On-Farm Projects & Presentations

For Program Alumni, MESA provides seed funding to develop ecological farming and food justice projects

2025 SPRIG mini-GRANTS!

 

MESA’s annual giving campaign funds our Sustainable Projects for Regeneration, Innovation & Growth (SPRIG) program. SPRIG projects are designed and led by MESA program alumni.

Generous donors help MESA to champion agroecological projects developed by program alumni. MESA’s mini-grant program is called SPRIG (Sustainable Projects for Regeneration, Innovation & Growth). SPRIGs foster agricultural innovation, farmer-to-farmer collaboration and community leadership.

For more than two decades, MESA has provided over $250,000 in grants for global Steward alumni, partner NGOs, and graduates of the Bay Area Farmer Training Program (BAFTP), Training in Applied Agroecology Program (TAAP), Agroecology, Farming and Food Pathways (AFFP), Beekeeping Apprenticeship Program (BAP) programs to support ecological farming and food justice projects in 16 countries and the United States. Community-based, collaborative SPRIGs have included high tunnel greenhouse and solar installations, carbon sequestration research, insectaries, compost improvements, seed saving, and many more.

SPRIG Project areas of focus:

– Climate Change Resilience
– Biodiversity, Conservation, and Ecological Production
– Market Innovation and Financial Health
– Community Education and Engagement
– Renewable Energy and Green Infrastructure