Food and agriculture is one of the most basic elements in supporting healthy lives and communities around the world. Yet the global food system is heading in a dangerous direction. Increasingly, the global food system is being controlled by a small minority of agribusinesses that seek to control all aspects of our food – seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and markets. This monopoly on food threatens our physical health as individuals, the health of the environment, and the overall well-being of farming communities at home and abroad.

Throughout the world, agricultural communities are threatened as small-scale farmers are unable to make a living when facing a global marketplace that favors the interests of large agricultural corporations. The demise of small-scale farming communities has lead to a wide range of social problems including families breaking apart, increased immigration, and a growth in urban slum communities due to rural-urban migration. Supporting small-scale farmers in their effort to find alternative and sustainable agricultural practices and policies is a key component of building healthy communities and healthy food systems that are beneficial for producers and consumers.

ENGAGE works to support small-scale farmers, and small-scale farmers movements around the world through our campaign work on sustainable agriculture. We seek to link farmers’ movements abroad with farmers in the United States in order to strengthen the global movement for sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty.  ENGAGE organizes Farmer Exchanges and recently organized a Speaker Tour focused on sustainable agriculture (in addition to Speaker Tours focusing on Fair Trade practices), and ENGAGE members have published several articles about sustainable agriculture. Visit the links above and at left to learn more about sustainable agriculture and how you can be more involved in supporting small-scale farmers locally and globally.