SAAFON values relationships with farmers and organizations to have a greater impact in the preservation of Black agrarian culture and society

Farmer – centered and Farmer-Led

Farmers have been displaced from their rightful place as cornerstones of community and for stewarding ecologies and growing food. We see farmers as the cornerstone of our work and how the whole movement is built. We see the farmer and their inherent value as the solution, centered in the work and at the center of community. Everything supports the farmers, including the resources meant to build them up and their ability to exercise leadership in the decisions that are made on their behalf. We aim to create a farmer centered and farmer led reality.

Innovation rooted in legacy

We value the renewal and reactivation of ancestral practices, leading with legacy in mind. We believe in the return to survival strategies and tactics as a way forward. We value solutions that are in dialogue with the past.We are doing them again, and honoring that storytelling which has been and will
continue to be used as a tool.

Collective self – determination

We value collective self – determination that is generated from within. We value collective control of process and economies.

Connectivity and magnified collectivism

We cannot afford to not be in relationship with each other. We build collective power through intentional relationship building at every stage and space in our communities through our work and movement building. We value interdependence, and building relationships that build on relationships.

Walking toward a vision

Solution driven, in addition to relationship building. We value tangible, and demonstrated success. We see where we want to be and we will focus on going and getting there. We value solutions informed by past practices in order to see the work that is being done. We believe in bringing things into reality through meaningful impact.

Wholeness

Honoring Complete Personhood. Non – transactional relationships to push back on a system that is predicated on exploitation that is not about and for the people. We believe the farmer is more than their farm. We value showing up as full authentic self, building full authentic people and build relationships that honor that.

Uplifting voices from the margins

We value placing intention in decision making and resources to those in the margins. Elders, young, women, differently abled and queer farmers. We believe in telling their stories and the needs in their voices. We help communicate that, creating active narratives that visualize the margins and informs what we want to do.

Bigger Than Us

Our collective needs to be whole and healthy, starting at the wholeness as the person, and the individuals that define it. We believe in recognizing the work that we engage in is not just about what we are engaging in around space and time. It is overlapping, connecting to ancestral and future, and building for ALL of that. Building on ancestral knowledge, we base our work on tradition and past in order to sustain the work and contribute to the legacy to drive forward into the future.