Whole Foods Market and National Young Farmers Coalition Launch Next Generation Farmer Fund to Support the Future of American Agriculture

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 7, 2026--

Whole Foods Market and National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) today announced the launch of the Next Generation Farmer Fund, which will provide direct financial and technical assistance to beginning farmers under the age of 40 who are actively adopting climate-smart and environmentally sustainable farming practices as they tackle the most pressing challenges facing American agriculture.

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As the average age of U.S. farmers continues to climb, more and more incoming farmers face an uphill battle against increasing operational costs, historical land-access barriers and compounding environmental disruptions. Through the newly established fund, Whole Foods Market and Young Farmers are investing in beginning farmers who are helping steward the land, uplift local communities and build a long-term, resilient food system for future generations.

"The new generation is stepping into agriculture because they see themselves as the climate leaders, environmental changemakers and problem solvers to some of our biggest environmental and food system challenges," said Michelle A.T. Hughes, Executive Director of the National Young Farmers Coalition. "There are urgent challenges standing in the way of their success, including access to land, access to capital, health care costs, access to affordable housing, the high cost of production, student loan debt, climate change, immigration issues and access to federal programs. The Next Generation Farmer Fund helps deliver the resources and support they need to build their businesses, while recognizing the indispensable role they play as environmental stewards and community leaders."

As the founding financial partner, Whole Foods Market has committed to matching participating food brands' and agriculture companies' contributions dollar-for-dollar up to $500,000, with the goal of generating more than $1 million for farmers. Administered by Young Farmers, the fund brings together industry partners to help reduce barriers for beginning farmers and strengthen the future of American agriculture. Initial supporting partners include D'Ottavio Farms, Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co., FOND, Harney & Sons, Lil Bucks, Lundberg Family Farms, MadeGood, MegaFood, Nature's Bakery proudly part of Mars, Oppy, PepsiCo, Perdue, Prairie Farms and Rio Fresh.

Building pathways for farmers to develop sustainable livelihoods directly supports Whole Foods Market Foundation's mission to nourish people by advancing food security, improving nutrition, and strengthening resilient food systems. The Foundation expects to contribute a $100,000 grant to the fund in 2026.

Whole Foods Market customers can help support the fund as well. During the month of August, one percent of all revenue generated by sales of the signature Berry Chantilly Cake will be directed to the Next Generation Farmer Fund.

The Next Generation Farmer Fund is a cornerstone of Whole Foods Market's broader commitment to sustainability, as highlighted in its 2025 Impact Report, also released today. The report illustrates the company's higher purpose to Nourish People and the Planet and details progress across the company's key focus areas, including:

"Every data point in our 2025 Impact Report represents the daily dedication of our team members, suppliers and stakeholders across the industry to protect our food system and nourish communities," said Caitlin Leibert, Global Head of Sustainability at Amazon Worldwide Grocery. "From promoting biodiversity to keeping more food than ever out of landfills, this report shows how we are fulfilling our purpose to Nourish People and the Planet. The Next Generation Farmer Fund builds directly on this purpose, ensuring the next wave of agricultural leaders can carry this progress forward."

Check out more information on the Next Generation Farmer Fund and Whole Foods Market's 2025 Impact Report here: wholefoods.com/impact

About Whole Foods Market

Founded in 1980, Austin-based Whole Foods Market is the leading natural and organic foods retailer and the first certified organic national grocer in the United States. Part of Amazon's Worldwide Grocery Stores, Whole Foods Market serves customers in more than 550 stores across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. To learn more about Whole Foods Market, please visit media.wholefoodsmarket.com.

About National Young Farmers Coalition

The National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers) is a national grassroots network of young farmers changing policy and shifting power to equitably resource the new generation of working farmers. Visit Young Farmers on the web at youngfarmers.org.

Whole Foods Market will match up to $500 thousand for the National Young Farmers Coalition's Next Generation Farmer Fund

In a comeback tale like one from Harry Potter battling back his nemesis or a “Heated Rivalry” hockey hero rebounding from injury, a top global fandom site that was sidelined by a security incident is now on the mend.

The activist group behind the popular Archive of Our Own, or AO3, platform, a collaborative online space which serves up fans’ spinoff narratives derived from well-known published stories, says it’s undergoing a limited return after a shutdown on Oct. 29.

“AO3 is now up!” said a status page for the Organization for Transformative Works, an activist group behind the platform, on Sunday.

The outage sent fans of the platform — readers and authors alike — into a desperate void for the past two weeks, with a “Bad Gateway” message stirring frustration. Some authors were outraged when readers uploaded their works to Google Drive and other platforms without their permission during the outage.

The return drew many expressions of joy Sunday.

The organization, in a summary it posted on Instagram of its 2025 results, said nearly 2.6 million AO3 works were created, with nearly 40 billion page views. Nearly 2 million accounts have been created, it said.

AO3 hasn't been without its critics, who have warned about sexual content that could be available to minors and fandom racism through the platform.

The group said some features like user icons have been disabled and importing of external work isn’t available, while downloads are currently only possible in the web-language HTML format. It promised those features will ultimately return.

“We understand that the wait and uncertainty surrounding AO3’s return have been difficult, and we apologize for the inconvenience,” the status update said.

In late October, the team predicted that the security incident would take up to four weeks for AO3 to get back up, while floating the prospect of a partial revival “in a degraded state” — which appears to be what was taking place on Sunday.

The organization said contributors’ “works, bookmarks, kudos, etc., are still safe” and that no drafts were deleted during the outage — but it couldn’t rule out that the user database might have been compromised.

AO3 is a hub of content from fans who have produced content that riffs off fiction, art and other culture and entertainment: Imagine a repository of sequels, prequels and derivatives dreamt up by adoring aficionados of some of the world’s best-known titles.

The result is catchy products like “fanfic” — fiction from fans — and similar fanart, as well as “podfics,” readings of narratives shared in audio form.

A recent listing of “ship stats” — or the number of references to relationships of stars from literature — shows that pairings of characters featured in the Harry Potter, Heated Rivalry and anime fandoms were the most prominent this summer.

The platform, which is run by volunteers, went fully public in 2009, and has shown strong user growth: In June, the Organization for Transformative Works said AO3 had 11 million registered users — up from 10 million four months earlier. It said the archive was nearing 18 million works.

The reaction from many fans of the fandom platform was swift and exuberant about its return.

“So, we've all agreed we don't need to sleep tonight, now that AO3 is finally back, right? Right!?” quipped a user going by the name of yet.another.loon on the Threads social media site.

User Verkielos gushed: “Just got email from AO3 about a fic update. The world is healing!”

Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.

The AO3 website displays a message welcoming readers and stating that the site is back online and no data has been deleted, in Berlin, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/David Keyton) Photo taken with a smartphone.

The AO3 website displays a message welcoming readers and stating that the site is back online and no data has been deleted, in Berlin, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/David Keyton) Photo taken with a smartphone.