers displaced from their homelands, supporting in their native language the process of creating non-extractive lease agreements to start their farm businesses after decades of work on other farms. In our macro-scale work, we provided guidance and support to both established and nascent collectives, networks, and fellowships that are advancing food sovereignty, climate justice, and mental health in their local or regional communities. With that work underway, we are fortifying our services to the NEFOC network and the networks nested within. In working to build a world where communities of color can sustain themselves through growing food and sharing agroecological knowledge, we hope to participate in the healing of generations of trauma from dehumanization, genocide, displacement, enslavement, and land loss.

everytown vermont Every Town has grown into two wings, the Neighbors network and the Land Matching Committee. The Neighbors network is made up of volunteer anti-racist individuals and mutual aid groups from around the state that form a web of resources, support and safety for BIPOC in Vermont. Every Town offers trainings to network members on how best to create safe space in their communities. Our programming so far has included herbal first aid, de-escalation, self defense, conflict resolution, and anti-oppression trainings. The Land Matching Committee is a BIPOC group working to create an equitable process for matching stewards with land, inviting more members to aid in decision making and utilizing a database of steward applications. In partnership with the Vermont Releaf Collective, we are in communication with 200 BIPOC

throughout Vermont, the community we are actively working to serve. In Fall 2020, Every Town began a collaboration with a group of volunteer carpenters to build infrastructure for BIPOC land projects throughout Vermont. The group has since formed a cooperative called Just Construction and has built three cabins, two chicken coops, a composting toilet outhouse and outdoor shower, serving five BIPOC projects. In the past year four parcels of land have entered the donation process. Each of the towns where land is being donated have strong neighbors support and the BIPOC land stewards that are matched with this land will find home and community in these towns. The land being donated in North Thetford is home to a large church that will act as a community center for NEFOC and the Vermont Releaf Collective.

4 Training sessions on confronting racism

"Neighbors Potlucks" + Online Meetings

Herbal First Aid Workshop

Weekend long BIPOC wilderness training Four parcels of land in various stages of the donation process

Gave

assistance to 20 land stewards and served the Releaf Network

Over 132 people reached

Held meetings with the Neighbors Networks comprised of 10

groups and 30 individuals

community conservation program WE ARE BUILDING AN INDEXICAL TOOL TO HELP ORGANIZE IDENTIFIED LIMITATIONS AND OBSTACLES THAT MAY PREVENT THE REALIZATION OF A CULTURAL SHIFT IN LAND SOVEREIGNTY AND STEWARDSHIP

4 workshops

187 attendees

WE ARE DEVELOPING A FELLOWSHIP TO TRAIN A NEW COMMUNITY OF RITUAL SERVICE PROVIDERS CAPABLE OF DIRECTLY INTERVENING AT SITES OF LAND TRANSACTIONS IN SERVICE TO MULTISPECIES JUSTICE AND ANTI-IMPERIAL STEWARDSHIP

4 panels

732 attendees in total

"BREAK A VASE AND THE LOVE THAT ASSEMBLES THE FRAGMENTS IS STRONGER THAN THAT LOVE WHICH TOOK ITS SYMMETRY FOR GRANTED WHEN IT WAS WHOLE." Derek Walcott St. Lucian Poet and Nobel Prize Laureate

WE ARE EXPLORING WAYS IN WHICH COMMUNITYBASED ORGANIZATIONS AND UNIVERSITIES PARTNER TO CO-DESIGN CURRICULA THAT CENTER AND ADVANCE BIPOC/QTBIPOC LAND REMATRIATION/REPARATIONS AND LAND-BASED LIBERATION THROUGH PLACE-BASED EMANCIPATORY AND DECOLONIAL EDUCATION

The Community Conservation program is a means to improve the world-making capacity of all our relations. We focus on self-determined and autonomous planning, anti-imperial education, material and spatial intervention, realizing earth jurisprudence, and multispecies justice. Our current work is building ecologies that influence and sustain the culture of landbased workers who will be contributing to the complex international geoengineering projects used to address climate change crises and conflicts. This is the work of preservation, defense, and actualizing wellness through gifted land stewardship. We are open and responsive, and seek partnership with those making radical changes in harmony with the ecological landscape, building relationships that do not depend on a

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state, market system, or socialized care. Our work is relational, and we seek to build communities that can hold each other through the necessary processes of decolonization, leaving certain futures open for us all. Care of the land is always political, but it has been particularly so in this period of settler colonial planetary devastation centered on white supremacist ideology. For us, it is vital to draw clear lines in the soil for anti-colonial movement. In working to build a world where communities of colour can sustain themselves through growing food and sharing agro-ecological knowledge, we hope to participate in the healing of generations of trauma from dehumanisation, genocide, displacement, enslavement, and land loss.

relationships and reciprocity program Building relationships with

12 First Nations

All work at NEFOC Land Trust leads to a better foundation in Reciprocal Relationships. Working together is a cyclical, interdependent process that spans Sibling, Allied, and bridge spaces that, at their core, are grounded in regenerative, non-extractive relationships. The Relationships and Reciprocity program is a gateway leading away from tran-sactional, siloed, paternalistic approaches to land access and toward building bridges of myriad ways of being. In this way we are restorying the landscape of systems that control, empower, and make real our access to health and joy.

While we strive to survive and dismantle systemic oppression, it is important that we build between Black and Indigenous communities while celebrating our common ground and advancing a politic of solidarity. We give no energy to any oppressive acts restricting our imagination and negatively impacting our ability to work effectively across our differences. Our Braided BLISS (Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty in Solidarity) is co-creating land-based abolitionist group learning opportunities that hold space for nurturing relationships through truth-telling and joyful ceremony.

In order for us to move forward with respect and reciprocity while linking farmers of color with land, it is essential that we do not cause further harm via the colonial violence of land access without consent. Our Indigenous Community Consultation and Partnerships program is a co-creative, iterative process that centers the voices of Indigenous communities and traditional leadership, with a focus on nation-to-nation relationship and respecting and honoring our inherent rights and responsibilities.

Working to advance land and food sovereignty can’t be done in a vacuum. To ensure we’re working across barriers and moving land-based wealth from colonial hands to sovereign lands, we are developing a partnership with First Light Learning Journey to expand access and connection to land through the development of transformative tools that will gauge the readiness of land trusts hoping to embark upon relationships with First Nations in Haudenosaunee, Nipmuc, Mohican, Lenape, Cowasuck, and Abenaki territories.

"...THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF AND THE WORLD IS RECIPROCAL, IT IS NOT A QUESTION OF FIRST GETTING ENLIGHTENED OR SAVED AND THEN ACTING. AS WE WORK TO HEAL THE EARTH, THE EARTH HEALS US." ROBIN WALL KIMMERER Scholar, author, and member of the Potawatomi Nation, in "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants."

regeneration and restoryation All work at NEFOC Land Trust leads to a better foundation in Reciprocal Relationships. Working together is a cyclical, interdependent process that spans Sibling, Allied, and bridge spaces that, at their core, are grounded in regenerative, non-extractive relationships. The Relationships and Reciprocity program is a gateway leading away from transactional, siloed, paternalistic approaches to land access and toward building bridges of myriad ways of being. In this way we are “Re-storying” the landscape of systems that control, empower, and make real our access to health and joy. INDIGENOUS CONSULTATION & PARTNERSHIPS In order for us to move forward with respect and reciprocity while linking farmers of color with land, it is essential that we do not cause further harm via the colonial violence of land access without consent. Our Indigenous Community Consultation and Partnerships program is a co-creative, iterative process that centers the voices of Indigenous communities and traditional leadership, with a focus on nation-to-nation relationship and respecting and honoring our inherent rights and responsibilities. BRAIDED B.L.I.S.S. While we strive to survive and dismantle systemic oppression, it is important that we build between Black and Indigenous communities while celebrating our common ground and advancing a politic of solidarity. We give no energy to any oppressive acts restricting our imagination and negatively impacting our ability to work effectively across our differences. Our Braided BLISS (Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty in Solidarity) is co-creating land-based abolitionist group learning opportunities that hold space for nurturing relationships through truth-telling and joyful ceremony. BIOCULTURAL RE-STORY-ATION Working to advance land and food sovereignty can’t be done in a vacuum. To ensure we’re working across barriers and moving land-based wealth from colonial hands to sovereign lands, we are working with the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment to weave new land justice frameworks, build relationships with Indigenous nations, and collaborate to restore and Re-Story ecosystems and Indigenous land stewardship.

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the gift of land In this time of intertwined crises – of pandemic, climate change, and systems wrought from centuries of destruction – we invoke with powerful urgency the arc of generations before and yet to come, through action that honors and sustains the land and all beings. In the world that the Northeast Farmers of Color (NEFOC) Land Trust is creating, an acceptable land gift is an offering by a community or individual that seeks to undo violence in policies and imperialistic practices, tell the truth, and make kin. WORKING WITH COMMUNITY LAND GIFTS These are gifts from hearts full of gratitude, not shame or guilt. We welcome any land presented to us out of staunch commitment to contributing to building an alternative, to moving not through us – but with us – toward liberation, and a return of kin. Working with us is moving onto a bridge of relationship – one where our collective ancestors can arrive to a place of healing, rest, and repair; where violence is transformed into love; where our concept of kin expands from bone to stone, flesh to soil, and wombs to waterways; where bellies are full of nourishment, laughter, and resonant seed songs.

WE BELIEVE LANDSCAPES CAN BE REPOSITORIES OF MEMORY, PLACES FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE BECOME KIN THROUGH THE SHARING OF OUR ANCESTRAL STORIES. An acceptable land gift is an opportunity to refuse the disembodiment of belonging that comes from playing the Settler State and Capital game. If you are invested in working in community to regenerate a sense and embodiment of belonging, please reach out. We want to hear from you! We are committed to working with individuals, families, institutions, and communities who are interested in cultivating and or stewarding land as an expression of their values.

THIS IS WHY WE INVITE YOU TO JOIN US IN THE WORK OF GROWING THE NORTHEAST FARMERS OF COLOR LAND TRUST.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS JANUARY 2019 - SEPTEMBER 2021

$9,547.50 CONTRACT SERVICES $4,000.00 PROGRAM EXPENSES

$121,487.42 FISCAL SPONSORSHIP $355,692.44 PAYROLL

$14,178.65 TRAVEL TRAINING OFFICE EXPENSES

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years

$504,906.01 TOTAL EXPENDITURE

gratitude DONATIONS GRANTS

40.20%

59.80%

DONOR TESTIMONIALS "The gifts of your knowledge and experiences with reconnecting the land and the people who worked and understood this land had and continue to have ripples of connection pulsating with many of the people and entities that came to our plenary and workshop. The work that you are doing with NEFOC-LT and your community is essential for future generations and Mother Earth." David Vanderhoop, Aquinnah Wampanoag, Sassafras Earth Education

"I support NEFOC-LT because I believe that a racially just, ecologically resilient future depends on our ability to recognize and repair the violent colonial history of the land that sustains all of us. I am committed to working towards reparations for Black farmers, rematriation of sovereign Indigenous lands, and uplifting BIPOC voices in every aspect of food, farming and land conservation."

"I'm proud to support NEFOC Land Trust because this work is the kind of healing I believe in: grounded in restoring people's relationship to land and land sovereignty, together. Join us, and let's build the connections that build towards the redistribution and rematriation." Lucy Kahn, Returning donor

Avalon Bunge, volunteer grant writer and editor

DONORS

ANNA CYNAR BRUCE HAIN COLE BARASH ADDIE HOLLAND ANNA MEYER BRYAN BROWN COLLEEN & GARY DUNNING AIDAN KOCH ANNA V. WESTLEY BURLINGTON BEER COMPANY COMMON COUNSEL FOUNDATION AIHAM KORBAGE ANNA WEBBER BUSHEL + CRUMB COMMONPLACE FUND ALAN HOMANS ANNALEE BEAULIEU BYLANDORSEA CHARITABLE FUND COMMUNITY FOUNDATION FOR SB COUNTY ALAN SWEDLUND ANNALISE HAGEN CAITLIN AND KYLE OBENAUER CONWAY HART FARM ALANA KUMBIER ANNE KEHL CAITLIN BELCHER COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE ALANA THOMPSON ANNE RICHMOND CAITLIN BURLETT CORINNE BRYSON ALANNA ROSE ANNIE HOPE CAITLIN GUARE CRISTINA COSENTINO ALDEN DIRKS ANONYMOUS CAITLIN HOPKINS CRISTINA GARCIA ALEKS ANONYMOUS CAITLIN ROBEN-LOOKER CRISTINA SCIUTO ALEX FISHER ANTOINE BRACY CAITLIN SALEMI CRYSTAL HAYLING ALEXANDER KATZ ARDELIA FARM & CO LLC CAITLIN BURKE CS FUND, WARSH MOTT LEGACY ALEXANDRA SCHOEN ARIANA TAYLOR-STANLEY CALEB PC SCHONFELD CULTIVATING COMMUNITY ALEXANDRA VANGSNES ARNOLD CLICKSTEIN CAMDEN HILLS REGIONAL HIGH CYNDY B DAVIS ALICE KLINGENER ARTHUR HAYES CAMERON RAIA CYNTHIA HENEBRY ALICIA HARVIE ASHLEY TRAVERS CARLA COSTA DAINA HARVEY ALISON NIHART ATHENA TORRI MAECK (HVWO) CARLA D DANIEL GROVER ALISON PERKUS AUDREY HABERMANN CARO CARTY DANIEL KAHN ALIYA BONAR AUGUST PUBLIC CAROL FINE DANIEL REALE & SARRA H REALE, JT TEN ALLISON BROWN AUGUSTUS GRIFFIN CAROL KIRN DANIEL ROSENBERG ALLISON OSKAR AVENA BOTANICALS CAROLINE ROSZELL DANIEL SCHNIEDEWIND ALLISON PATRICK AVERY LAVOIE CAROLYN EDSELL-VETTER DARCY SPENCE ALLISON RYAN AYNSLEY KIRSHENBAUM CAROLYN HOLT DARRYL BLOOM ALLISON WILLIAMS BANYAN COACHING & CONSULTING CAROLYN HUNTRESS DAVE RICHARDSON ALLYSON CHURCH BARRY LAPPING CAROLYN SNELL DESIGNS DAVID CREWS ALPRILLA FARM BARTLETT FUND CASEY AND TWYLLA ELLISON DAVID DICKINSON ALYSSA GERSONY BEANA BERN CASEY STERN DAVID HOWARD ALYSSA RIVERA BEAR ROOTS FARM CATHERINE AIELLO DAVID OUTMAN AMANDA HUTCHINSON BEATRICE BARBARESCHI CATHERINE DURKIN DAVID SNYDER AMBER WAVES MARKET BEDS & BORDERS, INC. CALYX FARM DAVID WILKENS FIDELITY CHARITABLE FUND AMEY ZHANG BEN MEYERS CATHY STANTON DEBBY VAJDA AMPERSAND PESTER BEN MUSKIN CEDAR DAVIDSON DEBORAH AMY BRODIGAN BENJAMIN CORWIN CHAD F DEBORAH EVERETT AMY DORFMAN BENJAMIN GAZSI CHAD PURKEY DEBORAH GANSTER AMY GUPTILL BENJAMIN WESTBROOK CHADLEY HOLLAS DEBORAH HABIB AMY LITTLEFIELD BENJAMIN WOLBACH CHARLES COCHRAN DEBRA KRAEMER AMY PROIETTI BERKSHIRE COMPOST CHARLES VERMETTE DEIDRE SOUSA ANASTACIA BOLINA BETH HUISKING CHARLOTTE GUTERMAN DENISE WATFORD ANDREA ROSEN BETSY THOMASON CHARLOTTE PERKINS DENNIS DERRYCK ANDREW ALLEN BIG PICTURE FARM LLC CHELSEA FRISBEE DEVIN DELANEY ANDREW GRAHAM BLAIR SANDO CHELSEA GAZILLO DEVON KELLEY-YURDIN ANDREW KEHL BO DENNIS CHIARA CAPPETTA DIANA COWDERY ANDREW LINEGAR BOOT BOYZ BIZ CHLOE HEINTZ DIANA LEMPEL ANDREW MOREHOUSE BORT CARLETON CHRISTIAN TOTTY DIANA MCCARGO ANDREW PESTER BRAIDING SEEDS FELLOWSHIP CHRISTINA KIRIVONG DIANE ANDERSON ANDREW PLOTSKY BREAD FROM THE EARTH LLC CHRISTINA SAMSON DIEGO MONTES ANDREW RANDAZZO BRENDAN FLANNELLY-KING CHRISTINA VEGA-WESTHOFF DIG INN RESTAURANT GROUP LLC ANDREW X BRENDAN MCMANUS CHRISTINE FOWLER DIGGERS’ MIRTH COLLECTIVE FARM ANDREW SOTTILE BRENDAN WAGNER CHRISTINE JAMES DONNA FELLINGER ANDREW TARLOW BRIAN BASOR CHRISTINE LAZOR DOUGLAS FEICK ANDY BAINTON BRIAN DEMBOSKI CHRISTINE NEGRA DOUGLASS DECANDIA ANDY KAIER BRIAN SCHOENHERR CHRISTOPHER HEFNER DYLAN REES ANGELA DEFELICE BRIANNA MERRILL CIANA BARNABA ET ANGELA FISCHER BRIANNE ZIFF CJ HOLM EDGAR FOUDRAY ANGELA GRAVELINE BRITA FISHER CLAIRE FELLMAN EDITH KONESNI ANGELA MCINTYRE BRITTON AND ALFRED CHAHINE CLAIRE STODOLA EDMOND SWANBERG ANN WICKHAM BROOKS WINNER CLEAN YIELD MANAGEMENT ELENA COLMAN

NEFOC / Annual Report 2019-2021 / Our First 3 Years