As more farm and food cooperatives pop up across North Carolina, advocates say they are creating a new model for food distribution and landownership that addresses long-standing inequities.

Today, white Americans own and operate 94% of all U.S. farmland. Indigenous people and those of color are less likely to be able to generate farm-related wealth, and more likely to be farm laborers. Meanwhile, the pandemic, inflation, and climate change continue to threaten the safety of food-industry workers, as well as food security overall.

Executive Director of the HEAL Food Alliance, Navina Khanna, argues the nation's industrial food system operates largely on a system of unfair labor.

"There are communities that are most hard hit," Khanna said, "whether that's migrant farmworkers, or folks who are working in meatpacking plants and being exploited by their employers."

But Khanna said BIPOC and immigrant-owned food and farm cooperatives are changing how food is produced across North Carolina. She points to cooperatives like Tierra Fértil -- a Hispanic, worker-owned cooperative in Hendersonville -- as an example of how critical land ownership is to equalizing the agricultural sector.

State and national advocates are looking toward locally-owned cooperatives as a way to boost land-ownership and wealth creation among historically marginalized communities.

Suparna Kudesia is known as the choreographer of collective change at the COFED Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive, which provides funding to BIPOC youth nationwide who are working in coops. Kudesia calls for philanthropic dollars focused on agriculture to prioritize Black and Brown local farm and food initiatives in the South, and especially those in the start-up phases.

"Specifically, the work that we've seen in North Carolina," Kudesia noted. "There are a number of Black and Brown-owned, worker-owned food and land cooperatives in North Carolina that are up and coming."

According to a report from the National Young Farmers Coalition, the number of young people of color interested in farming has increased, but access to high-quality farmland is their one number barrier.

The Environmental Protection Agency has upheld Montana farmers' right to repair their own equipment, and says doing so does not violate the Clean Air Act.

Montana farmers and ranchers joined with the National Farmers Union in writing to the EPA to oppose equipment manufacturers and dealers, who claimed farmers shouldn't be working on the emission-control systems on their high-dollar machinery. The farmers union said the dealers cited the Clean Air Act as justification for limiting the right to repair their own gear.

The EPA has sided with the farmers.

Montana Farmers Union President Walter Schweitzer said the last thing a farmer or rancher wants to do is run afoul of the Clean Air Act.

"It's quite frankly the opposite," he said. "What EPA wants and requires is the equipment manufacturers to give the farmers and ranchers, and the equipment owners, the tools so that they can maintain their emissions."

The "right to repair" movement isn't limited to farm machinery. Many states have legislation pending or have taken action on a person's right to have access to the tools they'd need to repair anything from smartphones and wheelchairs to e-tablets and heavy equipment.

Schweitzer added that when it comes to farming in Montana, waiting for an authorized tractor dealer to come to his farm and fix a piece of equipment can mean the difference between harvesting a crop before bad weather hits and losing it.

"Well, that happened to me," he said. "I was haying, had a tractor hooked to my baler, and I had a fuel sensor that was failing, and so it was shutting my tractor down randomly. So, here I am - I've got hay in a windrow ready to bale, rain could wreck it, and I don't have a tractor to bale."

The ruling by the EPA requires dealers to provide necessary software to farmers, allowing them to diagnose and fix their own farm equipment emissions issues. In this case, Schweitzer said, being able to do that would have saved him a $5,000 fuel-sensor repair bill.




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North Dakota farmers and fellow producers from around the country are in Washington, D.C., this week, calling on Congress to prioritize the soon-to-expire Farm Bill.

The sweeping policy, which carves out funding for agriculture programs as well as SNAP benefits, is updated every five years, and parts of the current version expire at the end of the month. The looming deadline is overshadowed by another fiscal fight: Lawmakers must agree on a broader spending plan by Oct. 1 to avoid a government shutdown.

Christopher Lundeby, a fifth-generation farmer from northeastern North Dakota, is among those meeting with members of Congress, asking them to kick-start efforts on the Farm Bill.

"You hope that they are truly feeling the same way that you are and are taking it to heart," Lundeby explained. "But at the same time, in the end, do they really agree with you or are they just trying to make you feel better?"

Lundeby is also with the North Dakota Farmers Union, which wants provisions like a stronger farm safety net, better and permanent disaster programs, and farmer-friendly climate provisions. But some House Republicans, namely the Freedom Caucus, have said they want reductions. Policy experts have said with an agreement out of reach for now, the current Farm Bill could see a temporary extension.

Even if a temporary extension happens, Lundeby pointed out there is real concern some aspects of the Farm Bill will be cut. He stressed with market concentration still a problem within agriculture, now is not the time to lose sight of protecting smaller farmers from corporate influence.

"Corporations and packers and other entities find the loopholes," Lundeby emphasized. "It needs work. It's getting better but it's still a struggle when it comes to some of the issues."

Labor organizations representing farmers also want federal policymakers to enact a competition title. They say it would increase fairness in the marketplace and address corporate consolidation in food and ag markets. Those who traveled to Washington to demand action are expected to wrap up their meetings today.

Rural advocates are calling on the state to tighten the rules governing Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations - or CAFOs - in rural Montana.

They claim current Department of Environmental Quality standards leave drinking water and other resources unprotected.

CAFOs have been well-known polluters for years in rural Montana - discharging nitrogen and phosphorus into the state's waterways, as well as pathogens, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals that threaten wildlife and public health in addition to water quality.

The state is due to release new rules governing CAFOs later this year - and Guy Altsenzer, Upper Missouri Waterkeeper executive director, said they need to start with an overhaul of water quality monitoring regulations.

"Federal Clean Water Act has said we need to do a good job of protecting the quality," said Altsenzer. "The problem in Montana is that we've never made good on that promise. So, I would argue we don't have any monitoring and likewise, we're not doing a good job of ensuring we're not going to harm local water quality."

Large livestock operations argue CAFOs are efficient and do not pose direct threats to the environment when properly managed.

The DEQ has released a new draft CAFO permit. A final one - with public input considered - is scheduled to be released in December.

In addition to tightening manure storage rules, advocates are also calling on the DEQ to tighten criteria that govern manure containment structures on Montana farms and ranches, outlaw the construction of new CAFOs adjacent to streams that are highly sensitive to pollution or near waterways that are already polluted - and, Altsenzer said, ban the application of manure during wet weather and winter months.

"Montana gets cold and it gets pretty snowy for at least six months of the year," said Altsenzer. "And, likewise, we know indisputably there is a proven risk of runoff and water contamination when you dispose of manure during the wintertime."

Montana is currently working with a CAFO permit last updated a decade ago. The current permit expires in December.