Ben Burkett

For the past 25 years, farmer and grassroots organizer Ben Burkett has worked throughout the South to champion the rights of small farmers and ensure their livelihoods through a movement known as food sovereignty. “For decades, American small farmers have been told that they have to either get bigger or get out of farming,” says Ben. As a fourth-generation farmer himself, Ben is not ready to give up the fight against agricultural industrialization. Instead, he is at the forefront of the effort to create sustainable economic models for disadvantaged small farmers, a process that includes marketing, land assistance measures, and technical assistance training for disaster relief. Even after his own farm was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Ben worked with local farmers to develop a rebuilding plan and minimize the disruption. At a time when Americans are haunted by news stories of E. coli in their spinach and poisoned grain in their pet food, Ben hopes to convince Americans that buying fresh food from local farmers is healthier and safer. This new consumer action would both protect small farmers and create a food system where farmers, processors, and retailers establish beneficial alliances to produce the best food available at the best prices. On a broader level, by influencing federal, state, and local policy, Ben is building the framework to sustain a new generation of small farmers, especially farmers of color.

Ben, currently the director of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, has been a farmer since 1973. He is a board member of the Crescent City Farmer’s Market in New Orleans; secretary/manager of Indian Springs Cooperative located in Petal, Mississippi; vice president of the National Family Farmers Coalition; Vice President of Community Food Security Coalition; and a board member of the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group. He has traveled extensively to Africa, South America, and Europe to learn more about sustainable agricultural practices. In five years, he sees himself “as a senior leader in the movement. I see myself in the center of past, present, and future movement work.”

For more on Ben Burkett:
US Family Farmers Applaud Demise of Doha Negotiations
Common Dreams.org
August 14, 2008

Farm Bill a Wasted Chance
By Ben Burkett, Santa Rosa Press Gazette
May 27, 2008

Growers Briefed on Farm Bill
By Susan McCord, Albany Herald
February 9, 2008

Peru Free Trade Agreement is Disaster for Farmers Everywhere
By Ben Burkett, Topeka Capital-Journal
December 7, 2007

In the Delta, Federal Farm Aid Widens Disparity Among Races
By Gilbert M. Gaul and Dan Gordon, Boston Globe
June 24, 2007

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