Each year the Food/Agriculture Collaborative is setting priorities that will show results within that year. The priorities listed below are results from driven projects in 2023. 

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1. A Report on the Status of Food/Agriculture as an Impactful Economic Sector

• Early work by the Diné Policy Institute and others established a baseline for understanding the nature and opportunities related to Food on the Navajo Nation.  In 2019, we built upon these reports with refreshed survey input and a review of active policy and agriculture-based operations.  That report which is linked here began building of momentum toward a more robust economy. 

 

2. Establishing a Food/Agriculture Collaborative 

• In 2020, Emergence Group completed a review of the Food/Agriculture economy on the Navajo Nation.  The compilation strongly suggested that a more robust system/economy could be supported in the Food/Agriculture sector by creating and maintaining a Food/Agriculture Collaborative that brings talented Navajo people and organizations together.  

 

• In July, 2022 we convened ten (10) well Food/Agriculture focused producers, non-profits and government entities. Over the next several months, the group developed a set of principles, a Shared Vision. and a set of Priorities for the first year of work.  

 

• The projects below resulted from the Priorities of 2023. 

 

3. Establishing Farm Stands in underserved rural Navajo Communities 

• The Food/Agriculture Collaborative is working to identify and encourage local growers who could provide healthy foods by establishing local market opportunities for sales. 

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• In 2023, two members of the Collaborative joined to identify local Navajo growers and host pop up Farm Stands in two local unserved communities.  The goal is to identify 5-7 local growers new to marketing foods in each community and engage them in selling to local consumers. 

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• Results will be used to enable support for additional Farm Stands and Markets in 5 communities over the next 3-5 years. 

 

4. Supporting Big Water Foundation’s goal of addressing Navajo/Hopi Infrastructure Needs

• Big Water Foundation will become a 501 c3 non-profit organization this year and will begin providing grants for infrastructure to small growers.

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• The Collaborative is assisting them in developing data on the needs and capacities of Navajo and Hopi growers. This data collection will assist Big Water in targeting their potential grant recipient attributes and building a critical list of their needs. 

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5. Video on the Impact of Producers on the Navajo Nation

• Collaborative members felt that the local growers were not looked upon as having the potential to make a contribution to the economy and wanted to share their story. The Collaborative is supporting the development of a video to showcase their work.