Plank 9 – Promote Sustainable Farming, Fishing and Ranching

We spoke with Kenya Crumel, Black Land and Power Director at National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA), a member-based organization fighting for Black food sovereignty, self-determining food economies, and land. NBFJA is also one of the founding members of HEAL Food Alliance!

Kenya spoke to us about how she finds inspiration in the work that NBFJA members are doing to advance and grow Black food sovereignty in their communities.

Watch a clip of our interview with Kenya 

Kenya: On a day-to-day basis, our members inspire me with the work that they’re doing together. I was just at the BUGS Conference, and the folks in Detroit, for example, are just so incredibly organized, purchasing a farm from the Municipal Land Bank and raising funds so that folks who are currently leasing land are able to own their land and don’t constantly have to worry about being literally uprooted.

And at Sankofa Community Orchard down in Richmond, Virginia, Happily Natural Day stewards five acres where aspiring farmers can learn from other more experienced farmers, apply to be a part of the Central VA Agrarian Commons incubator program, and then move on after a few years to have their own land to implement the practices that they learned.

What led to the creation of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance?

Kenya: Dara Cooper, Beatriz Beckford, and Baba Malik Yakini came together and recognized the extractive, exploitative, deeply anti-Black food system that we all live in that values profit over human life and that has disappeared Black foodways. Black people lack access to and control over production, distribution, and consumption of foods that are healthy and grown in ecological, sustainable ways. The National Black Food and Justice Alliance is working to build collective power by reframing narratives and identifying opportunities for coordinated action and collaboration and cooperation. 

We have about 60 member organizations. Our members are farmers and leaders of food co-ops – those are the two big categories. We have a couple of family-based farms that have had land for a hundred years or more, but primarily we’re working with collectives. And we have some individuals who are academics or attorneys and want to provide some knowledge, wisdom, and resources to our work.

Over the course of the 20th century, the number of Black farmers decreased by 98 percent between 1920 and 1997. Through massive land theft, white farmers and developers usurped at least $326 billion worth of land and assets from Black farmers. In this context, can you tell us more about the land justice work that you’re doing?

Kenya: We’re working toward purchasing land (or accepting donated land!) that can be removed from the speculative market. Ideally we’ll transfer the title to a community land trust, whether we have to develop one or if there’s an existing land trust that we partner with. Black-led community land trusts or other groups of folks can work together to steward the land, share the work, share the profit, and decide how the land will be best utilized to support Black food systems and eradicate food apartheid.

And the land will not be for sale after we gain title to it. Nobody could come in and purchase it. It’s not about individuals owning the land, but it’s about land that’ll be in trust so that it will remain in Black hands. 

Hear from Kenya, Dara Cooper, and Mama Savi Horne on the history of Black land loss in NBFJA’s Practical Guide to Black Food Movement Terms…

The Resource Commons is another way NBFJA has been working to secure land for Black farmers and keep existing Black farmers on their land. Could you tell us about how the Resource Commons came about and some of the successes that it’s had?

Kenya: The Resource Commons is an initiative born after years of conversations with our members, which I have helped shift from ideation into implementation. Recognizing the trauma that traditional banking and the USDA have caused and continue to cause amongst Black farmers, NBFJA members decided to create a non-extractive loan fund with a simplified application process. We’re able to do this because these are not transactions. This is not a transactional relationship. These are relationships with people that we know. 

After doing a good deal of research, we focus on funding for land purchase (whether it’s urban or rural), investments in farm equipment, and investments in infrastructure and building out regional food systems. These are all things that our members stated that they needed. 

We just piloted the first round of funding earlier in 2023 and are really happy that we could provide a little over $400,000 in this pilot round. We’re looking to increase that year over year. Right now it is exclusively for our members, but it will ultimately open up across the country for other Black farmers. 

We talked about the Resource Commons being non-extractive. Our relationship with the land also needs to be non-extractive. So we encourage and support members of the alliance engaging in practices that do no harm to the earth, like no tilling or capturing carbon. But in addition to that, there’s a lot of healing just amongst our people. There’s working well with the land, but we also have to work well with each other. We have a lot of examples of beautiful relationships. We’re really focused on holistic well-being at all aspects – financially, our practices with the land, and then the practices with one another.

You’ve previously mentioned that NBFJA aims to ultimately recover up to 15 million acres of land for Black farmers. Could you tell us about the impact that that would have in terms of creating thriving and resilient Black farming communities?

Kenya: Our vision is that by acquiring the land, training farmers and providing them the resources to steward that land – and also defending land – we can create our own food systems. That’s the larger goal. 

My colleague Dr. Jasmine Jackson works on the self-determined food economy side, our food co-ops and such. I’m on the other end of that spectrum with the land, building the ramp to get to the foodways and the cooperatives. We want to be able to grow the food – and even before that, secure seeds and lands to grow the food – so that we can package it, distribute it, put it into retail markets so that it’s affordable for Black people all over the country, and do it in a way that is hopefully regionally based so that we don’t need to fly food all over the country or the world and aren’t contributing to those issues from a climate justice perspective. 

We’re also developing a program right now to battle land loss due to heirs’ property – and other folks are doing this too, like the Federation for Southern Cooperatives and Land Loss Prevention Project. It’s still a rampant issue, so we just want to lend our support as best as we can. It doesn’t make sense for us to go out and purchase land or accept land donations and put that in a trust while folks are struggling to keep land that they’ve had in their families or in their organizations for some time. And we know there’s a variety of reasons that land comes under threat, including heirs’ property and back taxes, things that could be easily resolved but folks just don’t have the resources.

Ultimately, we want to ensure that food apartheid is eradicated and that folks are less dependent on larger corporate systems and can sustain their farming operations.

How does restoring and preserving Black-owned land advance climate justice goals?

Kenya: If we are less reliant (or not reliant at all) on large corporations in our food systems, if we’re able to protect our land from GMO seeds, and if we’re working collectively to steward land and distribute food regionally, then we can lessen the impact of some major causes that are exacerbating climate change. We don’t need planes flying our food across the country if we are working locally and supporting one another. If we’re working collectively and stewarding the land and bartering and exchanging, we have what we need. So we don’t need to call on corporate America to get food where we need it, to educate us, to get us the supplies, if we can just organize regionally to supply the food, supply our farmers with what they need, and then create that food chain. 

And there’s a lot of education that has to happen. A lot of people just have never seen broccoli growing out of the ground. They don’t know that they can grow their own string beans or peppers. You just need a pot. You don’t have to have a yard. You could do this on your windowsill with the soil and just save your seeds from the pepper that you just cut up and cooked. A lot of people just think, “Oh, I can’t do that.” But you can. We all can. 

Are there particular policies that you are working for at the moment? 

Kenya: We are working on the Farm Bill, to ensure that it’s easier for Black farmers to access funds. A lot of folks are so frustrated with the USDA that they don’t want to have anything to do with it. But we need to simplify grant applications and funding processes. And loan forgiveness has been talked about but not enacted, and non-Black folks are fighting back against it. That’s such a huge obstacle, just getting past the debt. If debt forgiveness could be accomplished, I think that would be really significant for our folks who would no longer have to worry about that burden hanging over their heads.

How can people support your work or take collective action? 

Kenya: If folks know people who have land that’s just sitting idle or are interested in providing zero interest capital for the Resource Commons fund – or even flat out donations – that would be wonderful. There’s a donate button on our website at blackfoodjustice.org. And if you want to have a conversation about land donation, reach out to me directly at kenya [at] blackfoodjustice [dot] org.

The post Recovering Black land for food and climate justice appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

In our final list, read about about culture, community, agrarian identity and inclusivity in the food movement. Explore the relationship between race, people, land, and place. Watch a film that tackles the subject of reparations, and healing. Listen to a movement leader reflect on what could have been, and could still be.

Book: The Color of Food: Stories of Race, Resilience and Farming – Natasha Bowens

Natasha Bowens is an author, photographer, farmer, and activist whose advocacy focuses on food sovereignty and social issues. The Color of Food is a collection of stories that challenge the status quo of agrarian identity which largely ignores farmers of color. The book makes the point that the preserving culture and community, and acknowledging the work done by those who came before us, is a crucial part of the food movement.

Essay: Positioning People of Color in Our Contemporary Food Movement – Regina A. Bernard, 2015, Food Systems Journal

Dr. Bernard-Carreño grew up in Hell’s Kitchen in the Seventies which is also where her interest in food systems began. She has since has been actively researching and writing about the cultural performance of food, food access and food racism in low income neighborhoods in New York City and abroad. Along with researching and writing, she has been designing scholarly projects and community products based on food access in NYC various neighborhoods. This essay talks about the nature of exclusivity in the current food movement, and discusses a re-evolution of food access with a specific focus on racial inclusivity.

Explore: Black/Land Project

Black/Land Project identifies and amplifies conversations happening inside black communities about the relationship between black people, land, and place in order to share their powerful traditions of resourcefulness, resilience and regeneration. The website is home to a trove of reflections and resources that spark critical dialogue surrounding the relationship between black people (including African-Americans, Caribbean-Americans and African immigrants) and land.

Listen: Food Justice: A Vision Deeper than the Problem– Anim Steel, Executive Director and co-founder of the Real Food Challenge, TEDxManhattan 2015

“Each moment has the potential to make the future profoundly different.”

In this video, Anim explores what might have happened if the people emerging from enslaved bondage had been able to access land, and were able to pass that on to their children.

Watch: Banished, a film by Marco Williams.

Banished follows the story of 2 families – The Browns and the Stricklands who were forced to leave their homes.

From award winning film-director Marco Williams, Banished delves into the legacy of racial cleansing. The film deals in large part with the question of reparations but also considers questions of privilege, responsibility, identity, denial and healing. Williams’ hope for this film was that it would lead to a national discussion ad referendum on reparations or in the very least urge Americans to think of the concepts of reconciliation and reparations. Learn more about the film here and  find out if Banished is available through your local library and watch it here!

For our earlier resource lists click here! 

The post Black History Month Food and Farming Resource List: Week 4 appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Read about about the history of African American cooperative business ownership, as well as collective efforts to regenerate sustainable agriculture and land access. Tune in to a podcast in which Dr. Monica White talks about why it was important to document the history of Black farmers and the civil rights movement.  Listen to how communities are adapting strategies for food sovereignty in Detroit.

Book: Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice – Jessica Gordon Nembhard

Essay: Regeneration –  Leah Penniman and Blain Snipstal (Equal Authorship)

Regeneration is part of  Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, a collection of essays edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez. This essay by Leah Penniman, and Blain Snipstal of the Black Dirt Farming Collective, is part of a collectively-authored section on “Black Agrarianism,” which deals with the deep roots of agrarianism in Black communities. It details the long and intentional history of dispossession, as well as the many visionary struggles to resist and regenerate by cooperatively building land access and sustainable farming traditions.    

Listen: #RealFoodReads podcast with Dr. Monica White

We featured Dr. Monica White’s Freedom Farmers in our first resource list. Whether or not you found time to read the book, this #RealFoodReads podcast provides more insight into how the book came about and why it had to be written. In this conversation, Dr. White talks about why it was important to her to document the story of black farmers and the civil rights movement, why agriculture is and has always been a strategy of resistance and how  African-Americans have always used food to create community and move towards freedom and liberation. She also talks about the issues small farmers experience right now, and what we can do about the growing disconnect between producers and consumers of food.

Talk: From ‘Motor City’ to food resilience: How Detroit has risen from the ashes – Malik Yakini, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), 2017

The post Black History Month Food and Farm Justice resource list: Week 3 appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

It’s Black History Month and we’re taking a few moments to learn more about Black History in relation to food, farming and food justice. We’re putting together a weekly list of resources—books, articles, reports, interviews and talks—that cover a range of issues that we need to think about as we move forward.

Read about about the contributions of African-heritage people to sustainable agriculture and the fight for Land Justice. Listen to what Regina Bernard-Carreno has to say about the underlying racism of the American food system. Watch a short NBC documentary about institutional racism that Black farmers face in Louisiana to this day.

Book: Farming While Black – Leah Penniman

Essay: Resistance, Dãnia C. Davy, Savonala Horne, Tracy Lloyd McCurty, and Edward “Jerry” Pennick

It’s impossible to move forward in our fight for a just food system without addressing the history of land dispossession upon which it was built. Resistance is part of  Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food, and the Commons, a collection of essays edited by Justine M. Williams and Eric Holt-Giménez. The book includes a collectively-authored section on Black Agrarianism, which details the long history of land dispossession among Black farmers in the southeastern US, as well as the creative acts of resistance they have used to acquire land and collectively farm it.

Reportage: What Happened to All the Black Farmers? NBC Left Field

The number of Black farmers in America has been steadily declining since the 1920s; they make up less than 2% of farmers today, when they once accounted for 14%. This NBC documentary follows fourth-generation sugar cane farmer Wenceslaus ‘June’ Provost Jr. as institutional discrimination across the industry slowly puts his farm out of business. Through his story, we also learn about the history of systemic racism in the sugarcane farming in Louisiana and the 1999 Pigford lawsuit, a class-action lawsuit brought against the USDA for alleged discriminatory practices against Black farmers.

Talk: The underlying racism of America’s food system – Regina Bernard-Carreno, writer and professor of Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College, CUNY,  TEDxManhattan, 2014

Our next list of resources will be published on Friday, February 22nd, 2019. For last week’s list click here. 

The post Black History Month Food and Farm Justice resource list: Week 2 appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.

Read about about the history of resilience of Black farmers and their continued fight for food  and justice. Listen to two movement leaders talk about about the continuing struggle for land in the South. Watch a video that addresses race and equity within the movement for Good Food. 

Freedom Farmers by Dr. Monica M. White, the President of the Board of Directors of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, offers a multi-dimensional analysis of the work of Black farmers and their mobilization efforts to respond to race and class-based structural inequities. Monica reframes agriculture as a site of resistance, rather than exploitation. She provides a historical foundation that adds meaning and context to current conversations around the resurgence of food justice and food sovereignty movements.

In this 2018 paper for Race Forward, Dara Cooper, National Organizer at the National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA) and HEAL co-founder, draws from over 70 interviews and conversations with farmers, leaders of co-ops and food hubs and other folks working in food systems and related fields. Reclaiming Food Hubs amplifies a more racially inclusive narrative, history, and roots in this work in hopes of lending to much more racially just imaginations for the future of food systems work.

Conversation: Food Justice Requires Land Justice – A Conversation between Savi Horne and Monica White, Edge Effects, 2017

It’s impossible to move forward in our fight for a just food system without addressing the history of land dispossession upon which it was built. In this podcast from Edge Effects, Savonala ‘Savi’ Horne, a lawyer at the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers talks about her ongoing work on the Land Loss Prevention Project, the importance of policy in negotiating land for under-resourced, overlooked farmers and the political power of cooperative communities. Listen right here or on the Edge Effects website. 

Video: Black Food Matters: Race and Equity in the Good Food Movement – Devita Davison, Change Food Fest 2016

Devita Davison, Executive Director of the Detroit Food Lab, talks about what her work has taught her about race and equity in the Good Food movement.  FoodLab Detroit helps locals from historically under resourced communities set up viable food businesses, and uses food as a vehicle to build power and resilience for all Detroiters.

Our next list of resources will be published on Friday, February 15th, 2019.

The post Black History Month Food and Farm Justice resource list appeared first on HEAL Food Alliance.