The Gaia Fund supports BFA and our mission to increase nutrient quality in the food supply.
www.gaiasf.org
About Gaia Fund
Gaia Fund is a San Francisco-based family foundation that began awarding charitable grants in 1995. It was established by Christine Russell and Mark Schlesinger, who both serve as its sole trustees and set grantmaking priorities. Susan R. Clark is the Director of Programs for Gaia Fund.
Gaia Fund's highest priority is to help California address its pressing environmental problems. California is our nation's most productive agricultural state and, as studies have consistently shown, prevailing practices related to the U.S. system of conventional food production, distribution, and consumption carry high environmental costs. With this in mind, the purpose of Gaia Fund's environmental grantmaking is to foster the transition of this system to one that is sustainable, integrating the goals of responsible environmental stewardship, profitability, and social and economic equity.
The Fund focuses on the earliest stages of this system, with a particular emphasis on sustainable agricultural methods that mitigate climate change, protect natural resources, and promote biodiversity. The Fund considers requests for initiatives that:
- encourage farmers to adopt sustainable practices relative to commercial agriculture;
- support sustainable farming that operates on a smaller commercial scale and that serves local markets;
- train individuals for careers in sustainable farming; and
- preserve land that will be farmed sustainably.