For Black farmers, financing isn't as simple as turning in an application, submitting the necessary paperwork, and getting approved. For decades, Black farmers have faced extreme challenges, especially when trying to access the systems that are supposed to help farmers farm. That injustice still rings true today.
Black Yard Farm Collective is an opportunity to hold space for this knowledge and build new restorative systems that value all beings present, working the land and beyond. We are owed the same opportunities to build sustainable, profitable businesses that nourish our lives and communities.
That is a radical idea in a capitalist society, and we must hold on to it.
You don't have to look hard to find worker-owned cooperatives, community food hubs, local distributors, and independent growers that have built the infrastructure needed to move fresh food from farms throughout New York City and beyond. Building local food infrastructure is exactly what Brooklyn Supported Agriculture is doing.
Kadeesha “Kitty” Williams is the co-founder of Iridescent Earth Collective (IEC), which is an agroecological farm project rooted in land stewardship, education, community health, and mutual aid. Watch how IEC is breaking the mold of a typical farming business and breaking the traditional models of what a farm is—not just a business but a community institution.
Ask a simple question—can New Yorkers grow food on public land?—and you’ll find yourself in a bureaucratic loop. Right now, the way our public space is utilized reflects a deeper message—that food is something to be bought, not grown or shared in community.
"Food should be free, the planet provides for us," says urban farmer, food justice advocate, and educator Sheryll Durrant in our conversation on the Voices From the Land series.
In this new conversation, Durrant explains why climate adaptation is directly connected to a more just and sustainable system and how it can begin with food sovereignty.
Food and medicine are deeply interconnected, but the dominant food policy narrative sees them as inherently separate. Here’s how Amara Ullauri, Ecosystem steward of Ayni Herb Farm, is bridging the two and pushing for pandemic solidarity.
