Giving Compass' Take:

• Food Tank details an upstart fund's efforts in rejuvenating Native American agriculture for generations to come.

• What other programs support Native American Agriculture? What can we do to keep these funds afloat? 

• Explore more ways to support Native American access to food and farming.

A new agriculture fund is providing grants not only to support the success of Native American food producers like farmers, ranchers, and fishers, but to also support Tribal nations and communities in their efforts to revitalize ancient food systems throughout the United States.

“Native American farmers and ranchers require support, just as food people across the country require support,” says Janie Hipp, CEO of the Native American Agriculture Fund and a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.“The Fund can’t provide all the support they need—there is not enough money for that. What we believe we can do is affect change on a more systemic level and support future generations to come,” says Hipp.

Hipp tells Food Tank that there is a much longer history behind discrimination against Native communities that everyone must learn when entering into a space that advocates for Native food sovereignty. “Indigenous people have been killed, ostracized, ignored, removed, and relocated from our original homelands. Indigenous nations had the lands we originally lived upon taken from us and it is a painful reality that continues to this very day."

In non-Native communities, Hipp notes that allies and partners in Native food sovereignty efforts are working with the people and not on behalf of them.  "Allies must stand alongside Native communities to preserve their foodways and work to lift us up.”

Read the full article about the fund to revitalize Native American agriculture at Food Tank.