10/05/2024
Dear Friends of Movement Ground Farm:
We are writing to let you know that after many soul searching meetings and conversations, we have made the decision to sunset and close Movement Ground Farm. 2024 will be our last growing season and we will be using the remainder of the year to reflect and close in a way that leans deeply into our values of restorative justice, transparency, and a recognition that this work must be carried on. Our sunset will include a broad spectrum of reflecting, sharing, celebrating, and healing. We will also be redistributing assets and funds.
Movement Ground Farm’s vision was enormous and inspiring. It was a coming together of Asian American, Black, Indigenous, Latinx and rad white folx; and of organizations working towards prison abolition, police accountability, trans liberation, youth organizing, immigrant and refugee rights. It was multi-city and inter-state, connecting urban racial justice organizations and communities who have historically been displaced and uprooted from their ancestral lands to partner with a farm in food distribution, land access, organic farming, and onsite retreats and gatherings.
Movement Ground Farm was able to be all that it was because of so many of you. You volunteered in the fields, joined our working committees, donated to support our vision, partnered with us in food distribution, and hosted events and convenings at the farm. The time that you offered this project, the hope and trust you placed in us, the resources we shared, and the work that we did together in service of this much larger vision are all appreciated. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
All of our work was done in the landscape of a historic moment characterized by rapid cultural changes in how we communicate, how we organize, and how we build trust. We are in a moment where there is an intense convergence of interests in turning towards land to focus on healing, food sovereignty, climate change and self-determination amongst others. Our organization tried in many ways to meet this challenge, to take on projects on multiple fronts, and to unpack the contradictions and difficult questions seemingly inherent and widespread across the movement left today. And we were not able to.
Radical change in this political era requires courageous and bold experimentation. Far too often the heartbreak and loss that comes from failed visionary projects lead to a rupturing of relationships and chokeholds the stories (and the wisdom) that are vital for us to learn from. In acknowledging that our movements for justice and liberation must continue, we will be sharing the full story of Movement Ground Farm. We are interviewing multiple folx who played major roles in the organization and hope to offer a complex, nuanced, and powerful portrait of our work. We will share reflections on community organizing, small scale agriculture, cooperative leadership and our sunsetting and dissolution process. We hope these reflections can serve to sharpen our movements more generally and support others as they plan to take on big projects like this, especially ones that are based on land which brings a whole new dimension to this work.
If you were a volunteer or a CSA member, a funder or a donor, attended a workshop or a retreat at the farm, or were part of the network of our partner organizations - we want to hear from you and bring your perspective into the analysis! Fill out our short questionnaire, all the questions are optional. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2EYW0YWSAbuEI0Y0qEGYU8HQ2rX9ZnKvmwxd2J3DD4hcL6A/viewform
When all is said and done, the movement is not happening right here on this land or in this organization, and that is okay. It’s happening elsewhere, often off-the-radar, and it’s taking shape in many, many different forms! Endings are hard, but they can also lead to beautiful openings and they are necessary to make space for what wants to grow next.
Please join us at our events below as we close out the season together!
Respectfully,
Movement Ground Farm
