Announcing Our New Fund-a-Farmer Grant Recipients

April 5, 2023

Drum roll please … we are absolutely delighted to announce our 2023 Fund-a-Farmer Grant recipients! With 87 farms and ranches located across 34 different states and the District of Columbia, this crop of grant recipients represents our largest cohort ever. We cannot wait to hear all about how their funded projects benefit their animals, ecosystems, and communities.

This year we distributed over $253,000 to farmers from Hawaii to Maine, and many places in between. Of the new grant recipients:

• 75% are beginning farmers or ranchers

• 64% are first generation farmers or ranchers

• 53% identify as women-owned operations

• 46% identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC)

• 17% are identified as military veterans

The projects that we funded are diverse in nature, ranging from mobile housing for laying hens, fencing for goats, and waterlines for bison. Here are a few examples:

Action Jackson Farms

Action Jackson Farms in Salvisa, Kentucky received a grant to improve the health of their goats by providing portable fence line feeders for pasture feeding.

“The portable fence line feeders (funded by FACT) will enable our goats to access more of our acreage. We plan to partition the paddocks with electric netting for rotational grazing. The animals will have access to clean water, adequate shelter, free choice loose minerals, and plenty of forage. This practice will help us improve our soil while reducing overcrowding and stress in our herd.” - Fatima Jackson, Action Jackson Farms in Salvisa, Kentucky

Moonstone Farmstead in Washington, D.C. received a grant to purchase and install portable electric fencing, aerial netting, and seed forage cover crop to rotationally graze broiler chicklens and heritage laying hens on pasture.

“Raising broilers and egg layers on pasture will reduce the reliance in milled feed, while helping to regenerate soil in paddocks not in production. Poultry with direct access to pasture, fresh air, and sunlight will ensure overall health, which will prevent parasite/pathogen spread. The 2023 FACT grant will help protect our flock from predator pressure ultimately enriching the conditions in which the chickens are raised.” - D'Real Graham, Moonstone Farmstead in Washington, D.C.

D'Real Graham @ Moonstone Farmstead

Altogether - since we started our grants program back in 2012 - FACT has cumulatively awarded 608 grants totaling over $1,110,000 to farmers across 44 states, directly benefiting an estimated 978,600 animals. The impacts these grants have made on individual operations and surrounding communities are astounding.

Every year we ask our past grantees to tell us how their projects continue to help their farms. In our most recent survey conducted earlier this winter, past grant recipients reported that the grants have produced a wide range of long-term benefits. Overall, 99 percent of farmers reported that their FACT-funded projects improved animal welfare, 91 percent experienced a positive environmental impact, and 90 percent found that the grant improved their farm’s financial viability by decreasing expenses, increasing customers and visibility, and ultimately improving net profits.

Farmers have told us that their projects have increased biodiversity on their operations, improved soil fertility, enhanced livestock diet and comfort, and reduced stress for both the farmer and their animals, among other benefits.

A small amount of money certainly goes a long way with frugal, innovative farmers. For over a decade, our grants have provided a needed financial boost for these farmers so that they may continue to do what they do best – care for their animals and provide nourishing, more humanely-raised food for people in their communities.

Thank you to our funders and supporters! We are in this for the long haul, and we could not do it without them. Our leading funders include: 

• The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) is generously underwriting 18 grants to farmers pursuing or holding one of the following animal welfare certifications: Certified Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) by A Greener World, Certified Humane, or Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Animal Welfare Certified. The ASPCA® has supported FACT’s grants since 2017 to help increase opportunities for farmers to transition to higher-welfare systems and improve the lives of their animals.

• ButcherBox, a Boston-based business which offers a national humane meat delivery service, is underwriting 16 of our grants for pasture improvement projects. ButcherBox has supported our grants since 2020.

• New this year, the FLO Foundation is underwriting 18 pasture improvement grants to farms located within 200 miles of Chicago, Illinois.

• Numerous family foundations and the hundreds of individual donors who provide financial support for our grants and program services. It takes a village, and we are so thankful for their generosity.

And a sincere Thank You to all who applied.

We would like to thank and acknowledge the more than 735 farmers who applied for a grant this past year. With so many innovative and deserving proposals, it was a very difficult decision-making process. We applaud all that they are doing to care for their animals and communities. The next round of funding is slated to open in fall 2023.

To learn more about all of our 2023 funded farms and projects, please visit our website.

Photo credit: Bedrock Farm, PearlJack Farm, Black Earth Forest Farm, Cove Creek Farm, Action Jackson Farms, Moonstone Farmstead