Banner photo: Friends of Family Farmers

When Alice Morrison was growing up in suburban Louisville, Kentucky, her mother taught her to grow tomatoes in the garden. It was about as close as Morrison, a future farmer and small farms advocate, got to agricultural work back then. “I lived in a place where agriculture wasn’t very accessible,” Morrison said. “There were large tobacco fields and animal farming operations, but I didn’t feel connected to any of that.”

Morrison’s early exposure to grassroots organizing had more to do with opposing the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining in her state. “I would go to mountaintop removal protests with my mother,” she said. “Through that issue, I learned how polluting industries can impact our communities and natural resources in ways that transcend property lines.”

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