Company description

CAFF is a California-based membership organization that includes family farmers and other community members passionate about local food, farming, and the environment. As a farmer-serving organization, we recognize the historic and lasting inequities in the California food and farming system. We believe farmers of color, and other historically oppressed people, should have the opportunity to create and participate in a food and agriculture system that aligns with their needs, values, identities, knowledge systems, and communities. We commit to advancing racial, gender, and environmental justice in our larger systems, as well as in our own workplace. Currently, our programming is focused in four areas: Farm to Market, Policy & Advocacy, Farmer Services, and Ecological Farming. To learn more about CAFF, our history, and our core values, visit https://www.caff.org/about.

Job description

Position Summary: The San Joaquin Valley Advocacy Manager will play a pivotal role in supporting small-scale and underserved farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. This Spanish-English bilingual position will focus on organizing and advocacy for small-scale and underserved farmers while building bridges with farmworker and environmental justice organizations and shaping a just transition in agriculture. A successful candidate will help strengthen regional networks, elevate farmer challenges to policymakers, have the ability to work independently, is a self-starter/highly motivated, has strong communication, facilitation, and public speaking skills, and is passionate about CAFF’s mission and core values.

Position Overview: The interests of California’s family-scale farmers, particularly small and historically underserved farmers, are often overshadowed by powerful corporate interests (e.g, hedge funds, investment firms, etc). For over 47 years, CAFF has worked to amplify the voices of these farmers in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. In more recent years, we have focused on supporting small-scale farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and throughout the state and fostering partnerships with farmworkers and environmental justice groups to build a more equitable future.

CAFF seeks an Advocacy Manager to work directly with farmers, organizations, and governmental representatives to advance policy solutions that create a healthy and more just agricultural system in the San Joaquin Valley and throughout the state. The Advocacy Manager will work on strengthening regional farmer networks while meaningfully building relationships with environmental justice and farmworker organizations. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong initiative and the ability to navigate complex issues, including farm labor and farmer advocacy related to immigration reform, and development of strong partnerships, creating opportunities for collaboration and movement building. This person should be independently driven, with strong multicultural leadership, project management, and facilitation skills, and have experience and a passion for California agriculture, with particular knowledge about the San Joaquin Valley.

As a vital part of the Policy Team, this position will identify opportunities and challenges by organizing and listening to farmers, articulating policy positions at the state, local, and federal levels, and supporting general policy communications. The Advocacy Manager is expected to have a broad range of expertise and interest in issues affecting agricultural communities (farmers, farmworkers, and environmental justice communities), including access to land, water, capital, infrastructure, marketing, and climate change.

While the list below includes many initial duties and responsibilities, this is an evolving position, and we anticipate some of these may shift over time as relationships are built, research is conducted, and our role in the community is more clearly defined. An ideal candidate will want to help shape the position and work plan with the Policy Team.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, $75,000 - $100,000

Application instructions

Deadline

September 12, 2025