Organic Seed Alliance is honored to have received a 2020 general support grant this past fall from the Clif Family Foundation, a long-time funding partner in the good seed movement.
OSA Executive Director Cara Loriz thanked the Foundation for encouraging both OSA’s programs and our organizational development through general support funds that are “vital to our ongoing operations and essential to our capacity to respond to farmers’ needs and emerging issues during times of change and uncertainty.”
This funding from the Foundation’s small grants program comes as OSA works to meet the increased demand for seed and seed knowledge brought on by the pandemic and the dramatic rise in sales of organic produce. “We are grateful for the capacity this funding gives us to grow our networks, support more organic seed growers and engage the seed community on equity issues as our constituents look to us for ethical leadership,” Loriz added. OSA has benefited from the Foundation’s commitment to organic seed since 2011.
While supporting holistic environmental work, the Clif Family Foundation is one of very few granting organizations to explicitly prioritize robust, healthy food systems and the role of organic seed in them. In 2009, the Foundation launched Seed Matters, a special initiative that committed $1.5 million to the conservation of crop genetic diversity, the protection of farmers’ roles and rights as seed innovators and stewards, and the re-invigoration of public seed research and education. OSA celebrates the ongoing work of Seed Matters to fund graduate fellowships in public plant breeding at land grant institutions.
Loriz praised the family’s history of seed support and key investments in the future: “The Clif Family Foundation has fueled the organic seed movement in profound ways and we simply can’t thank them enough.”
