Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc.

For 39 years, Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG) has kept true to our mission to help family farmers and their communities with the legal services, guidance and support they need to weather crises and stay on the land.

In the past year our decades’ long commitment to family farmers and unique expertise was called upon as FLAG helped respond to unprecedented changes in the economic systems and support programs that farmers rely upon for survival. 

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FLAG Is a Lifeline for Family Farmers in Crisis

FLAG was established in 1986 in response to the farm credit crisis of the 1980s, when its founding legal aid lawyers helped win a landmark case preventing foreclosures for more than 80,000 family farms. Since then FLAG has delivered services that help family farmers weather crises and stay on the land, which include:

• Outreach and education on laws and programs that help families sustain their farms;
• A national hotline offering free legal advice for family farmers;
• Impact litigation that helps large numbers of family farmers by defending laws that protect them;
• Legal services FLAG provides to farm advocacy organizations; and 
• Resources and information on crucial disaster assistance programs to many family farmers every year. 

Every day, FLAG is contacted by farmers around the country with a broad range of legal needs. Every one of their requests has a common underlying thread: they have few, if any, options for legal help other than FLAG. FLAG is a critical line of defense – and in many cases the only line of defense – for small and medium-sized farmers who are an essential prerequisite for the transition to a food and agriculture system that is sustainable, equitable, healthy, and just.

FLAG is providing clarity farmers need to access vital programs

FLAG’s ability to explain the complex provisions of government programs in plain language through guides and trainings has been crucial to helping thousands of farmers access disaster and discrimination relief programs and helped farmers understand how they can benefit from them. In the last year FLAG Guides have been accessed over 5,000 times by farmers, advocates and technical providers. 

Guides are the Go-To Resources for farmers, advocates and technical providers

When you are a farmer, local matters are everything. Last December, FLAG published our Farmers’ Guide to County Committee Elections, with an update in February, this Guide covers the rules governing the election of FSA County Committee members. FSA County Committees exercise significant power over the delivery of FSA services at the county level. And because of this, the election of Committee members is of great interest to all farmers and ranchers that participate in FSA programs.  

Farmers' Guide to County Committee Elections 

In March, FLAG attorneys created the Farmers’ Guide to Carbon Contracts to help farmers understand the rapidly evolving carbon markets. This guide is designed to help farmers understand carbon market contracts and make an informed decision about whether to agree to a carbon contract.

Farmers’ Guide to Carbon Contracts

In October, our attorneys created a second edition of the Farmers’ Guide to the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP). Through ECP, farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural producers can rehabilitate farmland and related infrastructure that is newly damaged by natural disasters; and conserve water for livestock, vineyards, and orchards in a drought emergency. With the effects of climate change making disasters more intense and unpredictable, farmers need clear information like this Guide.

Farmers' Guide to Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) - 2nd Edition

Our attorneys have reached thousands of farmers, trainers and advocates providing more than a dozen trainings in the last year that delved deep into critical issues that affect farmers.

FLAG is Helping to Build a Better Food System

By providing critical services for family farmers, FLAG is helping to build a food system that is more sustainable, healthy, local, just and humane,

If you care about who grows your food…

If you care about healthy food for you and your family…

If you care about building a sustainable environment…

If you care about fighting climate change and building climate resilience…

If you care about the well-being of our rural communities…

If you care about humane treatment of farm animals…

If you care about stopping agricultural consolidation…

If you care about opportunity and justice for disadvantaged and immigrant farmers…

Support FLAG today!