The Center for Grassroots Organizing

At A Glance

Contact: 

Henry Harris

Location: 

Marshfield, Vermont

Primary Issue Area:

  • Living Economies
  • Climate Change & Energy
  • Food
  • Environmental Health
  • Land & Water

Active since:

2021

  • Migrant Justice Members work on a Collaborative Mural with the Northstar Collective during their annual retreat at the Grassroots Center
  • NorthStar Collective Kicks off the planting season in their "Harriet Garden" at the Center for Grassroots Organizing
  • Monika (UNORCA- MX), Ayla (CFU- CA), and Jesus (Organizacion Boricua-PR) kick off the Agroecology School at the Grassroots Center
  • Youth plant medicine, crop trees, and veggies in coordinted jump suits
  • Left to right: Maru, Farmworkers Assoc. of Florida; Yorlis McCune, Ixim Ulew Agroecology School, Nicaragua, on our Intn't Advisory Cmte (IAC); Cristina Alonso, MX City, member of our Agroecology School Collective; Rosita Perez, IAC, Chile; Monika Castillo, IAC, UNORCA Organizer, IAC; Freddy Congo Suarez, our Agroecology School lead mentor, UNICAM SUR Morelos, MX / Ecuador

Our Purpose

The goal of our collective is to contribute to a Just Transition through land stewardship and grassroots organizing. This is the genesis of an Agroecology and Movement Building School in Vermont. We’re training people in the technical aspects of ecological agriculture and the social tools of building a movement for cooperative application of these regenerative agricultural, social, and economic practices. The commitment of the school to prioritize movement building and popular-style political education along with traditional and technical agroecological skills is a unique offering and something that we see as crucial. Through this work, we intend to help create the livable future our children’s children need. Our collective members are deeply involved in the Just Transition in Vermont and elsewhere, and together we share dozens of years of experience organizing with grassroots and agrarian communities, working towards systemic change in Vermont and beyond. As Malcolm X famously said, “Revolution is based on land.” We know land is at the root of both our sovereignty and our collective wellbeing. Land access is key to applying regenerative principles justly and at scale. To be successful in helping facilitate the Just Transition, including equitable access to farmland and resources, we truly need to build a movement that is rooted in reverence for the earth and each other and is making tangible steps forward and growing.