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WHAT WE BELIEVE
Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance's Policy Working Group
At Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) we utilize working groups composed of individuals and persons representing organizations and institutions. The members of the UCFA Policy Working Group believe that equitable, effective policy must be grounded in histories of food and farm justice in African diaspora, indigenous and ancestral cultures, and in community-based research.
UCFA’s Policy Working Group aims to bring about positive changes in food and agriculture policy at every level, from the local to the international. We do this by leading important policy discussions within our community and bringing the voices of UCFA farmers and seed keepers to decision-makers in various policy arenas. We conduct research and policy analysis that center the needs of BIPOC farmers and consumers.
We are honored to be an active member in numerous policy-focused agrarian justice coalitions like the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), Rural Coalition, the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, the Transformational Farm Bill Network, National Black Food and Justice Alliance, and others. We also collaborate with prominent grassroots policy-focused coalitions such as: HEAL Food Alliance, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), as well as with educational institutions, museum organizations, and others.
The Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance Policy Working Group Supports:
Cultivating Food Security Through:
● Maintaining the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) .
● Increasing “Food as Medicine” educational initiatives.
● Developing pathways for local food purchasing by schools.
● Increasing public and private support for urban agriculture.
Farming Livelihoods Through:
● Land access and land tenure for farmers.
● Justice within the farm labor community.
● Equal access to USDA programs and resources.
● Fair farmgate prices & farmer/seed work livelihood.
● Crop insurance for biodiverse crops
● USDA EQIP/CSP for agrobiodiverse farming
● Cooperative ag economics
Heirloom Seeds as a Component of Agro-Biodiversity Through:
● Indigenous rights & seed/data sovereignty
● Biodiversity conservation & climate change resilience
● International treaties related to crop germplasm
● Farmers’ Rights to Save Seeds
● Intellectual property regimes & Prior Art
● Public plant breeding
● Pollinators and Regenerative Ag - soils
● Detoxifying agriculture via regulation of pesticides
● Agroforestry
In solidarity with the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the UN Declaration of the Rights of Peasants & Others Working in Rural Areas, and the UN Durban Declaration and Program of Action, and Food Bill of Rights. We stand in solidarity with our dear friends and colleagues at the Palestine Heirloom Seed Librarywho are struggling to maintain both their seeds and their culture amidst an increasingly horrific context of occupation, repression, and genocide. We seek to support all land-based people around the world for whom freedom, sovereignty, and justice seem out of reach.
With funding support from the Union of Concerned Scientists, as part of their “Transformational Farm Bill” initiative, as well as the Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI), the Policy Working Group hosts listening sessions on a range of topics.
We also send working group members to key conferences and other events, and brought UCFA members into direct communication with the USDA’s Seed Liaison.
UCFA contributed to the Pointing the Farm Bill toward Racial Justicetoolkit. This policy co-analysis work helped lay the foundation for UCFA’s inaugural conference “Seeds & Culture: Rural & Urban Agriculture United” held in March of 2026 in Washington DC.
