This year marks MESA’s ten-year anniversary of offering international farmer-to-farmer exchange programs on behalf of sustainable agriculture. For ten years, we have built bridges between rural communities and sustainable agriculture advocates all over the world.

Today, MESA is becoming:

• a fiscal sponsor for dozens of home country projects launched by MESA stewards once they return, ensuring their projects’ longevity
• a central administrative hub for like-minded global partners all over the world
• a clearinghouse of educational and networking resources for the MESA stewards
• the only US-based exchange organization with advanced level training offerings in sustainable: dairy, rice, and cut flower marketing and production
• a coordinator of public-private partnerships enabling sustainable enterprise in the countries with whom we work
• a specialist in working with recovering farming communities in conflict regions

With agriculture and the food system in a clear state of crisis on a global scale, eaters and growers all over the world are looking for sustainable local solutions. The progress that has been made both in the U.S. and abroad by people committed to shifting the conventional food system with place-based innovations is astounding, particularly in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. For these pioneers to succeed they need not work in isolation, but can be part of a much larger community, sharing and learning with other farmers and sustainable food system advocates.

A key MESA objective is to introduce our international agricultural stewards to innovations, technologies, and cutting edge ideas that are developing in the US sustainable agriculture movement that can be shared within their local communities. The clear challenge is that when the stewards return to their home countries they lack the seed capital to launch projects and see them through.

In celebration of our tenth anniversary, we are launching the Solidarity Fund. By pledging to this fund you will be supporting the efforts of the international farm stewards with whom MESA works, once they’ve returned to their home countries. This fund will feed MESA’s Competitive Matching Grants Program, offered annually, as well as the Fiscal Sponsorship Program.

If you would like to donate to MESA’s Solidarity Fund, contact Amanda Dates [email protected].