Resources for Black Farmers
Black farmers have become severely underrepresented in farming and farm ownership. While the number of Black farmers peaked in 1920 at around 950,000, as of 2019, this number totaled around 45,000 (Sewell, 2019). Black farmers represent 1.3% of all farmers while the Black population in the United States totals around 13.4% of the total population. Black farmers also experience discrimination and intense barriers to running successful farm businesses including unequal access to farm loans and other types of financial support by public and private institutions. Inequities in the administration of government agricultural programs and lingering structural racism present in the food system continues to impact communities of color. Despite this, there are many organizations, working groups, and farms that are dedicated to changing this narrative. An uptick in support for and growth of these organizations in recent years has moved the needle on racial equity work within the food system.
Below are various resources and groups that are supportive of this work across the country:
Black Farmer Fund– provides funding opportunities to black farmers and black-owned food businesses across the Northeast. Also offers skill-sharing and webinars, a list of grant and scholarship opportunities, business or legal resources, and provides a history of agriculture for Black farmers.
Black Farmers United of New York State is a member-led policy, advocacy and education organization that advocates to, unify, amplify, and create pathways to ownership for NYS Black farmers through education, policy development, networking, and mutual aid.
Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous centered community farm and training center dedicated to uprooting racism and seeding sovereignty in the food system. Farmers practice regenerative agroecology, raise and distribute life-giving food, equip the rising generation of BIPOC farmers, and mobilize communities to work toward food and land sovereignty.
Soul Fire Farm’s Farmer Resource List is a document outlining resources Black farmers can utilize for training, searching for land and capital.
Farm School NYC offers programs in urban agriculture education rooted in BIPOC land stewardship.train NYC residents in urban agriculture, build self-reliant communities, and inspire positive local action around food sovereignty and social, economic, and racial justice.
National Black Food and Justice Alliance is a coalition of Black-led organizations aimed at developing Black leadership, supporting Black communities, organizing for Black self-determination, and building institutions for Black food sovereignty and liberation.
the Black Urban Growers (BUGS) host the Black Urban Growers National Conference which contributes to the empowerment and resilience of Black agriculture worldwide, with the specific goal of creating more equitable and sustainable food systems.
Kokoro Garden’s Resources for BIPOC Farmers offers articles and recordings of interviews highlighting farming from the perspective of people of color and specifically Black, Native American, Japanese and Hmong farmers.
Brooklyn Supported Agriculture is a worker-owned, Black-led food sourcing, packing, and distribution cooperative. form a conduit between farms and the city, building Brooklyn food sovereignty. Worker-owners are guaranteed the same salary and equal company voting rights; produce is purchased from small, sustainable food businesses in the local economy, with a preference for worker-owned cooperatives and women / queer / POC-owned farms; and facilitate access to food through sliding scale pricing.
Black Farmer’s Index – New York addresses food insecurity, food system failures and inequities in agriculture in their commitment to ensure that Black farmers and growers thrive. This is done by providing a more successful consumer-to-Black farmer pipeline, as well as, connecting agriculturalists to agencies, institutions, and salient resources that build their overall business through creative marketing, educational services, outreach and intentional community building.
Quarter Acre for the People connects children and families of African and/or Indigenous ancestry, as well as refugee families who have historically been displaced from land, providing food production opportunities, garden education as well as access to cooperative farming, homesteading and farm business opportunities on local farm/fallow land.
Qiana Mickie is a New York City based food systems leader and speaker that uses food as a driver of enterprise, innovation, and equity. For over 10 years, she has worked on fostering a food based solidarity economy in the New York region that increases farm viability, healthy food access, and leadership opportunities for small- mid scale regional farmers, youth, Black, Brown, mixed income, and other communities of color. Qiana also brings an equity-driven lens to her local, state, federal, and international policy work on issues such as food sovereignty, land stewardship, and health.
For Further Reading:
Penniman, L., & Washington, K. (2018). Farming while black: Soul fire farm’s practical guide to liberation on the land. Chelsea Green Publishing.
