We find ourselves filled with gratitude as we reflect on the highlights from the past year.
We welcomed four new team members who have helped us streamline the process for farmers to access funding. This new, expedited incentive process earned excellent feedback from farmers and prepares all enrolled farmers, staff and partners, laying the foundation for even greater success in 2025.
We traveled throughout the region and beyond to promote our farmer funding opportunities:
- Virginia Women for the Land at Randolph Farm in Petersburg, Virginia
- Feel Good Fest at Ruby’s Happy Farm in Cross Plains, Tennessee
We formed new partnerships to serve regional farmers:
- The Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association to reach grazing row crop producers.
- Farm Aid and east Kentucky farmer Wayne Riley to collaboratively send weekly shipments of clean, netted hay from east Kentucky farmers to farmers in North Carolina for those impacted by Hurricane Helene.
Our Farm Funding Program provided technical assistance to farmers in collaboration with the National Center for Appropriate Technology across several events.
- Five Peer-to-Peer Learning Events
- Two Field Days
- Fourteen online producer trainings
Over the last six months, Accelerating Appalachia provided farmers with close to $2 million in direct cash incentives and services to begin implementing regenerative conservation practices.
Overall, 2024 was a year of learning as we onboarded and enrolled our alpha and beta cohorts. We are deeply grateful to the farmers who helped shape and refine our program for future participants. We are thankful for our donors and the USDA for their financial support as we encourage regenerative conservation across the region.
If you’d like to get involved with our Farmer Funding Program, contact our team here.
