The author of “Farming While Black” on growing food, and empowering Black and Brown farmers, in a time of plague and racial reckoning.
, an extraordinary book that came out two years ago but feels like it was written for this very moment in American history, when a pandemic has exposed deep vulnerabilities in our food system just as yet another police killing of a Black man has ignited a conversation about systemic racism. Penniman’s book—part agricultural guide, part revolutionary manifesto—is meant to empower Brown and Black farmers to regain what she calls food sovereignty.
Soul Fire grows mostly perennial crops—berries, orchards of fruit trees, medicinal herbs—that help capture carbon. They also practice silvopasture, a system in which livestock like poultry and sheep graze among fruit trees, which also works to mitigate the effects of. Much of what is grown is donated to the residents of Albany neighborhoods classed as food deserts, although Penniman prefers the term “food apartheid.
I think there's a lot that you can pull out from that quote. Strictly speaking, a Black person in America is more likely to die fromto their ancestral foods than they are from all types of violence. If you look at diabetes, kidney failure and heart disease—those are all inextricably linked to what types of food a person has access to. And the last time I looked, those are the leading causes of death.
When I started thinking about making a career out of this, I attended all these farming conferences and saw what a white scene it was. And I started to really wonder if I should lend my strong shoulders and bright mind to something more relevant to my people. I think a big part of the healing and recognition of belonging in the movement has been learning about the history of Black farming beyond and before slavery.
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