Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming

Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming is an agricultural organization in the Finger Lakes Region of NY that creates pathways for people to begin farming and expand their ability to grow food. Our vision is to cultivate an equitable and sustainable food system. We prioritize our services for small beginning farmers, farmers of color, refugees and growers from underrepresented groups. Our core services include sustainable farming workshops that teach techniques to regenerate soils, limit chemical inputs, reduce water use, bolster biodiversity, and increase access to healthy foods. The Groundswell Incubator Farm in Ithaca provides affordable farmland, equipment, tools, and training to 25+ beginning organic farmers. Our Farming for Justice Webinar Series explores food justice topics from cooperative land tenure to beekeeping as a social justice tool. In 2021, we launched a new Farmer Training Program, a compensated intensive where a cohort of aspiring famers of color rotate to learn on different Tompkins County-based farms. 

Aligned with the FNG-NY Regional Navigator program efforts, creating/facilitating farmland access is a key Groundswell goal as part of our organizational mission to train new farmers and strengthen the local food economy. Given US historical land theft and slavery, paired with the present day corporate agricultural structure and disproportionately low access to land and resources for black and brown people, it is our strategic priority to support farmers of color in accessing farmland. Currently, we provide technical support for farmers seeking farmland, offer beginning farmer training programming, and are an active member of the Finger Lakes Land Access, Reparations, and Reconciliations Working Group.