Articles
Black Food: Liberation, Food Justice and Stewardship | With Karen Washington and Bryant Terry
The influences of Africans and Black Americans on food and agriculture is rooted in ancestral African knowledge and traditions of shared labor, worker co-ops and botanical polycultures. In this episode, we hear from Karen Washington and Bryant Terry on how Black Food culture is weaving the threads of a rich African agricultural heritage with the liberation of economics from an extractive corporate food oligarchy. The results can be health, conviviality, community wealth, and the power of self-determination.
Working Against Racism in the Food System | By Karen Washington
Since the 1980’s, Karen Washington has been a pioneering leader in urban agriculture. She farms in New York City as well as on a rural farm north of the city. In 2012, Karen was named one of the most influential African Americans by Ebony Magazine. This is an edited excerpt from a presentation she made at a past Bioneers Conference. I live in a marginalized community in the Bronx in New York City. Out of 62 counties in New York State, the Bronx is rated number 62 as the unhealthiest county in the state. People in marginalized communities have been labeled as people in need, as people who have deficits. We have to change the way we look at marginalized communities, and it starts with the food system.
There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared? | by Summer Sewell in Baskerville, Virginia, and Shreveport, Louisiana
Today there are just 45,000 African American farmers. One man is fighting to save them
Get out. Black Colorado ranchers face domestic terrorism by local whites who they say are trying to steal their land | JANUARY 16, 2023
A Black couple rebuilt their lives after losing everything in a hurricane. They never thought they’d be thrown into a fight for their ranch and possibly their lives in a predominantly white and hostile Colorado county.
Videos
Ancient Africa: Crops, Commerce, and the Export of Innovation | Lectures by Christopher Ehret – Ancient Africa in World History: Invention, Innovation, Impact Huggins
EXPOSED: The Shocking Ways Food Companies HIDE Their Health Risks! | Dhru sits down with Calley Means to discuss his viral Tweet stating that he “saw inside the room” of Coca-Cola’s tactics to ensure sugar-sweetened beverage taxes failed and that soda was permitted in government-funded nutrition programs. Calley and Dhru talk about why diet and nutrition guidelines are a bipartisan issue that deserves equal attention from the left and the right.
Organizations
Black Urban Growers (BUGs), founded in 2010, is 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 support Black agrarianism and reimagine Black futures. Based in New York City, BUGs reach is national through its annual conference. 2022 will be the 10th conference. Additional programming, networking and educational activities are planned for 2022.
We know the real revolution is Black People reclaiming our lives through food sovereignty and justice. Our ancestral lineage is rooted in culture, land, food, and community. We honor the joys and the sores that are seen on the land, and we advance with visions of recuperation, reciprocity, and representation that impact the health and economic sustainability of land-based stewardship.
Cross Cultural Solidarity | Aims to become a one-stop site for people to plug into the wide universe of racial justice history. The Black Farming Movement – Books, Farms, Articles, Videos & Publications
National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA)
The National Black Food and Justice Alliance (NBFJA) 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 & liberation. 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.
We focus our work on Black food sovereignty, self-determining food economies, and land. We approach food sovereignty, land and self-determining food economies through the lens of healing, organizing & resistance against anti-Blackness.