Communal Farm is Empowering People of Color

This communal farm is empowering people of color — and hitting back at discrimination in the food industry that leads to food deserts.

Transcript

00:00This is no accident of history.

00:01Definitely farmers of color have been treated differently by the government than white farmers.

00:16If you had the audacity to register, to vote, to join the NAACP, to sign a petition or even

00:22just to own land, you could expect to be denied credit and technical assistance that you were

00:27entitled to.

00:40If you look at the USDA programs, almost across the board, white farmers disproportionately

00:45benefit, and there's a lot of structural barriers as well as interpersonal racism

00:49because the USDA is white-led.

00:58Soul Fire Farm is a people-of-color-led community farm dedicated to ending racism

01:06and injustice in the food system.

01:09We are training up the next generation of black and brown farmer activists.

01:12The idea there is that we don't want to rely on a system that is not rooting for us,

01:18for our basic needs.

01:27We're growing food in a way that honors the earth and our ancestors.

01:35We're making sure that people get that food in the community regardless of their ability

01:39to pay market price for that food.

01:41We're trying to have a work culture that is supportive and that pays fair.

01:46The changes we want to see in the food and agriculture system is food sovereignty and

01:49land sovereignty for all, so that everyone has access to safe, healthy, affordable,

01:54culturally appropriate food, that everyone has access to land to grow that food, and

02:00has a voice in the food system so that we're not just passive consumers in the system,

02:06but we are agents.