Mission and Ethic

Financial

Demonstrate and advocate for just economic behaviors.

The United States was founded by European peoples longing for a more just economic system. The U.S. Constitution specifically delineates a system of rights to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity for economic and social advancement. We believe defense of economic justice and the intelligent evaluation of all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution are critical to community well-being.

  Create direct financial relationships between farmers/food makers and buyers.

Unnecessarily complex relationships in supply chains create both usury and the opportunity for usury. We believe direct relationships between maker and retailer/buyer/user are best.

Emphasize the importance of local self-sufficiency.

Community dependency on distant suppliers creates artificial ‘economies-of-scale’, makes the evaluation of economic externalities difficult, and creates large supply and product quality risks. We believe local self-sufficiency – married to the export of excess local supply – creates the best risk management tools for communities. 

Aid the most disadvantaged citizens.

All sincere religions teach the responsibility to aid disadvantaged peoples. Only by concentrating our energy and financial resources on integrating those citizens into our programs do we improve social interaction, improve local knowledge/decision making, and create stable families.

Build mutually beneficial regional, national, and international financial relationships with others sharing our values.

Well managed economic complexity is a critical asset for communities and organizations. We believe the intelligence and wealth creation of our projects will enormously benefit from integrating diverse relationships.

Agricultural

  Provide education and skills to food producing farmers and food processor entrepreneurs so that they may become economically and environmentally self-sufficient.

Lost historical farming knowledge - combined with a vast new knowledge base of agro-ecological science - necessitates an educational response. We believe our work should increases both environmental health and farm productivity.  

Increase the supply of affordable farm land.

Farmland in our region is generally above $13,000 per acre. Given the ‘underclass’ economics of regional farming, land costs make lucrative farming impossible in the short and near term. We believe charitable funding is critical to subsidizing farmland purchase for at least the next 15 years.

Increase the supply of locally produced, restoratively grown food products.

Rhode Island, in part because of its dependency on imported food, has led to increased food insecurity and lack of universal access to nutritious, whole foods.  Nutrition education is much more difficult if the local food supply is not ‘whole diet’. We strive to significantly increase the local supply and access of vegetables and vegetable value-added foods over ten years.

Agro-Ecological

Understand a farm’s agro-ecological characteristics and the agro-ecological footprint in the larger community.

Scientific and technical information on agro-ecology has expanded rapidly in the last forty years. The ability to reach analytic understandings about soil, weed management, pest management, etc. now enables data driven farm improvement and expands the knowledge used in intuitive farm decision making. Those same tools lead to a better understanding of a farm’s environmental relationship to neighborhood and community.

Develop the farmer/entrepreneur ethic and understanding of intuitive farm decision-making.

Historical and indigenous farm decisions were primarily intuitive and experiential. Those intuitive decisions were the basis for the ethical operation of the farm. We believe entrepreneurial education should aid the development of a conscious, managed farm ethic.

Evaluate and apply appropriate conservation practices to all agricultural decisions.

The operations and ethic of a farm should be conservative and restorative. USDA and other research and development institutions have developed long-standing conservation practice methods. Those practices should be conscientiously evaluated and implemented as part of any farm management plan.

Maintain an active research and development program.

Shewatuck Farm has been institutionally structured to both finance and implement an active research and development program - as well as actively exchange information and knowledge with other research and development institutions. Farm health is dependent upon intelligent management and appropriate innovation (innovation that does not create negative externalities).

Relationship

Work honestly and humbly with others.

Honesty is the bedrock of sustained, meaningful relationships with both land and people. Farm and institutional operations are complex, always changing, and many times unpredictable. Humility aids understanding.

Establish equitable financial agreements with entrepreneurs and associates.

The operation of Shewatuck Farm is structured to ensure equitable relationships both internally and with others. Fellows and associates will only feel encouraged and valued if they are reasonably compensated.

Define rigorous personal and organizational responsibilities.

Explicit and detailed descriptions of all tasks and responsibilities are critical to organizational management. Cohesive relationships are built by known expectations –leading to an openness and ability to appropriately innovate.

Encourage reasonable compassion in all relationships.

We strive to be thoughtful and compassionate in all our relationships.

Support the families of our colleagues, associates, and entrepreneurs.

Contemporary American society strains family life – creating financial pressures on every aspect of the family. Our work methods respect and build family life.

Continuously improve neighborly action.

We hope to instill a spirit of old-fashioned neighborliness in all our activities. We want to be dependable to our neighbors in a manner that builds community trust and environmental health.