Source: Civil Eats

Excerpt:

Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou co-owns, operates, and farms Brisa Ranch in Pescadero, California with her husband, Cole Mazariegos-Anastassiou, and friend Cristóbal Cruz. Veronica got her start working with rice farmers in Togo as a Peace Corps volunteer and has been farming full-time in California for seven years. Established in 2018, Brisa is a small-scale organic fruit, vegetable, and flower farm that sells directly to consumers, local restaurants, and grocers. Over the past few years, Brisa has been impacted by wildfires, drought, and floods and Mazariegos-Anastassiou and her partners have received no federal support to recover from these climate events.

Climate change is emerging as a central theme of the 2023 Farm Bill negotiations. Some farming groups are asking Congress to prioritize young farmers and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) farmers in those climate provisions, given the historic discrimination they’ve faced, coupled with the fact that BIPOC communities bear disproportionate impacts of climate change.

According to the National Young Farmers Coalition, which surveyed over 10,000 people under 40 years old, lack of access to land and capital are the core issues young farmers face across the U.S., and the challenge they would most like to see addressed in the next farm bill.

Read more: Why BIPOC Farmers Need More Protection From Climate Change