This year, Earth Day sparks reflection on the existential and urgent need to radically reduce our reliance on the fossil fuel and war economy and invest in nature based solutions, Indigenous land stewardship, food equity and regenerative farming. At the SAFSF Forum this summer, we are reflecting on the conference theme “Ancestral Futures.” How do we act now to be good ancestors to future generations? How do we take action for regeneration over extraction, relationship over exploitation, and abundance over scarcity?
We are reminded that the future is not something distant or abstract. It is already present — in the land, in the water, in the relationships we hold, and in the communities leading change.
This summer at the SAFSF Forum matters, because we recognize that the strength of our connections, the daringness of our vision, and depth of our willingness to collaboratively act will determine the future we leave to the next generation.
Session Spotlight: Driving Climate & Environmental Resilience
Image: Coastal marshes at Pin Point Heritage Museum in Savannah, Georgia
The SAFSF Forum convenes more than 350 diverse capital and community partners to explore funding strategies for a climate resilient and just future of food. The conference focuses on different approaches to moving impact capital to transform food systems. While funder learning is a central goal, nonprofit movement leaders and food system partners are integral to the event’s success, bringing on-the-ground wisdom and solutions. As we face a moment of profound transformation across non-profit, philanthropy, and food systems, the SAFSF Forum is a gathering place for sense-making, solutions, and solidarity.
The 2026 SAFSF Forum will take place in Savannah, Georgia—a place where Afro-Indigenous stewardship, Gullah Geechee traditions, and Southern agrarian and culinary innovation intersect with today’s climate crisis, land loss, and rural economic disinvestment. The U.S. South is a fulcrum of American food and agriculture: a production powerhouse; a hub for farmworker and H-2A dynamics that shape national food supply; a climate frontline facing extreme heat, hurricanes, and flooding; and a logistics hub where Gulf and Atlantic ports—Savannah among them—move goods globally. Equity, divestment, and ownership struggles are also acutely felt here, from Black land stewardship and heirs’ property challenges to corporate land capture in rural communities forcing displacement of local food systems. Because issues of land justice, climate change, rural economic development, and systems of racism and exclusion converge so intensely in the South, investing in community-led solutions in food and agriculture in the region can offer solutions to the country and the world. Throughout the Forum, we will trace the throughline of Black and Indigenous Agrarianism, uplifting lineages of liberatory organizing, cooperative economics, and rural self-determination that lay the foundation for a climate-resilient, healthy, and equitable food future beyond corporate control.
Critical Climate Conversations Happening at the 2026 Forum:
How Past Crises Deeply Inform Today’s Sustainability Challenges
Join trailblazing leaders Zach Ducheneaux, Janie Hipp, Savi Horne, and Scott Marlow for a discussion on the causes and impacts of the current farm financial crisis. While national and regional media are reporting farms and ranches are struggling financially, the public is not hearing the full scope of the crisis from the perspective of the farmer and rancher whose operations are at risk. This workshop will address the systemic, financial, and racial inequities that make the current crisis so devastating, especially for sustainable and regenerative family farm operations.
Difficult Conversations Around Livestock Production, Climate, and Health
ClimateWorks Foundation, GRACE Communications Foundation, and fellow funders invite a discussion on the complex question of climate resiliency, public health, and industrial livestock production — mapping areas of convergence and divergence to find common ground. This Learning Dinner session will spotlight funding opportunities around limiting CAFO expansion and supporting reduced meat consumption in favor of whole, minimally processed foods, while also recognizing the nuanced role of regenerative livestock solutions.
Grants to Governance: New Models Supporting Community-Led AgTech Innovation
Artificial intelligence, biotech, digitalization and climate change: how can food system funders navigate new technologies in a rapidly changing climate while staying aligned with food sovereignty values? Friends of The Earth, The 11th Hour Project/The Schmidt Family Foundation, and Community Alliance of Family Farmers explore the evolving landscape of agricultural technology, and assess challenges and opportunities of emerging innovations by looking at real world case studies of conventional and community led innovation.
Stewardship to Sovereignty: Native-led Approaches to Land, Climate, and Food
Tribal Nations have long stewarded land and food systems in ways that strengthen climate adaptation and community health, yet these approaches need sustained and appropriate levels of investment after centuries of land loss, political erasure, and underfunding. First Nations Development Institute hosts a Learning Dinner that highlights Native-led strategies to rebuild ecological and cultural food systems through place-based leadership and governance.