Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land

The first comprehensive “how to” guide for aspiring African-heritage growers to reclaim their dignity as agriculturists and for all farmers to understand the distinct contributions of African-heritage people to sustainable agriculture and a concise guide to all aspects of small-scale farming, from business planning to preserving the harvest. People of color disproportionately live in “food apartheid” neighborhoods and suffer from diet-related illness; the system is built on stolen land and stolen labor and needs a redesign. Farming While Black uplifts the wisdom of the African diasporic farmers and activists whose work informs the techniques described—from whole farm planning, soil fertility, seed selection, and agroecology, to using whole foods in culturally appropriate recipes, sharing stories of ancestors, and tools for healing from the trauma associated with slavery and economic exploitation on the land. Explores the relationship between farming, communities of color, the land, and our food system, empowering marginalized communities to work toward alternatives to food apartheid and the institutionalized vestiges of slavery. Designed for farmers and gardeners with beginning to intermediate experience and provides a fresh lens on practices that may have been taken for granted as ahistorical or strictly European. Black ancestors and contemporaries have always been leaders—and continue to lead—in the sustainable agriculture and food justice movements; it is time for all of us to listen.