Movement Ground Farm was a land-based project working at the intersection of food and justice, access and healing. It began as just an idea in 2014 and closed in March of 2025.
Below is the story of everything that unfolded in between.
Tips for navigating Harvesting for Seed: We estimate that this resource will take 1.5-2 hours to fully navigate. In addition to scrolling through the timeline below, you can also use the Search the Archive page to read through the content. If you’re scrolling the timeline below, using the sidebar (along the left) will jump you to a specific year.
*This content can be heavy. Take breaks and drink water.*
The Act of Closing
Movement Ground Farm (MGF) and other projects like it that started, tried something new, and closed, are part of a longer and larger arc of work that moves us toward the world we want. May these projects that have closed not be seen as a waste of time, space or resource. May trying something new not be seen as a waste of time, space or resource, but instead may these projects and their attempts be recognized as experiments in a collective journey and as chapters in a larger narrative of effort that will ultimately bring us closer to this new world we dream of.
Each project adds depth to our understanding of what it takes to get there. MGF lives in a landscape of projects that have tried to build new worlds, and where effort ultimately wasn’t enough.
The choice to close and move energy and resources into other organizations and strategies is necessary, the act of closing can be done in a way that honors the work, the compost of one org creating soil for the next. Part of what MGF is able to offer us, is itself as a case study as we collectively continue to work towards the liberated world we want.
2014
The Seed Is Planted
After a decade of community organizing and building out the Providence Youth Student Movement, Kohei (he/him) finds himself burnt out and dreaming of a new way to make change. His inspiration comes through farming and he begins to envision a space where the social justice community he'd been cultivating over the past decade could come together to retreat, eat quality fresh food and connect with land. Kohei is queer, bi-racial, Japanese American and cis-gender, as well as economically privileged growing up in an upper-middle class family and neighborhood. He spends this year as a student in the Sustainable Food & Farming program at UMASS - Amherst, and working part-time as a farmhand at two farms.
Spring
Click on each picture to learn more about each event over the years.
Summer
A business plan is born
Kohei’s first business plan.
Fall & Winter
Events with a glow are pivotal to the story.
2015
Movement Ground Farm is BORN
Movement Ground Farm (MGF) begins as a sole proprietorship business out of a 1.5 acre plot in Raynham, MA where all vegetable production takes place. In May, an additional 16 acre farm is leased in Berkley, MA. This land becomes home to all of the poultry MGF raises and to Kohei, who moves into a house on the property. Throughout the season the Berkley property is prepped for 2016; garlic is planted, and the birds arrive (emus, pullet chickens, and ducks), some of whom will begin to lay eggs the following year. There is a lot of enthusiasm and support from volunteers. Organizers in Providence are also beginning to get excited about coming to the land and connecting with the project.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (emu, goats, quail, ducklings, and chickens)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Providence Youth Student Movement, Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island, and Freedom Food Farm.
Spring & Summer
Revere Farmers Market
Fall
2016
On Our Own
This year MGF fully transitions to Berkley, Massachusetts. While the land in Raynham was already prepped with irrigation and access to good equipment, this year MGF is on its own, establishing beds and working with whatever tools they have or inherit with the property. Kohei and the additional full time employee live in the house on the land. The year is full of burnout and over-extension, the team is running a CSA that doubled in size from 2015 and selling at three farmers markets. This year the farm reaps what was sown over previous years, in April the ducks and quails start laying eggs, July brings the first big garlic harvest, and by September the shiitake logs from 2014 are producing thousands of mushrooms!
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (emu, goats, quail, ducks, chickens)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are The FANG Collective, Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), and The Olio Culinary Collective.
Spring
Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) holding their first overnight retreat at the farm in 2016.
Summer
Fall
Winter
2017
A Family Undertaking
While in its second season on the Berkley, MA land, MGF begins searching for a permanent home, with Kohei’s family making multiple trips to the East Coast to assist. Kohei hires additional farm staff in order to free his time and focus on the land search.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (emu, goats, quail, ducks, game hens, turkeys, chickens)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), Resource Organizing Project – Movement Sustainability Commons, and Grassroots International.
Sketches of what becomes the MGF logo
Winter
Summer
Fall & End of Year
Click on the arrows to scroll through additional events.
2018
The Search For Land
Farming, the CSA, and all markets are put on hold to prioritize the search for land, as the Berkley, MA property’s lease is up for expiration this year. A think tank of advisors is brought together to give feedback on the search, build strategies for buying, and explore the potential of MGF transitioning into a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget (minimal/self-funded)
Employees (Kohei)
Livestock (goats, chickens not for production)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
A video update Kohei made in May of 2018 for community members detailing his search for land.
Winter
Spring
Summer
Click through to read about the LLC’s formation and the related pie charts below.
LLC breakdown by amount invested (Total $1.105M)
LLC Breakdown Family/Non-Family
Breakdown of Family Investment (Total $950k)
Non-family investment breakdown by race (Total $155K)
Fall & WInter
2019
Putting Down Roots
In March, the Tiverton property is purchased under a newly formed LLC. Kohei and a group of worksharers relaunch the CSA, while MGF moves toward nonprofit status and forms a founding board. Throughout the season, infrastructure is added, including a walk-in cooler, washing station, and office space in the house. Volunteers also help to build a second high tunnel on the property.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are The Resist Foundation, Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW), and Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR).
Spring
“If you're going to create a nonprofit, it shouldn’t be family owned.”
-Think Tank/LLC/ Board Member
“I remember feeling a bit of a disconnect between what [was] being stated as the values and how things would get formed.”
-Think Tank/LLC/ Board Member
Summer
Fall
2020
Big Growth, Big Tensions
This year MGF hires its first full-time year-round farm manager. COVID massively disrupts the dream of making the farm a community space while also increasing demand for local food and tensions build between the farm manager and ED throughout the season.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Eastern Woodlands Rematration Collective, Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR), and Wellspring Apothecary.
Spring
“Some of the fundamental community building did not happen.”
-think tank/llc/ board member
Summer
Building out a perennial and medicinal herb garden.
Fall
Winter
2021
The Farm Crew Forms
This year MGF takes key steps as a nonprofit, filing for 501(c)(3) status, establishing personnel policies, and creating a logo. A program coordinator is hired to develop on-farm events and offerings for CSA members; this marks MGF’s first non-farmer staff member. The board conducts its first ED evaluation and processes a complaint from a former worker. This is the first year MGF has a full farm crew who are deeply aligned with its mission and invested in its future.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (meat chickens and layer chickens)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Our Fire Collective, Amicable Church , and Movement Education Outdoors.
Spring
Summer
Fall
“In a way, worker self direction was kind of a hail mary.”
-farm crew
There were many different understandings of MGF’s purpose. While the website stated, "Our mission is to recultivate the central role of food and land in nourishing our bodies, strengthening our communities, and growing a more just world," people interpreted this mission in a variety of ways. Below are some of the different visions people had for MGF’s work.
Healing through food sovereignty and land connection A farm in relationship with marginalized communitiesA space for young farmers of color to develop skills Culturally relevant, accessible, nutrient-dense food through a CSA A place for refugee and immigrant communities to reconnect with land A retreat spaceBeing in right relationship with Indigenous people and the landBuild capacity for movementConnecting and uniting movement organizations2022
The Big Experiment
The year begins with excitement over transitioning to a worker self-directed (wsd) model, but tensions between the ED and farm crew quickly surface. As challenges mount—financial instability, unclear leadership, and unresolved conflicts— enthusiasm fades, and trust erodes, leaving the organization in uncertainty by the season’s end.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (chickens, sheep, pigs)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are North American Indian Center of Boston, The Building Circle, and Movement Sustainability Commons.
Winter
Spring
“We struggled so much as a farm crew that year, but there was more trust, so struggling together felt meaningful versus destructive.”
-Farm Crew
Summer
“We got really fucking close.”
-Farm Crew
Staff take a half-day out of the busy season in September to bring up rising tensions in the workplace.
Fall
“When I left I felt like an enemy of the organization, [that] the things I wanted were inherently threatening to the organization.”
-Farm Crew
2023
The Quiet Year
This is a quiet year at MGF. With most of the employees gone and the CSA fully halted, this year is punctuated by two separate board retreats, one in the spring where the decision is made to embark on a strategic planning process and one towards the end of the year where the decision to sunset MGF becomes a reality.
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Open fArms Retreat, Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE), and Tiverton Farmer’s Market.
Winter
Spring
During this more fallow year, greater attention was placed on covercropping and restoring nutrients to the land
CSA members harvest daikon radishes
Summer
Fall
2024
The Sunset
The Year By the Numbers
Budget
Employees
Livestock (emu, goats, quail, ducks, game hens, turkeys, chickens)
CSA Members
CSA Distribution Sites
Worksharers
Main partners in food distribution, farming, and events are Direct Action for Rights & Equality (DARE), Open fArms Retreat, and Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust.
Spring & Summer
Group photo from MGF’s last Harvest Gathering, October 2024.
Fall & Winter
2025
Looking to the future
Movement Ground Farm effectively closed on March 15, 2025. The Ishihara’s have decided to move in together - all at the farmhouse - as a way to provide mutual support and prioritize the caretaking of the elders and the raising of the children.
Under a conservation easement, the land will remain as farmland and be protected from development, in perpetuity. Kohei will be stewarding the land and taking some time off before making room for what is next. As he inches towards the age of 50, he hopes to be taking all of the lessons learned over the past decade, to move slower and communicate deeper, with a focus on supporting the next generation of earth stewards and movement leaders.
Learn more about this project, key lessons, and let us know your thoughts by exploring below.