Our mission is to build collective power sufficient to realize a just and sustainable food system.
Transfarmation does this by helping farmers transition from industrial animal agriculture operations to raising crops for human consumption. By creating models of alternative economic opportunities, building solidarity with other movements, and shifting societal narratives to change culture, we will realize a just and sustainable food system.
It’s been a long path.
The hardest thing at first was just to get people to realize that change is possible. My family wanted to get out of hog farming, but that was essentially their retirement fund. Thirty years of doing something every day—it’s hard to even imagine the possibility of doing something else. Something drastically different. So it seems to be going against the grain, which seems intimidating.
Then I met The Transfarmation Project, and they’ve been just an amazing, amazing help. They’ve linked me with different experts and consultants, but then, also—just to have people that you could talk to about this project, that are excited, that are: “Yes, let’s do this! This is great!” Just that attitude: “Yes, that’s great. I love what you’re doing. You’re not crazy. Keep going!” Because that can be really helpful, because ... you’re grinding this out while you’re still working on the farm.
Our Transfarmation team provides resources and support to industrial animal farmers interested in transitioning their farms to plant-focused operations. The resources we create and data we collect are accessible to other farmers and organizations to facilitate widespread farm transitions, thereby contributing to societal good.
Step 1:
Initial Contact
We meet farmers in all sorts of ways: through conferences and events, site visits to rural areas, social media, and word of mouth. If farmers are interested in joining Transfarmation, we invite them to fill out our farmer interest form.
In this initial contact, we try to assess whether Transfarmation is a good fit for the farmer—can we help meet the farmer’s current needs? Do we have the capacity to enroll another farmer? What is the farmer’s opinion of industrial animal agriculture—does the farmer align ideologically with our work?
Step 2:
Farmer Assessment
If we decide to work together, the
next step is to complete an intake assessment with our team. This helps us gain a better understanding of the farmer and their situation and determine how we can best work together. This is followed by a needs assessment where our team identifies the farmer’s most pressing needs and how to create a path forward to help them build a thriving plant-focused farm operation.
In this step, we also assess the infrastructure and assets available on the existing farm and their potential to be repurposed.
Step 3:
Transition Plan
After completing the farmer assessments, our team gets to work on building a unique transition plan for the farmer. This includes compiling farmer resources and educational materials, providing the farmer with one-on-one training on a new crop, drafting a business plan, assisting the farmer in identifying and securing buyers for their new product, and offering guidance on infrastructure changes. We focus on repurposing existing infrastructure and transforming former industrial animal facilities. Our team also identifies grant opportunities for the farmer, including our research and innovation grants.
*Note: The resources generated during the transition-planning step are also later converted to evergreen resources for other farmers wanting to transition out of industrial animal agriculture. These are made public on our website and the Farmer Toolkit. In this way, our program benefits the farmers enrolled in our program and other farmers and organizations in the farm-transition movement.
Transfarmation Allies are farmers who are interested in and supportive of Transfarmation but may be unable to take transition steps just yet. For example, high debt may limit transition options for a farmer in the short term, but they can still work with us to advocate for alternatives to industrial animal agriculture and spread the word about Transfarmation to other farmers. We also consider farmers who have transitioned their farms independently of Transfarmation, as well as those who support our mission, to be allies.
Farmers who receive a research and innovation grant from us are pursuing pilot projects to transition former industrial animal facilities into plant-focused operations. For example, a farmer may receive a grant to begin cultivating specialty mushrooms in a former chicken barn.
Cohort farmers work closely with the Transfarmation team to build out and scale their transition to plants. They receive the one-on-one support outlined in the “Transition Plan” step listed above, including guidance on infrastructure conversion, technical assistance from our roster of subject matter experts, assistance in finding and securing grant opportunities, and brainstorming on branding and marketing. In exchange for these services, cohort farmers report valuable lessons learned and outcome data to Transfarmation to create resources that will benefit future farm transitions. You can read about our cohort farmers here.
Introducing Transfarmation's first demonstration hub. This is the newest category of Transfarmation farmer engagement. We have selected two sites, one former chicken farm and one former pig farm, where farmers will work hand in hand with Transfarmation to convert their entire barns for mushroom and specialty-crop cultivation. These sites will serve as crop-testing facilities and learning centers where the Transfarmation team will share and educate on all the exciting possibilities of Transfarmation. We are eager to share more about these sites as they develop.
Over the past few decades, consumers have become increasingly aware of the environmental and animal welfare concerns associated with industrial agriculture. But most people are unaware of the exploitation farmers themselves often endure.
Most farmers who raise chickens do so on a contract basis for major meat companies. But many farmers consider themselves indentured servants in these relationships. They take on massive debt, often struggle to pay it off, and have little to no control over their operations. They fall into the “debt treadmill” of chicken farming: an endless loop of paying off loans they take on to make improvements to their chicken houses. Christopher Leonard, author of The Meat Racket and former Associated Press agriculture reporter, said that farmers “end up taking orders from a big company like Tyson Foods in the same way a serf might be tied to a lord many, many years ago.” To learn more about contract farming and the broader economic structure of animal agriculture in the United States, please review Transfarmation’s detailed fact sheets:
Numerous contract poultry farmers have blown the whistle to expose how the system harms farmers, animals, and consumers. One such pioneer is Craig Watts, who was profiled in the New York Times after he blew the whistle with Leah Garcés, now president of Mercy For Animals.
The plant-based food industry is expected to be worth $85 billion by 2030. To get there, plant-based food producers will need a reliable source of key ingredients, such as peas, mushrooms, oats, and greens. Similarly, the demand for hemp as food, textile fiber, and medicine is growing. Transfarmation partners with farmers to help them transition to plant production and then connects them with businesses in need of their products. It’s a true win-win—for farmers and their families, for consumers, for animals, and for the planet.
We know that helping farmers transition from animal agriculture alone won’t transform our food system. That’s why Transfarmation also catalyzes larger-scale shifts through powerful storytelling, policy change, and a broad network of organizations and individuals working to build a more just and sustainable food system.
For policymakers, Transfarmation is an opportunity to shift state and federal funding, programs, and other resources toward helping farmers transition to plant-focused agriculture. The Transfarmation team partners with policymakers who are passionate about improving the lives and livelihoods of farmers and communities in their districts. A primer for policymakers is available here.
The farm bill is a major legislation package that impacts farmers across the country and our nation’s approach to food production and distribution. It also addresses conservation, nutrition, rural development, and other important matters. You can read our farm bill platform here.
Success stories—and the lessons learned—will inspire other farmers to follow suit, so even farmers not formally affiliated with our program will benefit as they pursue their own transitions. Ultimately, we hope Transfarmation will also help new farmers avoid animal agriculture altogether by highlighting other ways to support their families and communities on the land.
Leah Garcés is the CEO and president of Mercy For Animals and author of Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry. With more than 20 years of
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Contact:
For media inquiries, please contact
RONNIKA A. MCFALL, APR
Senior Director of Communications, U.S. & Canada
Phone: 404-398-7804
Email: [email protected]
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