Where are the Black farmers?
In the 1920’s, nearly one million black farmers worked sixteen million acres across the country. Discriminatory loan lending by the USDA went unchecked for decades, forcing many black and economically disadvantaged farmers out of the industry. Today, black farmers account for less than 2% of all U.S. farmers - and they only own 0.5% of all farm land in the US - a nearly 90% reduction in land ownership in 100 years.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This past week, along with some of my team members here on the farm, we started looking for other dairies owned and operated by people of color. I was shocked when we came up nearly empty handed. We asked ourselves how this was possible. How can we help to effect change?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The farming and agriculture industry has historically been a major perpetrator of systemic racism in the United States. It is clear the impact of prejudice has robbed many people of their right to make a livelihood in agriculture; it has disallowed communities to have control of their food supply; it has limited autonomy and inherited wealth via land ownership.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We, as a farm, will donate all of the sales of all of our bread every 3rd Monday for the rest of 2020 to The New England Farmers of Color Land Trust. The dates are as follows:
June 15, 2020
July 20, 2020
August 17, 2020
September 21, 2020
October 19, 2020
November 16, 2020
December 21, 2020
Can’t come to our farmstand? You can take part by making a donation to The New England Farmers of Color Land Trust at www.nefoclandtrust.org