Meet Oregon farmer, state-level policy coordinator, and factory farm accountability advocate Kendra Kimbirauskas.
Plus, federal debt ceiling deal includes SNAP work requirements and sweetheart deals for oil and gas.
I’ve been a little behind schedule on publishing our “Meet a Rural Organizer” series lately. Sorry about that. I’m catching up after some weeks of travel and dealing with some technical issues. Appreciate your patience, Cocklebur readers and supporters, as I catch up after a few weeks on the road.
—Bryce
Today, we’re featuring Oregon’s Kendra Kimbirauskas, Senior Director of Agriculture and Food Systems for the State Innovation Exchange (SiX). Kendra works with national staff at SiX as well as in-state and national partners to promote progressive agriculture policies and legislation in key states across the country. Kendra brings nearly two decades of experience in agricultural policy and rural organizing to her role. She grew up on a Michigan dairy farm and before coming to SiX served as Chief Executive Officer at the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project among other roles. She is a key leader in the factory farm resistance nationwide. Kendra is also a subscriber to The Cocklebur.
The Cocklebur conducted this interview with Kendra over email. Meet a Rural Organizer features rural activists, advocates, and leaders who fight for the places they love. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Kendra supplied the photos for this story.
The Cocklebur: So, tell me something good about rural organizing in your part of the world.
Kendra: We have a strong sense of community and connection among people. In our community, we have a deep-rooted spirit of collaboration and support that makes organizing efforts more effective. People are willing to come together to address local issues and work towards positive change. When rural people come together, we get things done.
The Cocklebur: What are the issues driving the talk at the schools and gas stations and nursing homes and such?
Kendra: Generally, the conversations that are happening in our community are likely very similar to those happening in urban communities. My neighbors are concerned about the economy, they are concerned about affordable housing, and they are worried about climate change, which for us comes in the form of droughts, fires and floods. We are also in the middle of a campaign to stop a global poultry corporation from stealing our water, polluting our air and fouling our rivers, which is extremely top of mind for my neighbors who are very worried about what this will mean for their homes, farms and local businesses.
The Cocklebur: Let's say you're door knocking or phone banking or tabling with rural people. Issue organizing. Tell me something you've learned about how to be a better rural organizer.
Kendra: One of the most important lessons I've learned as a rural organizer is the significance of building personal relationships and trust with community members. Our communities are often tight-knit, and people value personal connections and face-to-face interactions. We don’t trust people who parachute in to sell us political snake oil. In order to be successful, it is critical to take the time to listen to rural people’s concerns, understand their unique perspectives, and genuinely engage in conversations before you can mobilize the rural grassroots into action. It's also important to tailor messaging and organizing strategies to resonate with the specific needs and values of rural communities.
The Cocklebur: And now you get to tell everybody your take on the things that political pundits and consultants get wrong about rural voters.
Kendra: One common misconception about rural people is that we are a white monolithic group with uniform and mostly conservative political views and we don’t matter. Many people who haven’t spent time in rural communities assume we are a bunch of poor sad saps who hate where we live.
The reality is rural communities are racially diverse, with a wide range of political ideologies, cultural backgrounds, and economic circumstances. The love for community runs deep for the people that live here and people will pull together to help out neighbors in times of crisis regardless of what people look like or their political ideology. That’s what rural people do.
It's essential to avoid generalizations and assumptions when working with us. Instead, it is important to engage in genuine conversations to understand our unique concerns and aspirations, and find common ground to build meaningful partnerships. Oversimplifying rural people’s perspectives can lead to misunderstandings and hinder effective organizing efforts and frankly piss rural people off.
The Cocklebur: Rural organizers are generally starved for financial resources. Make the case for investing in rural organizing.
Kendra: Investing in rural organizing is not only a matter of fairness and equity but also a critical strategic decision in order for progressives to build long term political power. No community - including rural communities - can be left behind in our effort to advance fairness and justice for all.
Overlooking rural places can result in missed opportunities to build broad-based coalitions and tap into the potential for grassroots mobilization. Rural people have valuable insights, lived experiences, and a strong sense of place, which can contribute to crafting effective policies. By investing in rural organizing, we can empower local leaders, amplify rural voices, and ensure that the concerns of these often marginalized communities are addressed, leading to a more inclusive and successful progressive movement.
The Cocklebur: Any local leaders or up-and-comers doing rural work you'd like to highlight?
Kendra: I have been incredibly inspired by the Native American women, like Tara Houska and Whitney Gravelle in the Upper Midwest and their work organizing against pipelines and the fossil fuel industry.
The Cocklebur: Here's the one where you get to recommend a book, a song, and a something to watch on a screen.
Kendra: I am obsessed with Barbara Kingsolver, but particularly relevant to this interview - I would recommend her latest book Demon Copperhead, which recently won a Pulitzer Prize. I won’t give too much away but it’s a fictional story with incredible characters and it examines a society that has left rural Appalachia and the people living there behind.
The Cocklebur: Closing statement. Brag about your organization, yourself, and your work.
I don’t like to brag.
Debt Ceiling Deal:
Congress is back in session this week in Washington, D.C. President Joe Biden and many other Democrats are expected to cave to Republican demands for cuts to SNAP, as well as give-aways to the oil-and-gas industry, in order to raise the nation’s borrowing limit. The implications are serious for rural people and rural places.
As reported by The Cocklebur last week, SNAP work requirements would:
“cause unequivocal harm to the tens of millions of people with low incomes across the country - in red and blue states, who need federal nutrition programs to put food on the table,” according to Gina Plata-Nino, SNAP deputy director for FRAC, the Food Research and Action Center.
Cutting SNAP would fail to “address our nation’s hunger crisis and instead will make hunger worse. This is particularly concerning for rural communities who have less access to resources.”
The Cocklebur will continue to report on these debt ceiling negotiations and other budget impacts on rural communities. Many billions of dollars, and huge pollution risks, are at stake in rural America.
The Cocklebur covers rural policy and politics from a progressive point-of-view. Our work focuses on a tangled rural political reality of dishonest debate, economic and racial disparities, corporate power over our democracy, and disinformation peddled by conservative media outlets. We aim to use facts, data, and science to inform our point-of-view. We wear our complicated love/WTF relationship with rural America on our sleeve.