Leah Penniman - Farming While Black: Uprooting Racism and Seeding Sovereignty

Our most cherished sustainable farming practices, from organic agriculture to the farm cooperative, have roots in African wisdom, but discrimination and violence against African-American farmers have led to their decline from 14% of all growers in 1920 to less than 2% today. Furthermore, Black communities suffer disproportionately from food apartheid. Renowned longtime farmer, educator, author, and food sovereignty activist, Leah Penniman, explains the deep roots of this land loss and food injustice and shares the work she at Soul Fire Farm and others around the country in Black and Brown farming communities are doing to reclaim ancestral rights, renew ties to the land, achieve genuine agency in the food system, and advance food sovereignty. (Leah is also the sister of frequent Bioneers presenter Naima Penniman, half of the brilliant musical/spoken-word duo, Climbing PoeTree.)
Leah Penniman delivered this talk at the Bioneers 2020 Conference, introduced by Nina Simons. Watch more keynote videos at bioneers.org/2...
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, Vodun Manye (Queen Mother), and award-winning food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for over 20 years. She currently serves as founding Co-Executive Director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a people-of-color led project that works toward food and land justice, which she co-founded in 2010. She is the author of: "Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land."
To learn more about Leah's work, visit Soul Fire Farm at www.soulfirefa...

[@rabbiinblack49]

Thank you Leah, you are inspiring

[@sky-pv7ff]

It would be believable if she was in a black neighborhood. There's hardly any grocery stores. Definitely, you're not going to get fresh produce. Believe me, I live in the hood, and there's plenty of empty lots and abandoned homes.

[@DennisEnglishREHS]

Thanks for sharing! I'm learning about micro small urban farming in West Oakland California due to the COVID-19 and have gained a great appreciation and respect for those who grow their own food organically. It is not easy and I appreciate the sharing of farming knowledge available on RUclips. There is not much land suitable and available for growing organic food due to contaminated soil where I live. So, I'm using above ground small planter beds and small elevated greenhouses to start my small urban farm around my house. Again, thanks for educating me about American agriculture and what you are doing to make things better for us all!

[@themikylayup6351]

I wish the commenters could actively (not combatively) listen and hear their place among her words and on the land. She didn't fabricate these issues by identifying. See the big hopeful picture instead of your jaded view of the world.

[@Tacit_Tern]

Don't conflate topics for issues.... try farming while being native american on a reservation, where there hasn't been water for years due to a mining company pouring chemicals into the groundwater.

[@escarlit]

this woman looks more jewish than she does black. penniman. interesting.

[@sky-pv7ff]

No, she looks biracial.