Green Futures

An initiative to secure New York State’s Agricultural Future

What is Green Futures?

Green Futures (GF) is BFU-NYS’s ongoing, statewide programmatic initiative to advance equitable, resilient, and regenerative agrifood systems in New York State (NYS). GF centers NYS Black agriculturalists because we firmly believe that mutually beneficial brilliance and innovation live within our most marginalized communities. Learn more about the history and contributions of Black farmers here.

It takes community to build community. Support our work to create resilient, equitable New York State agrifood systems by donating to our Forward 25 Campaign.

Support Green Futures

Dec. 2019 Presentation of Nine Solutions

Our Objectives

Guided by our values, empowered by our mission, and inspired by our vision, the BFU-NYS Green Futures initiative aims to achieve seven objectives.

  • Ag Population Growth

    New York State is losing farmers. We are committed to growing our sustainable agricultural communities to meet our state’s needs.

  • Capacity Building

    We work with farms and gardens to ensure they have resources and knowledge they need to effectively sustain and grow their operations.

  • Community Cultivation

    We cultivate and bolster sustainable, thriving agrifood communities in New York State through community-centered tools and practices.

  • Education & Training

    We educate and train youth and adults alike in regenerative agriculture, food justice, and other agrifood systems concepts.

  • Model & Tool Creation

    We develop, explore, and trial dynamic, values-aligned models and tools for cultivating resilient agrifood systems and advancing Black liberation.

  • Policy & Social Impact

    We inspire, aid, and facilitate advocacy and policy development that advance the BFU-NYS mission, Solutions, and aligned NYS communities’ goals.

  • Youth Empowerment

    We facilitate and foster environments that empower youth to collaboratively build equitable New York State agrifood systems.

Our Programs

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Our Programs ~

To accomplish Green Futures (GF) objectives, we have developed ten (10) key programs–Ag in The Community, Agribusiness, Building Bridges, Evergreen Education, Financing Freedom, Grant TA, Internships, Meaningful Data Capture, Resource Share, and Sowing Seeds–under four (4) program areas: education, mutual aid, policy & social impact, and technical assistance. Each GF program is composed of diverse projects and events designed to address specific annual and ongoing GF SMART goals.

As you click through the programs below, you will see some recurring event types such as skill shares and workshops. Keep scrolling to learn more what to expect from each.

  • This program brings together agriculturalists and the communities they serve to cultivate relationships, foster a culture of reciprocity, and grow support for farms, gardens, and other agricultural spaces. Projects and events within this program center educational experiences that spark public interest in NYS agriculture and provide positive public exposure for agricultural spaces while supporting their ag-related endeavors.

    Events & Projects: Community Work Days, Farm and Garden Tours, *Farmer Fridays, *Member Mondays

    *These are social media campaigns.

  • This program aims to prepare participants for starting, maintaining, and growing sustainable farms and other NYS agriculture-related businesses.

    Events & Projects: Buyer/Supplier Mixers, Info Sessions, Workshops

  • This program facilitates the establishment and growth of relationships between NYS agriculturalists to foster community within and amongst NYS’s diverse regions. All Building Bridges activities are rooted in relationship building and community.

    Events & Projects: Member Mixers, Socials, Workshops, and more

  • This program teaches practical NYS-based regenerative agriculture and gardening to diverse audiences from aspiring farmers and novice gardeners to longtime hobbyists and seasoned professionals and everyone in between. Each program activity is designed with careful consideration of target audience demographics (e.g., age, expertise level, geographic NYS region), educational outcomes, timing, and relevant cultural and sociopolitical contexts (e.g., resource access, shared beliefs), among other factors, to best maximize its educational effectiveness and utility.

    Events & Projects: Skill Shares and Workshops

  • This program aims to explore, trial, and establish replicable models and standards for funding agrifood systems work.

    Events & Projects: Funding Standard for Financial Institutions

  • This program aims to support BFU-NYS members and non-member agriculturalists with finding and applying for grants to fund their agrifood work.

    Events & Projects: *TA Request System, LAND Project Grant TA, Skill Shares, Workshops

    *This is currently only open to BFU-NYS members as we refine our system and build our capacity.

  • This program heavily intersects with every other Green Futures (GF) program as it brings youth and adults into the planning and execution of BFU-NYS programming thus cultivating community leadership and growing our agrifood systems ecosystem. Interns also engage in other GF programs as participants, providing them with the foundational knowledge they need to thrive in agrifood industries.

    Events & Projects: Community Work Days, Farm Tours, Legislative Farm Days, Special Skill Shares and Workshops, Intern Capstone Projects

  • This program is dedicated to developing and completing events and projects that meet BFU-NYS Solution Eight (8): Capture Meaningful Data. Specifically, these projects aim to safely collect, analyze, and, in some cases, visualize data on Black NYS farmers, their networks, and the communities they serve for the purposes of establishing and expanding critical infrastructure and resources for Black farmers and agricultural communities.

    Events & Projects: Info Sessions, Skill Shares, Workshops, Mapping Project

  • This program aims to develop a sustainable, resilient network of diverse NYS-based resources that are accessible to anyone interested in regenerative agriculture and food and ag systems justice.

    Events & Projects: Digital Databases, Info Sessions, Material Swaps, Resource Hubs, Resource Rewind*

    *This is a social media campaign.

  • Centering advocacy and policy development, this program aims to advance our Nine Solutions for Racial Inequity in New York State Agriculture and annual legislative priorities through engaging activities with our NYS, federal, and local elected officials, other government agencies, and partners. We sow seeds of justice and cultivate powerful alliances to produce and equitably distribute the fruits of liberation.

    Events & Projects: Advocacy Days, Legislative Farm Days, Public Narrative Training, Workshops

Recurring Event Types

  • Community Work Days

    Registered participants visit Community Work Day host farms and gardens (“Host Sites”) to provide hands-on support with the hosts’ on-site projects (e.g., planting, structure builds) while learning a few basic agricultural skills and information about the Host Sites.

  • Farm & Garden Tours

    Open to the public, registered tour participants will be led through an immersive, sensory journey through the host farm or garden as they learn more about the site’s history, management practices, and mission while sampling the Host Site’s creations, some of which may be available for purchase.

  • Info Sessions

    These primarily virtual informational events are designed to share critical information about agrifood related resources to NYS agriculturalists, their allies, and the public.

  • Legislative Farm Days

    This Community Work Day and Farm & Garden Tour hybrid event allows legislators to acquaint themselves with the history and practices of the host farm/garden; learn about the collective needs and successes of NYS farmers; and discuss what actions can be taken to uplift NYS farmers with the host farm/garden, BFU-NYS, and, when applicable, other Sowing Seeds partners.

  • Material Swaps

    Material Swaps are interactive spaces where attendees can give and take a variety of agriculture related items, including farming tools, seeds, growing media, and other tangible resources. As a part of a larger mutual aid resource-sharing program, our Material Swaps aim to create a sustainable network of shareable resources that benefits all members of our NYS farming communities.

  • Mixers & Socials

    These networking events foster relationships as participants engage in a variety of activities and unstructured time designed to build connections between agriculturalists, advocates, technical assistance providers, and more.

    Our Mixers are focused on budding professional relationships within and between industries while our Socials are spaces where personal connections can flourish.

  • Skill Shares

    Skill Shares are highly interactive, hands-on events where participants learn knowledge-based technical and other skills through guided lessons. Facilitators of Skill Shares may utilize Popular Education tools, concepts, and techniques whenever and however appropriate. Registered Skill Share participants join Green Futures staff in person or virtually for a hands-on lesson on how to accomplish a particular task or project, enabling participants to practice agricultural and gardening skills.

  • Workshops

    Like Skill Shares, workshops are didactic and exploratory educational events designed to delve deeper into a particular agrifood systems related topic that directly impacts NYS agriculturalists and the public. However, these events are not skill-based and are less hands-on. Workshops instead focus on sharing critical concepts, analyses, and projects with participants. Workshops may utilize Popular Education tools, concepts, and techniques whenever and however appropriate.

Events Calendar

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Key Terms Glossary

We use a lot of terminology here at BFU-NYS. Here are definitions to some of the terms we use most often to describe our work:

  • Agribusiness | an industry engaged in the producing operations of a farm, the manufacture and distribution of farm equipment and supplies, and the processing, storage, and distribution of farm commodities

  • Agriculture | the science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock

  • Agriculturalist | any person who cultivates or raises living organisms for other people or organisms not within their household to consume or otherwise utilize; any professional expert involved in the practice, scientific research, and/or management of agricultural activities

  • Agrifood | of and relating to agriculture and/or food

  • Agrifood Systems | “encompass the primary production of food and non-food agricultural products, as well as in food storage, aggregation, post-harvest handling, transportation, processing, distribution, marketing, disposal and consumption” (source)

  • Capacity Building | the strengthening and improvement of an individual’s or entity’s processes, structures, systems, skills, and resources as means to increase the individual’s or entity’s ability to effectively–and oftentimes efficiently–achieve their mission, objectives, and goals

  • Project | a temporary, focused endeavor with a defined scope, timeline, and budget

  • Program | all events and projects officially hosted by BFU-NYS to advance the organization’s mission

  • Initiative | a broader, strategic plan to achieve long-term objectives

  • Mutual Aid | We define mutual aid as “a collective coordination to meet each other’s needs…as a radical act of caring for each other while working to change the world”.* GF programs within this program area draw from grassroots mutual aid organizing theories and frameworks, utilizing both innovative and tried and tested tools for social change. More specifically, these programs share a broad purpose of building resilient communities by centering: 1) communal ways of sharing information, knowledge, and resources; and 2) the cultivation of reliable, sustainable relationships between folks within and across geographic areas.
    *Dean Spade, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity during This Crisis (and the Next) (London: Verso, 2020)

  • Program Area | a general, broad theme or focus that one or more programs embody

  • Objective | broad, nonspecific goals/aims

  • Outcome | (1) results of a project expressed as a tangible product or state of being; (2) the ways in which event participants may demonstrate the knowledge they will acquire by participating in a given event or activity

  • Skill | effective use of knowledge, dexterity, and/or coordination to do something competently; developed aptitude or ability

  • SMART Goal | a framework for setting goals; SMART stands for “Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound”; Learn more here and here.

  • Technical Assistance | direct, specific support provided in the forms of service, practical information, and feasible expert recommendations to an individual or entity to effectively address their needs, particularly those concerning capacity building