Sometimes it takes a crisis like this to wake us up that something needs to be done. Stonyfield co-founder and former long-time CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg came up with an idea for a region-wide partnership between consumers, large and small dairy processors, retailers, restaurants, school lunch programs, college cafeterias, and of course, our region’s hard-working organic family farmers. The idea is to enlist tens of thousands of northeast consumers, and ultimately retail and institutional customers, in a Partnership that will provide stable, long-term demand for these 135 farms, as well as the overall region’s organic family farms so that none of these farmers are ever made vulnerable like this again.

The Northeast Organic Family Farm Partnership celebrates the fact that when it comes to supporting our region’s organic family farmers, it really does take a village. All of us have a stake in the long-term financial health of these farms and farm families, and they, in turn, are completely dependent on the entire community of consumers, families, students, processors, retailers, restaurateurs, school systems, and so many others from NYC and eastern NY across to northeastern Maine. Through the simple act of pledging to purchase one-quarter of our dairy items from the brands, processors, and farms who support these family farmers, we can all help to ensure that these farms will remain healthy, vibrant, environmentally and climate-positive parts of our beautiful northeast region for generations to come.