I was raised pulling food out of earth. I know where joy comes from. How to make it.
Yrsa Daley-Ward
LAND1 STEWARDSHIP | Embracing our reciprocal relationship with our non-human kin, our land stewardship practices are rooted in ecological humility2, biomimicry, ecojustice3, and sustainable use of resources. We strive to regenerate biodiversity and soil, protect the climate, and honor natural cycles of growth and rest. We recognize that healing ourselves and healing the land go hand in hand.
BLACK AGRARIANISM4 | Understanding that the U.S. food system was built with Black agrarian expertise and labor, our educational programs and advocacy center Black agrarian legacy and futures. We strive to uplift Afro-Indigenous and Black diasporic history, culture, wisdom, ritual, and land-based practices as we work toward food and land sovereignty.
INTERDEPENDENCE | Rooted in the Black cooperative principles of Ujamaa5 and Konbit6, we move from a place of abundance in sharing information, skills, labor, and resources with BIPOC farmers and sibling food and land justice projects. Recognizing that we are capable of far more together than alone, we practice mutual aid with our neighbors and networks and embody an “each one teach one”7 approach.
INTERSECTIONALITY | Understanding that none of us are free until we are all free8, we endeavor to build a Beloved Community9 diverse in age, language, ethnicity, faith, gender, sexuality, and ability. We maintain BIPOC leadership, center solidarity with Indigenous, Black, and Latine communities, and cultivate coalitions regionally and internationally. We commit to nonviolence, authenticity, and relationality as we work toward collective liberation.
ACCOUNTABILITY | Believing that we must be the change we wish to see in the world10, we commit to transparency, integrity, and ethical practices in our work. We value shared leadership, participatory decision-making, courageous dialogue, fiscal responsibility, and a just and healthy work culture. We embrace generative feedback from our communities and the Earth.
EXCELLENCE | Recognizing that our communities and the land deserve our dedication, we approach our work with a commitment to quality, beauty, high standards, and proficiency. We uplift the honor and dignity of labor. We center the sharing of practical, tangible, land-based skills that contribute to community self-provisioning11 and self-determination. With wise effort, our work is our love made visible.12
- Land: a multi-species community to which we belong, as described by Pablo Neruda VI and Leopold’s “Land Ethic” ↩︎
- Ecological Humility: An understanding that humans are the junior siblings of creation, owing deference and respect to our elders the plants, animals, and fungi. A challenge to human supremacy. ↩︎
- Ecojustice: Environmental justice for humans and non-human beings, including equitable distribution of environmental benefits. ↩︎
- Black Agrarianism: an ethos in which land is a source of freedom, pride, and belonging for Black land stewards, who cultivate resistance to the legacies of slavery and sharecropping and contemporary practices of social closure. Land ownership is protection from white domination, and undergirds resistance and emancipation. See essays on Black Agrarianism. ↩︎
- Ujamaa – cooperative economics ↩︎
- Konbit – Haitian collective work societies ↩︎
- Each One Teach One: Black American proverb ↩︎
- None of us are free until we are all free. ~Emma Lazarus ↩︎
- Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In The Beloved Community, poverty, hunger, and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In The Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict. ↩︎
- Be the change we wish to see. ~Mahatma Gandhi ↩︎
- Provisioning: The practice of a household producing their own food and other necessities. This term is rooted in African American history, related to the “provision grounds” tended during slavery. ↩︎
- Work is love made visible. ~Khalil Gibran ↩︎