Happy Black History Month. While we take time each February to highlight the many critical contributions of people of color, the innovations of Black and Indigenous people are used in sustainable agriculture through all seasons. It is important to understand and honor these contributions.
| Let's begin with Dr. George Washington Carver, a historical figure that children still learn about in school each February, though the focus on his hundreds of patents for peanut products are only half the story. Though Dr. Carver brought us the glory of peanut butter he did so to create a market for the legume that he intently researched to bring fertility back to soils on sharecropped southern farms that were near sterile after years of cotton production. Today, cover cropping with legumes is a tenant of Regenerative Agriculture, a collection of farming practices now understood to increase yields and soil health while sequestering carbon. In other words, the way forward for feeding people in our warming world. |  Dr. Carver |
It was Black agrarians that also brought about CSAs (Community Supported Ag). Another Tuskegee University Alum, Dr. Booker T Whatley returned from the Korean War and set up a 55 acre farm and offered a “clientele membership club” akin to the modern subscription style CSA. He saw these clubs not as just ways to feed people but also let them see farms up close - the beginnings of the Agrotourism movement. Dr. Whatley suggested that these farms offering clubs should be no more than 40 miles away from population centers to keep connections with club members. This of course reminds us of the Ag Reserve where residents can really know their farmer and participate in modern CSA programs (find your farmer here).
Much more about Drs. Carver and Whatley here.
Much more about Drs. Carver and Whatley here.
The roots of modern sustainable ag go back even further - the First Peoples of this country brought innovations to agriculture we still use today. The basis of Permaculture, another sustainable ag method, involve growing symbiotic crops in groups called "guilds". This echoes the "Three Sisters" plantings of Indigenous Americans - corn, beans and squash are grown together - the beans fix nitrogen for the corn who's stalks are the support for the climbing bean and squash vines, the broad leaves of which deter any weeds.
While we have Indigenous People and People of Color to thank for many of the practices that fall under "sustainable agriculture" today, the history we don't often learn involves the systemic removal of land from these same groups - sometimes by discrimination in allocation of resources, sometimes by force. 1.3% of farmers in 2017's Ag Census were Black, in 1920 14% of farmers were black. The intervening years included violence, and discrimination so rampant at the USDA it lead to the largest civil settlement in history - $2 Billion in the "Pigford" Case. The story of what happened is captured in the excellent and hopeful book "Farming While Black," by NY state farmer Leah Penniman (and more briefly in this "How to Save a Planet" podcast episode about Regenerative Agriculture for the uninitiated). A great deep dive in this NY Times piece here.
On the national scene, MCA supports the Justice for Black Farmers Act that would grant farmers of color land through the Land Grant program and provide training to get them growing. This bill was just re-introduced by Senators Booker, Warren and Gillibrand among others.
Here closer to home - we are matching aspiring farmers of all types with land to get started through our Land Link program. There is particular interest from aspiring farmers of color and we are proud that two of the farms listed in the MoCo BIPOC-Owned Food Guide found their land through Land Link. Since 2011 we have connected over 500 acres of land with new and expanding farmers in Montgomery County. Farmers are looking for anywhere from 1/2-50 acres. To learn more about offering or leasing land visit our Land Link program.
On the national scene, MCA supports the Justice for Black Farmers Act that would grant farmers of color land through the Land Grant program and provide training to get them growing. This bill was just re-introduced by Senators Booker, Warren and Gillibrand among others.
Here closer to home - we are matching aspiring farmers of all types with land to get started through our Land Link program. There is particular interest from aspiring farmers of color and we are proud that two of the farms listed in the MoCo BIPOC-Owned Food Guide found their land through Land Link. Since 2011 we have connected over 500 acres of land with new and expanding farmers in Montgomery County. Farmers are looking for anywhere from 1/2-50 acres. To learn more about offering or leasing land visit our Land Link program.
