Laurel is a white, gay farmer growing hazelnuts, strawberries, and asparagus in rural Colorado with the aim of sequestering carbon and introducing more perennial foods into the local food system. She also works for Nourish Colorado as a Value Chain Coordinator—supporting small grocers (grocers who offer Double Up Food Bucks to customers who use SNAP benefits) to sell more Colorado-grown produce.
Laurel is named for her two great grandmothers who homesteaded in New Mexico as widows. She looks to these ancestors for guidance as a feminist and farmer, but she aims to tell their stories in a way that unpacks their reliance on the homestead act of 1862 that secured the futures of white people while displacing and killing indigenous people across the US. She aims to be the kind of leader who can tell complete (if complicated) stories like these—ones that both honor liberation and acknowledge oppression.
Laurel is named for her two great grandmothers who homesteaded in New Mexico as widows. She looks to these ancestors for guidance as a feminist and farmer, but she aims to tell their stories in a way that unpacks their reliance on the homestead act of 1862 that secured the futures of white people while displacing and killing indigenous people across the US. She aims to be the kind of leader who can tell complete (if complicated) stories like these—ones that both honor liberation and acknowledge oppression.