About Us

Mission

We envision a world where food and agriculture systems are profitable for farmers, fair to workers, beneficial to consumer health, restorative for rural communities and regenerative for the environment.

Sharing Our Roots exists to…

Innovate a path toward a more just, resilient and healthy food system that builds local wealth and food security.
Welcome, support and value the expertise of immigrant, low-income, new and transitioning farmers in a shared economy.
Demonstrate perennial agriculture’s capacity to heal the land and care for community.
Our Mission is to advance a resilient agriculture system that demonstrates the power to heal our lands, nourish our communities and prepare aspiring farmers

We do this by

Modeling Resiliency

We model a resilient future on our 100-acre farm near Northfield, Minnesota. In 2016, we acquired the degraded corn-on-corn farmland and are restoring it to health by keeping the soil covered, planting perennials, cleaning up waterways, adding wetlands and more. We are also working to improve production and developing markets for perennial crops such as elderflowers and hazelnuts.

Creating a Shared Economy

Through our Community Connector initiative, Sharing Our Roots works with six community gardens in Faribault and Northfield. Connectors provide technical assistance, trainings, and resource support to increase food access and food sovereignty in our communities. Multigenerational families use garden plots to grow their own food for home consumption or for sale.

Advancing Equity Through Innovation

We provide employment for people of color to connect their neighbors to policies that help advance healthy food access. We build urban-rural partnerships with an equity lens through our work with Twin Cities-area groups and local food security partners. As farmland and financial resources accumulate in the hands of those who already have much, we are innovating approaches that are more equitable to all. We have partnered with Dakota County, Minnesota, to test a pilot easement program that will keep marginal lands in active perennial agricultural production.

Innovating Land Access Solutions

At Sharing Our Roots Farm, we address issues of food insecurity and land access. We lease land to local Kenyan, Latinx and a small number of emerging white farmers at an affordable rate for them. Our emerging farmers have a range of zero to ten years of experience, while our Kenyan farmers bring more than ten years of experience, primarily from their home country. Many of them are harvesting foods familiar to their homelands, including chinsaga and managu. Moreover, our farmers enjoy working in community, sharing food, knowledge, experience and friendship.