The Green New Deal is increasingly becoming a hot topic in discussions about climate change.  Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Edward J. Markey earlier this year, the Green New Deal is a plan to fight climate change through moving away from fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the economy,…

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It is an honor to share space with other individuals in the community to discuss land access, reconciliation, reparations and rematriation. Groundswell Center, if you don’t know already, is part of the Finger Lakes Land Reconciliation and Reparations Working Group, comprised of other individuals representing other local organizations: The Youth Farm Project, Rocky Acres Community…

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Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming in Ithaca, NY coordinated a Community Caravan of 18 people from Ithaca to Grafton, NY, outside of Albany, for a Day of Community Farm work, with over 100 others from all over the Northeast, at Soul Fire Farm. We collectively accomplished, what seemed like close to a week’s worth of farm…

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Since Groundswell’s founding, a large part of our mission has revolved around the creation of an equitable local food system– one rooted in justice and fairness for all people, animals and the land. This year, we decided to articulate our commitment more deeply through the creation of an organizational Equity Statement. As we begin 2018, it feels…

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On March 12th and 13th I attended the Just Food Conference in NYC. It was exciting to reconnect with the Just Food community, as I spent much of 2012 as an intern with their Farm School NYC program. Just Food has always inspired me with their commitment to lifting up the leadership and capacity of…

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This fall the staff of Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming along with Ithaca community members took a day trip to Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, NY, a “family farm committed to dismantling the oppressive structures that misguide our food system”. Soul Fire is farmed by a mixed race family who grow vegetables and…

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Cornell graduate student and Groundswell Board Member Mary Kate Wheeler spent 6 months in 2015 working in Peru collaborating with a local nonprofit, CARE Perú, to conduct surveys with 500 households in the Shullcas River Watershed.  The region is rapidly changing due to climate change and that is having implications on food security and nutrition. Mary Kate…

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Sweetland Farm, in Trumansburg, NY has been in operation for 10 years. In 2015 owner/farmer Evangeline Sarat decided to start paying  her employees a living wage. Groundswell Director Elizabeth Gabriel sat down with Evangeline to talk about how she came to the decision to offer living wages, and how she is making it work on her farm.  …

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Greetings Groundswell friends, farmers and supporters, The minimum wage increase signed into law this week by Governor Cuomo is big news for all New York State businesses and employees – including farms. The bill states that there will be an increase in the minimum wage in upstate NY to $12.50 (over five years), ​while in…

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