Grow Food Northampton’s mission is to promote food security by advancing sustainable agriculture in the Northampton, Massachusetts area.

Goals

Increase the supply and accessibility of gardening space and locally grown food.
Educate the community about sustainable agriculture and help residents gain the skills and resources to grow food organically.
Support the development of a vibrant, local, agriculture economy.

Actions

To increase local food access, we …

Steward a sustainable community farm that provides food for the local community.
Manage an organic community garden.
Facilitate the preservation of farms and prime farmland in our area.
Make affordable garden space and nutritious local food more available to disadvantaged populations.
Provide new farmers with affordable farmland for lease.
Encourage innovative farming and gardening methods among local food growers.

To foster education in sustainable, organic agriculture we …

Provide hands-on learning opportunities in sustainable agriculture and facilitate the sharing of information, tools and resources.
Establish educational partnerships with local schools, service agencies, and other agricultural organizations.
Disseminate broadly up-to-date information & resources regarding local agriculture, and archive & share our “lessons learned”.

To support the creation of a local, vibrant sustainable agriculture economy, we…

Assist in the creation and execution of a broadly supported “agricultural vision” for Northampton.
Collaborate with agricultural and farm conservation organizations, and food-producers throughout the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts to identify gaps in our current food system.
Spotlight the benefits of small-scale, sustainable agriculture over industrial farming.

Longer Range Actions

Support a greater diversity of food growing and processing enterprises.
Enhance the economic viability of small-scale farming in our area including the means of producing, processing, storing, distributing and marketing local food
Collaborate with farm-to-school programs to improve the nutritional value of school meals.

We believe that broad access to high quality, nutritious, locally grown food improves community health and reduces health inequalities.
We believe that food security is an elemental long-term investment for our children.
We believe that a strong, diversified local food economy strengthens our food security and increases our resilience in the face of economic instability, climate change, oil depletion and other possible threats.
We believe that independent small-scale farms that directly feed their communities dignify both the farmer and the consumer; farmers with a direct stake in the local market are more reliable, efficient, and accountable; consumers who are intimate with their food chain and their farmers will respect and support them more effectively.
We believe that successful agriculture looks to the past and the future: it studies lessons from our farming history, embraces new research into sustainable practices, critically examines current agricultural paradigms, and fosters farm-based and food-based learning in the entire community.
We believe that farmers deserve access to affordable farmland and local markets, and should have the opportunity to build equity in their enterprise.