My question when starting may blog post was, "What are black farmers doing now?" I couldn't just dive right in to modern Black farming practices without looking back a bit. Check out this article about 7 contributions of Black farmers to agriculture.
7 Contributions of Black Farmers to Agriculture
https://www.farmproject.org/blog/2017/2/4/hikqys8igvv0bo368aco3mrb1rv
Check out their website!
http://www.nationalblackfarmersassociation.org/about_us
In addition to farming, Black Farmers have had to look out for each other which is why the National Black Farmers Association w created
Check out this video about the founding of Hydroponics! Did anyone know a lack man created this technology?
Philson Warner, Cornell University Cooperative Extension associate, founded the Cornell Hydroponics, Aquaculture and Aquaponics Learning Labs at Food and Finance High School, an Eco-School in Manhattan.
"Our greenhouse—with its mutually sustainable hydroponic and aquaculture systems—is used for teaching, food production and as a science hub for the New York City area. Using minimal energy, it may even contribute to the city's power grid," says Warner.
http://www.cornell.edu/video/hydroponics-aquaponics-scientist-philson-warner-nyc
Our system is broken, we know that. Here are some things Black farmers do to help out each other and finesse when they have to to make a living.
Mapping existing pieces of the value chain to locate missing links
Gap 1: Get certified! To sell to larger buyers, farmers need USDA certification that they are following best practices. This takes time and costs money, both scarce for low-income farmers. DSCAN coached them through it. In just one year, 22 Alabama farmers working with The Cottage House became Global GAP certified, the highest certification level.
Farmers got needed labor; local youth gained new opportunities in agriculture. Photo ©Kertis Creative
Gap 2: Produce more and better. Supplying higher-volume markets means using the land as productively as possible. Experts from Tuskegee University helped Network farmers adopt growing protocols and practices to meet buyers’ standards, increasing crop yields by at least 40%, along with their value.
Gap 3: Capture more value. Farmers earn more for produce that is cleaned and packaged. Mississippi’s MileSton Cooperative worked with local youth to turn an old gas station/convenience store into a facility to wash and bag peas and other produce. In Alabama, TUCCA secured space for an aggregation and production facility that now employs 13 people.
Gap 4: Find workers. Producing vegetables requires lots of people and partners struggled to find workers to meet growing demand. The solution? Engage young people. Farmers got labor at a fair price and 47 local youth in 2015 alone gained new opportunities in agriculture. Another value chain is tapping the prison reentry program to find willing workers.
Black Farmers in Oakland California reconnected with the earth, and farming practices through growing Cannabis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDbeD5TCyGRTg&v=beD5TCyGRTg
The food movement in Detroit is bussing! Check out this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJsXev3eU0
Questions:
1. What did you know about black farming contributions before this class?
2. What didn't you think about Black Farmers / farming practices that shocked you.
3. How do you think these ideas come into play when thing about our food moment on campus?
4. How can we make the food movement on campus more inclusive?
5. The growing of legal cannabis is expanding quickly, I want you to imagine yourself as the one person who dictates how this new industry will work.
Who gets to grow? Who will actually be doing the hard labor? How much will a gram cost? How many plants can a single household have? How many plants can a farming household (like Amy who also trades and sells produce)? Who gets to smoke? What else will the hemp be used for? What will happen to people in prison because of weed charges?, and any other questions you can come up with to create your perfect industrial cannabis industry.
1) Before this class, I knew that black people were brought over as slaves and brought with them knowledge about working the land that ultimately benefitted the white slaveowners. Beyond that, I was not familiar with the other contributions of black farmers that you shared with us, so thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete2) Something that really stuck out to me was the video about the black man teaching his students about hydroponic farming, probably because I had just learned about it last night when I responded to Gen's blog post. What really struck me was the fact that the informational video created to promote hydroponic farming showed a white-run business. Seeing the one you shared with us made me think about the ways in which credit for knowledge/technology is taken from people of color and used by white people for profit.
3) On campus there is a very prevalent divide between the lived experiences of white people and people of color and black people. This is especially true of the faculty/staff. The black to white ratio of people working food and janitorial jobs on campus is much higher than those in higher-paying administration and teaching jobs, and yet the janitorial and food jobs are essential to the well-being of the school.
4) From what I was talking about above, I think it's important to acknowledge and show our appreciation for the hard work of the people working in the food systems on campus. Part of that would include paying them higher wages, and another part could include student-organized events to show our appreciation as well as continuing fostering higher awareness throughout the year since I think many of us students tend to take these workers for granted.
5) I am not too familiar with cannabis and do not have any concept as to how much the drug should cost. I do believe that, given systemic racist drug policies, black people should be prioritized for new opportunities, especially those formerly impacted by the drug on war (who will have their records cleared). If cannabis is taxed, the money should be used to help rebuild communities hurt by systemic racism and provide more opportunities to people of color. I think anyone should be able to grow cannabis for personal consumption, but I'm not sure what effect that might have on new businesses setting themselves up.
Questions:
ReplyDelete1. What did you know about black farming contributions before this class?
I knew that they were underrepresented, and coming from a farming community, I don’t ever remember seeing a farmer of color.
2. What didn't you think about Black Farmers / farming practices that shocked you.
I didn’t think about the idea of farming as a way to resist the “war on drugs”. I also thought it was interesting the way the farmers in Oakland talked about farming as a way to reclaim the land. Also I was shocked that they were allowed all those animals in the middle of an urban setting. Also in the video about Detroit, I thought it was interesting that what one of the farmers was doing was technically illegal in Detroit.
3. How do you think these ideas come into play when thing about our food moment on campus?
However, I can also see how many people of color would feel ostracized from farming spaces—either from lack of experience or thinking of it as a primarily white space. In thinking about all of the farmers/classmates I know in my hometown, I could see many of them feeling alienated from a more “urban” space like K College, or even thinking that the small scale isn’t “real” farming (instead of seeing it as another way of producing food and not just competition).
4. How can we make the food movement on campus more inclusive?
I think visibility and making sure that there is the education/organization so people don’t feel like an outsider in the space (especially if they don’t know much about farming or even slow farming practice).
5. The growing of legal cannabis is expanding quickly, I want you to imagine yourself as the one person who dictates how this new industry will work.
Woah. This is a big question, especially considering the legalization of pot in Michigan. I know in my hometown, someone has bought a building and rumor has it that they want to use the building for growing pot. Yet, there is pushback form village and I think some want to ban it from becoming a space/distribution center. Thinking about this in light of other places, I wonder if there is also pushback (similar to my hometown) and how this relates to the development of the industry.
1. What did you know about black farming contributions before this class?
ReplyDeleteBefore this class, I didn't know a ton of specific instances/ contributions, most likely due to my personal socialization. I think maybe the earliest example of the idea of black farmer's contribution was when we learned about the invention of the cotton gin in high school U.S history. But even in that moment, the framework in which we learned about that was highly flawed and served to be "inclusive" yet dehumanize.
2. What didn't you think about Black Farmers / farming practices that shocked you.
I'm not sure that I was shocked by anything I learned, but more angry that Black farmers are not recognized for their contributions and the love they have brought to the varieties of land they occupy.
3. How do you think these ideas come into play when thing about our food moment on campus?
We have to recognize the people who have come before us and those who will be with us, and make space for those lessons in our present moments.
4. How can we make the food movement on campus more inclusive?
To make it more inclusive we have to give space to people to tell their stories and also seriously frame the knowledge of farming as something we all need to understand and care about, because our future survival depends on it.
I feel like a lot of people don't like to be in those spaces because their vision of who takes up those causes don't include them. If we tell more stories and bring more people in that reflect the diversity of experiences that exist in farming, then that could start changing exclusive dynamics.
5. The growing of legal cannabis is expanding quickly, I want you to imagine yourself as the one person who dictates how this new industry will work.
Who gets to grow? Who will actually be doing the hard labor? How much will a gram cost? How many plants can a single household have? How many plants can a farming household (like Amy who also trades and sells produce)? Who gets to smoke? What else will the hemp be used for? What will happen to people in prison because of weed charges?, and any other questions you can come up with to create your perfect industrial cannabis industry.
I don't know much about cannabis, so I'm not even sure how much a gram now costs (lmao)
I think every should be able to have the choice to grow, labor needs to be safe and equitable, there shouldn't be laws that restrict plant growth, everyone should be able to use it in the ways they please, people arrested for weed charges should hav their records expunged and freed from prison.
Justiceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
1. Prior to this class, I remember learning in a middle school history class that a black individual had invited the cotton gin. As with my peers, I know the contributions black bodies through salary and the benefits that labor gave to white land owners. However, beyond that my knowledge is scarce. Thank you for sharing and bringing this information to light!
ReplyDelete2. Every time these topics are brought to light I am humbled and reminded to check myself, my privilege, and my sources of knowledge. The lack of representation of black contributions in farming (and beyond) speaks to how fundamentally flawed our education system is and further how I need to be more diligent about seeking out that information. I was shocked especially about hydroponics in the context of this blog post as that innovation is always framed in a white, male, narrative.
3/4. Being aware our the internationality of these problems. As Karina spoke to in class, speaking about one aspect of the food system always brings into play the societal and cultural issues into which they are embedded. When looking to campus, we need to be inclusive of narratives, leadership roles, and member of black individuals in these spaces. As a white individual, I need to know when my voice and present is needed and helpful, and when it is further serving to silence others.
5. The history of cannabis is messy and one that baffles me to this day. The regulation of a plant is beyond my comprehension, the government does not dictate how many basal plants I can grow so how is cannabis different? I believe everyone should be able to grow and beyond that I am not sure how to answer the pricing and distribution questions. However, I firmly believe that those in prison for selling, consuming, etc. cannabis should be discharged and that offense taken off their record. As the documentary 13th shows us, the reasoning for that law was deliberately racist and fueling the profits of big pharma (and others) which is wrong and needs to be addressed.
1. Before this class I wasn’t aware of any black farming contributions other than the knowledge of slavery and the forced labor required of black slaves on white farms.
ReplyDelete2. I had difficulty opening the first three links you attached, but looking at what we have learned throughout the quarter and this weeks blog I think that the work Black individuals are doing to take back the land and encourage other Black youth to join the farming system here in the U.S by becoming apart of the land and learning how to grow one’s own food which was once and continues to be a huge barrier for Black peoples in this country is extremely important.
3. I think that the hoop house is an example of students gaining the valuable opportunity to learn about food systems and how growing food on campus can benefit those in our community is very similar to those individuals who are providing opportunities to black youth to attain the knowledge of food systems and new opportunities in agriculture.
4. I think that many students on campus are unaware of the opportunities they have to become apart of the food movement on campus. I was unaware of the hoop house in particular until taking this course, as well as, the opportunity we have to get compost from the grove. If we want to make the food movement on campus more inclusive I think it would be important for the school to create more opportunities for students to become more involved and learn of the opportunities they have to help with this movement.
5. When looking at growing cannabis legally I think it's important that anyone if they want can have the opportunity to grow in their own home can. I wouldn’t specifically say that growing weed is “hard labor” though because it’s not too difficult to grow weed in particular depending on how many plants you are growing. The labor is almost exclusively done by the individual growing and maybe 1-3 more people when the plants need to be cut, dried, and trimmed. I also think that a industrial cannabis industry is unnecessary and honestly just dumb. I think weed should be grown locally and sold locally. I also don’t think weed should be taxed and should just remain decriminalized rather than attaching absurd taxes to it.
Thanks for doing this topic Maddie! As we mentioned in class, it’s crazy that we haven’t taken a deeper look into black influence in farming yet as it’s been such a major part of our agricultural history and culture.
ReplyDelete1. I guess I hadn’t really thought of it- I always imagined that those thinking of impactful contributions were sitting in a lab somewhere but it makes total sense that the same people that were forced to spend most of their living hours working with soil and land would be the same ones to think of helpful techniques/inventions for furthering these processes.It also makes a lot of sense that cooperatives would be started under the black community as they all would have wanted to help lift each other out of relying on white people for their livelihood. Because they had targets on their back, banding together was probably much safer as well.
2. Ummmmm compost??? That’s huge! But again, I think it’s naive to think there weren’t indigenous communities already practicing this or something very similar. I was curious about it so I looked it up and the web actually fed me much different information- a white guy (of course) in 1905! This is what is wrong with “official history” in this country!
3. I have noticed that the community involved with food and farming on this campus is mostly white. And not just white, they all have a specific look to them. I’m thinking like came from a small town, wears overalls, and is super “crunchy.” You know what I mean. Something I realized when watching that episode in class is that not only to farmers not have to look white, but they look can look really different in terms of aesthetic these days- for example, the business woman looking through her papers sitting in front of her laptop. That’s probably a more accurate representation of what successful modern-day farming looks like these days. Yet I was completely stuck in my preconceptions.
4.Going back to the idea of diversity… if the success of an ecosystem is represented by it’s diversity wouldn’t it make sense to make the agricultural community as diverse as possible? And if students aren’t getting involved when they’re students, chances are they probably won’t make the effort later either. I thought about the video we watched a week or two ago about how the Black community cut off many of the ties to land because they are hurtful traumatic ties to keep meaning that any space that is committed to this kind of diversity also has the responsibility of making it as healing of a space as possible- I’m not really sure what that looks like. I thought it was great that the program created to better support black farmers was all about getting young people involved. I think it’d be beneficial for our food students on campus to see more representation of black farmers in their lives.
5. The question of what to do with the cannabis industry is a really interesting one as it’s had so many implications from it’s criminalization in the past, most affecting the black community specifically. I think anyone should be able to grow. And I think that those who choose to smoke should be respectful and intentional of the fact that many people have suffered as a consequence of this industry in the past.
1. I knew about George Washington Carver and all of his peanut inventions. I also knew a good deal about the history between black people and agriculture in America as it relates to slavery… however, I do not know many specific innovations accredited to black people (or anyone really).
ReplyDelete2. I was shocked by hydroponics… very cool !
3. I think that it is important to recognize the work that we are doing on campus is not new or novel. To accredit our inspirations to the people who have been doing the work. Especially when our inspirations are coming from POC who are so often not given the recognition they deserve.
4. This is a really great question that I am not sure how to answer. Perhaps more collaboration between food stuorgs and POC stuorgs?
5. Weed would be decriminalized and therefore charges dropped for those in prision because of weed related offenses. People could grow so long as it is regulated by the government and taxed accordingly. Besides that I would not put really any restrictions and let the open market decide things like price and labor. Oh also we shouldn’t let kids smoke probably.
1. I knew about different endeavors but I did not know much about current states that arent historicized and memorialized which is a travesty and an injustice.
ReplyDelete2. That so many people dont know that Black people farm too. Black farmers have been part of what has sustained us for so long. Credit where credit is due, visibility where visibility is required.
3. I think that as this campus continues to become more and more racially diverse, places like the hoophouse and the hoben garden are making space for students of color to regain or retain a relationship with land. Most of the movement on this camous is white and that is not how it should be since the movement around the world is Black and Brown and Indigenous.
4. I think being more intentional about collaboration, reachng out, and sharing resources could be very helpful. Collaborations with projects like the sweetwater foundation could be very long lasting and incredibly impactful for all involved. Many times inclusivity is not always about demographic but about knowledge, or access, or experience and there are so many ways to facilitate that with different demographics without being patronizing and presumptious.
5. I would decriminalize the growth, sale, and distribution of it. I would commute sentences of those who are serving sentences in jail for petty weed "crimes". I would talk to people and come up with numbers per household, per farm, perlarge scale industry. Saturatign the market would be bad too so beign smart about seems best. Everyone could smoke and studies would be incentivized that prove the health benefits of cannabis and other hemp products. I would educate about it, try and shift paradigm, and I woudl tax it! Fund efucation with weed money, fund healthcare with weed money!
1. Not about black farming specifically, but recently I watched Solange’s music videos and saw other movies that made me think a little deeper about Black folks’ existence in rural areas. For instance, Solange has been using a lot of Black cowboys in her music videos which were a reminder to me that Black folks have been living in these areas and doing farming as well. I think too about how apart from Native Americans, Black folks also have infinite knowledge about farming techniques because of how they were forced to work it, yet in present day they don’t have access to land or are invisibilized in farming communities.
ReplyDelete2. I think that one of the things that I was surprised about was how they have a community to support each other in, meaning they don’t go about farming alone.
3. I think the food movement on campus is not well rounded and what I mean by that is not just in terms of who is involved, but also how it is executed. For instance, I don’t think there are moments in which different experiences are talked about like relationship to land, farming techniques, the setting grown up in, etc. I had a conversation with a few people recently about how it was hard to work land and farm sometimes because of the histories of Black and non-Black PoC. For instance, grappling with the fact that for some folks their ancestors were forced to work land and what does it mean to work land as a choice now. Or know that previously your ancestors had so much knowledge that has gotten lost.
4. I think that making the food movement more inclusive will take more than inviting people of color into these spaces, but to actually make it a space of growth. I think it is important to talk about the experiences people have, what they know and don’t know, what setting they come from, and what it means for them to farm. I also think that these need to happen in a space where white students do not center their white guilt when hearing about different experiences and simply learn how or be visibly uncomfortable, as this adds to why it can be difficult to be involved.I think I would also like for students that come from actual rural, farming areas, regardless of race, to be involved because they are often not involved because they do it and know about it because they grew up doing it, not because its cool now.
5. I have not looked into this too much, but I think it would be great for Black farmers to grow cannabis particularly because I think it’s subtle resistance particularly in how the Black community has been targeted and criminalized because of it. I also think that Black folks would support Black folks and buy it from them which would be great
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