In Support of Black Lives
The Cold Spring Farmers’ Market stands in solidarity and support against the ongoing violence and murder targeting Black Americans. To be silent in this time is to be complicit in the violence, so take action today to contribute to a more equitable society: we have culled together some resources of Black-owned farms, farmers, and growers where you can direct funds and support, as well as articles to read about the history of Black farmers in this country. We must stand together in the face of racism and fight the systems that hurt and murder our Black community:
Listen: 1619 Podcast, Episode 5: The Land of Our Fathers, Part 1. More than a century and a half after the promise of 40 acres and a mule, the story of black land ownership in America remains one of loss and dispossession. June and Angie Provost, who trace their family line to the enslaved workers on Louisiana’s sugar-cane plantations, know this story well.
Support: The Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers of Pittsburgh Co-Op (BUGs) is a gathering point for black urban agriculturalists. BUGs works with local black communities to grow food and to share black cultural traditions. Their programs include therapeutic gardening, food distribution, a teaching farm, and many more community activities.
Support: The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem rooted in Black ecocultural traditions and textile arts to regenerate custodial landownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the South.
Support: The Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund - Black farmers in Detroit face increased barriers to land ownership. This is land where Black farmers and gardeners grow produce to serve neighbors, families, and the community as a whole. Oftentimes, the funding to buy the land is the only barrier. With an increase in development in the city, they seek to support these growers with the capital they need to become land secure. The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, and Keep Growing Detroit have created the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund.
Support: The Urban Creators is a grassroots platform for radical and collaborative imagination. Since 2010, they have used food, art, and education as tools to nurture resilience, self-determination, and equity in their communities. Now, they are committed to supporting the emergence of a new generation of organizers, growers, artists, social entrepreneurs, innovators, and Urban Creators of all kinds.
Support: Root Life LLC is an eco-friendly business, based out of New Haven, CT, that offers organic produce, live plants, organic seeds, vegan skin & hair care, and quality environmental services for people in the local, as well as global, community looking to efficiently enhance their interactions with their natural environments.
Support: Established in 2012 Ward’s Farm is a Cut Flower farm in New Jersey that specializes in Sunflowers and Dahlias. They have several varieties of both but they have many other flowers as well and they continue each year to add more varieties and different flowers. Some other examples of flowers that they have are Stargazer Lilies, Gladiolus, Zinnias and Cosmos and many other Field Cut Flowers.
Support: Black Farmer Fund (BFF) is an emerging community investment fund that invests in black food systems entrepreneurs in New York State. Beyond making investments in these communities, they also emphasize building financial education and investment literacy and active involvement of the community when discussing and creating financing options.
Support: Mill Creek Urban Farm is an educational farm and environmental education center located in West Philadelphia. They are dedicated to improving local access to fresh, chemical-free produce at low cost for the immediate Mill Creek community and surrounding neighborhoods. They are a people of color-led non-profit organization in service of communities of color in need of basic resources. Mill Creek Urban Farm is dedicated to cultivating a healthy environment, growing strong communities and promoting a just and sustainable food system.
Support: The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem rooted in Black ecocultural traditions and textile arts to regenerate custodial landownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the South.
Read: Black Food Geographies by Ashanté M. Reese.
Support: HEAL Food Alliance is a multi-sector, multi-racial coalition building collective power to transform food and farm systems. They are led by their member-organizations, and strive to amplify the experience and expertise of frontline communities who are most burdened by the disparities of our current systems. Together, they are developing solutions to drive change.
Read: Freedom Farmers by Monica M. White. Freedom Farmers expands the historical narrative of the black freedom struggle to embrace the work, roles, and contributions of southern black farmers and the organizations they formed. Whereas existing scholarship generally views agriculture as a site of oppression and exploitation of black people, this book reveals agriculture as a site of resistance and provides a historical foundation that adds meaning and context to current conversations around the resurgence of food justice/sovereignty movements in urban spaces like Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York City, and New Orleans.
Support: Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust Coordinator, Board of Directors, and fiscal sponsors (Soul Fire Farm Institute and their Board of Directors) bring their diverse skill sets in Cooperative Development, Climate Justice, Food and Land Sovereignty, Farming, Education, Herbalism, and Indigenous and Disaporic ways of honoring the land to build a land trust with clarity of focus, intentionality, and lived experience that centers the voices of QTBIPOC Farmers, Land Stewards, and Earth Workers.
Support: National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA) is a coalition of Black-led organizations working towards cultivating and advancing Black leadership, building Black self-determination, Black institution building and organizing for food sovereignty, land and justice. The Alliance seeks to achieve this by engaging in broad based coalition organizing for black food and land, increasing visibility of Black led narratives and work, advancing Black led visions for just and sustainable communities, and building capacity for self-determination within our local, national, and international food systems and land rights work. They focus our work on black food sovereignty, self-determining food economies, and land. They approach food sovereignty, land and self-determining food economies through the lens of healing, organizing & resistance against anti-Blackness.
Support: Ever-Growing Family Farm is a family owned & operated small farm growing vegetables, eggs and rice utilizing sustainable methods. Grown locally, helping globally.
Support: Oko Farms practices and promotes aquaponics as a sustainable farming method that mitigates the impact of climate change, and increases food security for New York City. Spread the knowledge and skills required to practice aquaponics farming by educating children and adults of all racial and socio-economic backgrounds.
Support: Farm School NYC provides students with the tools they need to become effective and empowered grassroots leaders in the food justice movement. We do this by teaching effective community organizing and advocacy techniques as well as engaging in dialogues about larger social, economic, racial, and justice issues.
Support: Just Food aims to shift the power, health, and wealth of historically and economically marginalized communities - in particular Black, Latinx, communities of color, LGBTQ, mixed income, small-scale farmers, and hyper local growers/producers.
Support/Read: Black Earth Farm is a Black and Indigenous led agroecology collective composed of skilled land stewards, spiritual leaders, healers, gardeners, farmers, builders, writers, educators, artists, musicians, and organizers. They study and spread ancestral knowledge and contemporary agroecological practices to train community members to build collectivized, autonomous, and chemical free food systems in urban and peri-urban environments throughout the Occupied Karkin Ohlone & Chochenyo Territory.
Watch/Listen: The Juneteenth Broadcast from A Growing Culture, featuring Black voices fighting for justice in the food system.
Support: Rise and Root Farm is strongly rooted in New York City and committed to engaging rural and urban communities through food and farming. Their current and previous farming related affiliations include: Just Food, Farm School NYC, Ecostation:NY, Bushwick Campus Farm, Black Urban Growers, Crock and Jar, La Familia Verde Community Garden coalition, GrowNYC. They have worked with community gardens and urban farms in NYC and beyond, and have dedicated their lives to increasing the number of people growing and eating good food. They care about justice and equity and in building a strong local food economy.
Support: Black Urban Growers (BUGS): an organization committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. Through education and advocacy around food and farm issues, we nurture collective Black leadership to ensure we have a seat at the table.
Support: The National Black Farmers Association (NBFA) is a non-profit organization representing African American farmers and their families in the United States. As an association, it serves tens of thousands of members nationwide. NBFA's education and advocacy efforts have been focused on civil rights, land retention, access to public and private loans, education and agricultural training, and rural economic development for black and other small farmers.
Read: “Progressive Governance Can Turn the Tide for Black Farmers”
Listen: “Why aren't there more black farmers in the United States?”
Read: “How Did African-American Farmers Lose 90 percent of Their Land?”
Support: Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON) is a regional network for Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage their land and the natural systems on it in order to grow food and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet. Many of our farms have been in the same Black family for over 100 years and, as such, are historical treasures.
Support: Soul Fire Farm is a BIPOC*-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. We raise and distribute life-giving food as a means to end food apartheid. With deep reverence for the land and wisdom of our ancestors, we work to reclaim our collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system. We bring diverse communities together on this healing land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice. We are training the next generation of activist-farmers and strengthening the movements for food sovereignty and community self-determination.
Read: "Farming While Black" written by author, activist, farmer, and Soul Fire Farm cofounder, Leah Penniman. (See link above for details about Soul Fire Farm's community activities, online lectures, Uprooting Racism Training programs, and more.)
Listen: "In 100 Years, 1 Million Black Families Have Been Ripped From Their Farms"
Read: "There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared?"
Support: Love Fed [New Haven] Initiative helps our neighbors grow their own food at home and cultivates a growing community that actively works towards practicing food sovereignty while supporting personal wellness and environmental health through land stewardship, agricultural education and training, and culinary education.
Support: East New York Farms!'s mission is to organize youth and adults to address food justice in our community by promoting local sustainable agriculture and community-led economic development. East New York Farms! is a project of the United Community Centers in partnership with local residents. We have been working with youth, gardeners, farmers, and entrepreneurs to build a more just and sustainable community since 1998.