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“The land loves us back. She loves us with beans and tomatoes, with roasting ears and blackberries and bird songs. By a shower of gifts and a heavy rain of lessons. She provides for us and teaches us to provide for ourselves. That’s what good mothers do.” ~ Robin Wall Kimmerer in Braiding Sweetgrass
Announcements:
Winter is here. The trees are barren, snow covers the ground, and the days are shorter than the night is long. It is a time for dormancy and rest – for the land, for our hens that ceased laying, and, to a degree, for those of us who steward the land. Life hasn’t stopped, however, for us or for the land. Just as bare trees are still active, constantly drawing energy from the roots that sustain them, we are currently providing the foundation we need for next year. Jonah is working on infrastructure projects, Leah and Amani are still engaging with people off the farm about the work we do at Soul Fire Farm, and Larisa, Damaris, and Lytisha are doing administrative work. The winter is truly an abundant time of year and while sitting in this sometimes unrecognized wintry abundance we want to revisit the abundance of our year. This year was rich in us continuing projects, expanding others, and undertaking new ones. On the farm, we cultivated more land, fed more people than ever (300 individuals!), and grew more Afro-indigenous crops. We also finished and began many exciting infrastructure projects, like a new road, the tool shop, a cabin, and porch.
We built new connections and expanded existing ones to support others’ projects and increase the organizing we’re doing around land repatriation and policy change. The founders of La Finca del Sur in the Bronx, Nancy and Demetrio, recently visited the farm and we had a farmer-to-farmer intercambio where we strategized about organizing our teams to feed our communities. In mid-November, NEFOC met at Global Village in Grafton, MA. 40 people came and gave offerings to the land and learned local indigenous history from Wampanoag elders. We also strategized for supporting the new land trust coordinator; gave and attended workshops on taxes, the legal system, and honoring traditions; and discussed ways we can support and receive support from each other as fellow farmers and land stewards. We are continuing to organize with the Northeast Farmers of Color (NEFOC), the Heal Food Alliance, Freedom Food Alliance, and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. And Leah, Jonah, Neshima, and Emet are currently in Puerto Rico with friends and family at our sibling farm Finca Conciencia in Vieques to support their infrastructure development and facilitate workshops on the creation of a land trust.
This year we also interacted with over 6000 people through our programs, speaking engagements, alumni mentorship, and trainings! This past month in particular, Leah and Amani spoke about Farming While Black, our work at Soul Fire Farm, and the African roots of many sustainable farming techniques at Columbia University, Mount Holyoke College, Rhode Island Department of Health, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Middlebury College, WESPAC, and the CARE Coalition of Charleston, West Virginia. Amani also facilitated an Uprooting Racism in the Food System training at the Common Good City Farm in Washington DC, and Leah and Amani both facilitated one at Glynwood where participants learned about racism in the food system, reflect on how we as organizations and individuals be complicit, and developed action plans to work towards eradicating oppression. And Leah, Larisa, and summer 2018 apprentice Olive were at the Young Farmers Conference last week to learn with and from other farmers. Leah spoke about Farming While Black and Olive hosted a workshop on retirement plans for farmers. We received the Food Justice Certification from the The Agricultural Justice Project (AJP)! Soul Fire Farm proudly sought the Agricultural Justice Project’s Food Justice Certification, recognizing that to date, it is the only farm certification that commits to an unequivocal focus on the rights of food system workers, centers farm worker-led organizations, and was developed primarily by farm workers and farmers in a participatory stakeholder process. The certification process assesses a farm’s organizational systems to support standards for workers’ rights, legal protections for employees, fair pricing, and practices that uphold human and environmental health. AJP is currently taking active steps to make sure the certification process and its materials feature a racial justice lens prominently, such as identifying ways to be held accountable to those experiencing oppression by the corporate food system, as well as uplifting the voices of Black and Brown farmers and farmworkers in their organization. Another very important aspect of our work at Soul Fire Farm has been catalyzing reparations for farmers of color; this year 12 farming and food justice projects have received reparations to fund their projects through the Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers! The most recent recipients of funding are shown above. We recognize that the food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and other people of color. We also know that we cannot wait for the government to acknowledge that stolen wealth and land must be returned. If you have resources you want to share contact a farmer directly to share them, or if you have a project you want to include on the map please contact us! This month’s Love Notes was written by Lytisha Wyatt. |
Ending racism and injustice in the food system
Jonah, Olive, Leah, Ceci, Lytisha, Larisa, Amani, Damaris, Chaga
The farm now!
NEFOC gathering at Global Village.
The Young Farmers Conference at Stone Barns.
