The Experimental Farm Network Cooperative

Public education and outreach: We attended various farming conferences and other public events, speaking to audiences about our work. We traveled extensively to build relationships with other farmers, plant breeders, and seed growers. For each of these activities, our overarching long-term goal is the development of new crops and growing methods for carbon-sequestration, improved soil health, and ecosystem services.

Cultural Seed Work: In 2022, we continued and expanded our cultural seed work, including seed rematriation (defined similarly to "repatriation", but using a word that recognizes and honors the role of women as seed-keepers in most traditional societies), which involves identifying and growing seeds connected to a particular historical community, returning regenerated seeds to the communities from which they originally came (and/or individuals living in diaspora), and developing long-term reciprocal relationships with members of those communities, including through offering programmatic support wherever possible. Our most important rematriation success-story involves a collaboration with Native Roots Farm Foundation, a Nanticoke-led organization aiming to revive the agricultural life of the Nanticoke people (indigenous to parts of modern-day Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey) through land conservation and education. In 2024, we continued working to expand access to two types of Nanticoke squash, a winter squash simply known as "Nanticoke Squash" (Cucurbita maxima), and a summer squash known in English as "Maycock" (Cucurbita pepo), from the Nanticoke word for squash, "Macac", as well as a Lenape sweet corn variety. This work also has a major educational component, involving teaching others about seed rematriation in order to inspire and encourage them to undertake similar work (there's no shortage of need for such work). We also increased our work with the Iraqi Seed Collective and the Jewish Seed Project in 2024.

In 2024, we served as fiscal sponsor for two other projects related to our core mission: a lost apple identification project (which seeks to find and identify historically known apple varieties before they are lost) directed by Michael Clifford; and the Palestine Heirloom Seed Library or PHSL (which preserves critical crop biodiversity from the Fertile Crescent), now working closely with the Grassroots Seed Network (a Maine-based non-profit, which began taking over as a fiscal sponsor for PHSL in 2024). We provide oversight of these projects, both of which conducted important charitable work in 2024.