Know Your Farmer: Addressing the Heart of Food Insecurity in Kensington

Cities across the United States continue to deal with the lasting impacts of food apartheid, an intentional system of violence perpetrated through disparities in food access. Food apartheid also underscores how other structural injustices, such as redlining and over-policing, have limited the access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable food.

Kensington, a neighborhood in North Philadelphia is a prime example of food apartheid. But one Philadelphia farmer, Christa Barfield, owner of the community farm and greenhouse FarmerJawn, is looking to combat this issue directly with a new farm-to-corner storefront called CornerJawn, aimed at improving the health outcomes and social fabric of the Kensington community.

Barfield began dreaming up CornerJawn after a trip to Martinique in 2018, where she stayed in an Airbnb owned by Black Martinican farmers. Barfield was inspired by them to better understand the origins of food and its actors in her community: “Where are the farms, and where are people getting their food and why?” In her own neighborhood, corner-stores owners were hesitant to sell fresh produce because they were afraid it would not sell. That is when Barfield began to conceptualize a corner store that would offer “food as medicine” to the community.

The Need for Nourishing Food

While there are many places to buy food in Kensington, Barfield points out that there’s a lack of nutritional security. From 2021 to 2024, food insecurity in the Philadelphia area jumped from 13.6 percent to 21.2 percent. Statewide, one in seven Pennsylvania residents used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in 2024.

“Yes, you can find a mini mart that is selling some kind of nourishment, but is it really nourishing? That’s the true conversation here,” said Barfield in an interview with NPQ. “Localizing the food system is how you get to the heart of nutrition security, and that starts with knowing who your farmer is.”

Read the full story on NPQ

The USDA puts back missing webpages. What happens next?

Patrick Hendry via Unsplash

While the USDA agreed to restore critical USDA webpages that farmers and the entire agricultural industry depend on, what happens next?   

Since the start of the Trump Administration, farmers and the entire agricultural industry have been under siege. Alongside the administration's cuts to critical grants, by mid-February, the USDA had removed essential information from its main website and 18 subagencies, including the US Forest Service and Rural Development (RD), such as grants, technical resources, and interactive tools like the Climate Risk Viewer.  The Trump Administration targeted Inflation Reduction Act-supported programs, as well as those related to regenerative agriculture, organic farming, and climate resilience. However, a swift lawsuit quickly exposed the wrongdoing, and the missing content is now being restored.   

In February, Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, and the First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The lawsuit cited that three federal laws were violated: the Freedom of Information Act, the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. All of these laws require adequate notice before changes can be made to official government websites. The laws also state the right to access key information and documents before they are removed.   

"One harm that has come out of the web page removals is that it significantly undermined an organization's ability to trust USDA, digital resources, to trust that they're up to date, [and] that they're accurate," says Jeffrey Stein, an associate attorney at Earthjustice in an interview. 

Farmers no longer had access to the information they needed to make informed decisions related to climate change risks, such as wildfires, extreme heat, and floods.   

NOFA-NY, one of the leading plaintiffs in the case, said that the removal of USDA webpages immediately impacted organic farmers. It also undermined NOFA-NY's work as an organic certifier. As a certifier, NOFA-NY has the authority to label a food producer's product as organic by verifying whether the producer meets the strict National Organic Program standards. Just as importantly, NOFA-NY acts as a liaison between farmers and federal resources.  The organization's technical advising team, which works directly with farmers in the field, had suddenly lost its ability to advise on specific practices and refer farmers to additional resources.

"Especially for [organic farmers] in meeting and maintaining farming practices through the National Resource Conservation Services (NRCS)—a lot of it was just gone," said Marcie Craig, executive director of NOFA-NY.  While the organization worked to pick up the pieces, "It's really educated us on exactly how farmers are accessing and what resources they're accessing," said Craig. Craig makes clear that these impacts hit farmers across the board.  

What was most unclear from the removal of webpages was the availability of funding. Farmers could no longer apply for or access funding programs. For example, with NRCS funding, farmers are expected to cover upfront costs and then receive reimbursement later following an official USDA inspection. "With all of the layoffs happening, who's going to do that?" Thus far, nearly 59,000 federal jobs have been lost since the start of the Trump Administration, NPR reports. At the USDA, 15,000 positions have been shed, reports DTN Progressive Farmer.    

For the USDA, some employees in mission-critical positions were offered resignation packages with five months' pay and benefits. Just shortly after, the agency began scrambling to fill those key positions. Late last month, a California federal judge blocked the USDA, alongside other agencies, from continuing its unlawful firings and department restructurings. However, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins firmly stands behind the belief that these layoffs will be about "realigning and refocusing USDA around its original intended mission." However, it is clear that many of the agency's moving parts are no longer functioning.   

Critical Webpages Return 

In mid-May, the USDA reversed its decision and restored the critical web pages that it removed. The agency announced its decision in a letter to the US District Court.  The reversal came as both a surprise and relief to the plaintiffs and farmers everywhere. On Wednesday, June 12, the plaintiffs provided an update to the court regarding whether the USDA is restoring the missing webpages in a timely and accurate manner, as promised by the agency.   

"As of right now, the USDA has restored all of the web pages and interactive tools that were identified in our complaint," said Stein. However, Stein explains that the restored web pages have a disclaimer stating that the content is under review and subject to change.   

On June 11, the plaintiffs filed a status report updating the court on the progress of the USDA in restoring climate change-related web content and data. The update also includes two critical requests from the plaintiffs—NOFA-NY, NRDC, EWG, and their legal team — which are for the government to provide a list of all the content that was removed, as well as an explanation for the declaimers.  As of now, the plaintiffs have no information on what the review process, conducted by the USDA, actually entails.   

Currently, the plaintiffs await the next steps.  Despite the uncertainty, the plaintiffs are grateful that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.