Community Farm Alliance is a statewide grassroots organization of persons committed to family-scale farming as the most efficient and sustainable form of producing the best quality food, while protecting the environment and strengthening rural community life.



We believe that family-scale farming and people working together lay a foundation for community life. Family scale farming has been eroded so significantly that we need to create a new system of agriculture that keeps people on the land. We seek to ensure the health and well being of rural communities by advocating rural economic development whose first priority is the protection of family-scale farming.



We believe that American society is best served by family-scale agriculture, and that corporate control of agriculture endangers our land, food, and communities. Family farmers best protect soil and water resources: family farmers are the most reliable producers of nutritious, reasonably priced food; and family farmers sustain thousands of rural communities.



We believe that all laborers and the farmer, too, must be allowed a fair return. Price for farm products need to be adequate for farm families to make a living and care for their farms.



We believe that all farmers and rural people, regardless of race, gender, age, nationality or economic level, need to work together for better policies and more prosperous communities.

Goals:





* To assist local communities identify their own long-term needs and act on those needs;

* To help local leadership acquire the skills of organizing, advocacy, and democratic participation;

* To build an organization that represents the interests of rural people in renewing the prosperity and quality of life of their communities;

* To build alliances between rural and urban organizations and individuals around food, land, and economic justice issues.

* To promote agricultural diversification projects that offer viable alternatives to tobacco and demonstrate needed policy changes; and

*To make institutions accountable to develop policies and programs that reflect the needs and priorities of our rural communities.