We are not farm owners, but we are the hearts of the operation.
Not Our Farm (NOF) is a non-profit farmworker storytelling project that strives to celebrate and share the stories of non-owning workers on farms. NOF also aims to increase visibility around the challenges and abuses that happen on farms, regardless of the size, location, or reputation.
Our efforts impact workers across the country by countering the isolation many feel on farms, raising awareness about and naming the abuse workers experience, and uplifting workers’ ideas about how we can create safe and joyful farming futures. The majority of the workers that NOF serves work on small farms ranging from 0.25 acre to 10-acre farms, spanning from rural to urban areas, and for-profit to non-profit structures. Many of the farms are not subject to FDA rules and regulations regarding food safety, which would ensure that there is access to clean and safe bathrooms, handwashing stations, and break areas to eat. In addition, due to the small nature of these businesses, many of the farms are also exempt from OSHA safe employment standards, so workers are regularly in very hazardous, unsafe situations at their places of work. NOF seeks to serve this population of workers who are often not safeguarded by FDA or OSHA regulations that employees on larger farms are, and who are often unsafe in farming operations based on the identities that they hold as BIPOC, Queer or Trans.
We recognize that “farmworker” is a politicized term and status that is often used to represent migrant workers, immigrant workers, H2A workers, and Spanish first workers. NOF intentionally uses “farmworker” to express solidarity with the above groups and to bring attention to the fact that harm & abuse is happening to farmworkers regardless of the size, growing practices, or certifications of a farm, and regardless of the background of the workers a farm employs. We also use “farmworker” because “employee” implies safeguards that don’t exist for agricultural workers, due to federal exemptions and the racist foundations of agriculture in the United States.
NOF cultivates a virtual place of community among workers where they are invited to ask questions, share stories, seek support, and offer expertise as skilled laborers. NOF also creates resources and opportunities based on the needs and gaps identified by the workers and contributors to this community, including worker-centered farm management training, an informational zine about working on farms (worker zine), a consumer resource about how consumers and vendors can support worker-centered farms when purchasing from farms, a toolkit on centering workers on farms, meditation and mindfulness drop-in classes for workers to support emotional wellness, a wide range workshops, teach-ins and more.
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NOF actively rallies against the narrative of the American farmer being a white, cis man who owns his farm and land, comes from generational wealth, By raising awareness of who farmers really are and can be (we are BIPOC, we are Queer, we do not own land or farm businesses) and actively sharing and communicating solutions for a safe and worker-centered farm future, NOF is building toward multi-faceted justice in farming in this country.
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Staff
Not Our Farm began in 2019
Anita Adalja – Founder / Program Manager
anita@notourfarm.org
Anita identifies as a nomad and reject Indian. She is in her 13th season farming vegetables. She has worked on non-profit, for-profit, urban and rural farms in Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, Washington, D.C., and New Mexico. In 2016, Anita was honored at the White House as a Champion of Change in Climate Smart Agriculture. Before farming, she trained and worked as a social worker in New York City. Her heart is focused on safety, dignity and financial security for farmworkers. She is the founder of Not Our Farm and is a co-farmer at Ashokra Farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
This project is dedicated to all those she has worked alongside, and those she will in the future.
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Mallika Singh – Organizer
mallika@notourfarm.org
mallika singh is a poet, farmer, and cook who makes work about ecosystems and intimacies.
mallika facilitates a study and writing group called Rivering Towards: Desert-Water Poetics & Politics. their debut chapbook, Retrieval, was published in 2020 from Wendy’s Subway.
born in Delhi, India and raised in the Bay Area, CA and Santa Fe, NM; mallika finds their homes in Sikh Punjabi diaspora and under the open skies of New Mexico. they are currently based in Albuquerque, NM and is growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers with their coworkers at Ashokra Farm.
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Not Our Farm Advisory Council – all members of our advisory council are farm workers, have worked as farm workers and / or are currently working in advocacy and support for farm workers. The council began in the summer of 2023 and meets regularly to dream and dialogue around Not Our Farm’s collective work.
eli tizcareño – California
Gaby Pereyra – New York
Shani Mink – New York
Tolu Igun – Washington, DC
Mey Bun, Ohio
Sarah Sohn – Maryland
Cris Izaguirre – Georgia
Bo Dennis – Maine
v Quevedo, New Mexico
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Not Our Farm Board of Directors
Board President – Julieta Saucedo – El Paso Texas
Board Treasurer – Benjamin Bartley – Philadelphia, PA
Board Secretary – Alexia Kulwiec – Madison, Wisconsin
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Special thanks to Thea Klein-Mayer for the Not Our Farm logo designs.
Endless gratitude to Aaron Adalja for teaching himself coding to help with the website. Above and beyond brotherly duties.
Not Our Farm 