Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: My name is Hopeland Gavin. Welcome to just a bite. I am going to introduce our intern at the Ohio association of Food Banks, Chloe. This is her first time on the pod, so I just want her to take a second, introduce herself. She is the association's food programs intern and she'll be co hosting with me today on today's black History Month episode.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Chloe?
[00:00:44] Speaker C: Hi, everyone. I'm Chloe Myers. I am from Columbus, Ohio. I went to Ohio University, and I am currently an intern at the Ohio association of Food Banks. And I'm really glad to be here with all of you today.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: Now, Chloe, you know, I got to ask more questions than what you gave me, so why are you interested in the issue of food insecurity?
[00:01:07] Speaker C: So for me, I think just growing up and having friends and people around me that were food insecure, understanding that food, I think, should be, in my opinion, a right for everybody, not just people who can afford it, but everybody. And so I think coming into a job that, for me, I never had any experience in agriculture, but it's just been so fascinating and awesome learning about the things that you can grow yourself and even, like, larger operations and just the variations in being a farmer or someone who grows anything. So I think that's been really awesome for me.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Thanks, Chloe.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: And I'm actually going to have you take it away and do the introductions of our guest today.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Okay, so we have Sharifa Tomlisson with Arrow Rock Farm and Urban Sanctuary, Christine Irby with Herby's old school farm, Khalid Kareem with farm. Right. Natural fruits and vegetables, and tia Stewart with the narrow wave farm.
If you want, you can also talk a little bit about yourself and maybe tell us what your favorite thing to grow harvest is.
[00:02:16] Speaker D: Okay, I'm tia Stewart with the narrowway farm, which is located in Brookville, Ohio, about 20 minutes from Richmond, Indiana. And we grow fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. I also do a lot of the organization for the regenerative farmer collective and also do some work with Agaria center for regenerative practice. But outside of that, my favorite thing to grow would be fruits. I like to grow different types of natives, paw paws, things like that.
[00:02:49] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Sharifah Tomlinson with Arc Farm and urban Sanctuary. We're located in Riverside, Ohio, which is a little bit outside of Dayton.
Some of my favorite things to grow are squashes and pumpkins, and I'll pass it on to Christine.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Hi, I am Christine Irby. I am one half of the Irby's old school farm, and we're currently located in Trotwood, Ohio. And we are upholstery farmers, but what we love to grow are vine plants. So you got your passion flower and you got tomatoes and cucumbers.
[00:03:25] Speaker F: I am kali Kareem, and I'm in Trotwood. And I am farm right natural fruits and vegetables. And I love all vegetables and fruits, especially the ones that are nutritionally dense, such as I love the melons, I love the squashes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and I would say I got my introductory in farming with my grandmother. I grew up on a farm in Virginia, so I have experience picking cotton, chopping corn, peanuts, and priming tobacco. So as a person, not too many people has picked cotton before, so that's a little black history.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: Thank you guys all so very much for just being here with us in community today, talking about your farms, talking about yourselves.
We invited you beautiful folks here today in honor of black History Month. We thought, what better opportunity to highlight black stories of agriculture, food systems, and food security than with our strong local food purchase assistance cooperative, or LFPA program partners, otherwise known as Ohio. Can the history of black folks in this country begins with agriculture? African people were captured off the continent and enslaved, not just here, but around the world, for the sole purpose of farming. Whether it was rice, tobacco, pecans, cotton, or corn. Our expertise, largely stemming from the motherland, was the key to financial freedom for white people across the earth for centuries. The slave trade and the subsequent forced labor did a number on us as people, and as such, we are still reckoning with the impact of that today on nearly every measure related to public health and economic security. African Americans still fare far worse than their white counterparts. 405 years since the first kidnapped Africans landed in Virginia, there still is not parity when it comes to equitable lending and borrowing from farmland to suburban homes. While 1619 may have been a long ways away for some, we know firsthand the lasting impact slavery has had on all of us as a people.
Despite all of that and still having many ods against you, you all have chosen to invest your time, your resources, and your energy into farming and into agriculture for a living. I garden at home for fun, and I know it being among the earth can be very healing for me. But if I think about it too long, it can also be very painful. So I guess my first question to you all today is, do any of you ever struggle with this, too? The fact that they took something so precious and innate to us, our ability to farm, our ability to be holistic and our desire to be with the earth and they turned it into something so egregious that it remains a deep memory at the core of the black experience. Do any of you guys struggle with that as well?
[00:06:21] Speaker E: Tia?
[00:06:22] Speaker D: Okay. Yeah, I would say that, first of all, I like to just make a note that we are not as black people or BIpoC people or people of color, not a monolith. So we don't all think the same way. We don't all process things the same way. We don't have the same feelings. And so, while I agree with you, if you think about something too long, it can be really painful. It can also maybe stop you in your tracks. But I like to draw my strength from the most high, and I have the scripture that relates to that, and I just want to read it real quick. It's, brethren.
I count not myself to have apprehension apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Forgetting those things which are behind. I just repeated that. And reaching forth into those things which are. Before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And that's Philippians 313 through 14. So that thought of pressing on, even though we've been oppressed and not thinking too much about all of the things that's happened to us, not letting it hamper us, not letting it stop us, but pressing toward the mark. And the price.
[00:07:39] Speaker F: I would say, from my experience, is farming, gardening. It's like they said, my father in heaven, we're emulating. I feel like I'm emulating the creator, God show. I mean, that's the beauty. Because I can have influence over creation, not creation. I'm making something. I can start with a seed on time, in season what I know, and then nurture that season, protect it, and then see the fruit. Then the beauty that I found out about me, the beauty of giving it away, I found out I enjoy more because I raised more than I could.
It was something about giving it away. I'm like, wow. So that's the beauty. And it's like I'm being connected to the universe like a little God.
I can make some changes.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: That's beautiful.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: Okay, well, so, basically, I'm a newbie. Farming. I've been gardening for, like, what, six, seven years? But when I learned that gardening, transferring into farming is a business, but in our culture, some of us believe that is equated to slavery. So when I hear when people, you're a farmer. Oh, you're doing slave work. No, I'm doing healing work. And then I'm on a path of learning how to regenerate that earth and learning the strategies of, like, okay, what not to do, what to do. So every day when we go into the field, when we go into thinking about farming, we thank the ancestors.
That drum when we walk out, that beat, that connection is powerful. Now, when I go to Royal king, when I go to tractor supply, you got the farmer's almanac. So that used to be the farmer's bible. And some people it is, still is. But I connect that back to Benjamin Bannecker because he also published, like, six, seven almanacs. He was pre George Washington Carver. But we don't talk about him now. We talk about the soul eclipse that's coming up. He also predicted soul eclipse. So when we think about farming, we don't talk about our history as far as scientists and engineers and how we work stuff out. That's my thing.
[00:10:16] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: I appreciate that.
[00:10:22] Speaker E: I agree with all three of them, but I also agree with you. Yeah, I think it's painful. I think it's painful that we don't have enough farmers now. I think it's painful that a whole generation of our farmers are missing. I feel it's painful that I have to be a placeholder for farming for younger people to come to learn how to farm.
It still bothers me. So, yeah, it is painful.
[00:10:50] Speaker B: And she's the bestest mentor, by the way. She's the bestest mentor. She's the bestest teacher about reaching back and pulling somebody up because our numbers are very low, considering the population.
[00:11:02] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: I mean, we're in the hundreds versus the millions.
It's almost like a genocide.
[00:11:10] Speaker E: Yes, absolutely. That's it.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:11:12] Speaker E: It's a farmer genocide for black farmers. And I think that's what really bothers me. So, yeah, it's painful. But then, on the other hand, I look at today as I was, like, 07:00 going out to feed the chickens, and I had my boots on and my pajama bottoms because that was it for today. And I had my jacket on. But I remember that jacket that I was wearing today was my grandmother's jacket. And I've always wanted to throw this jacket out, but blah, blah, blah. But that has become my farming jacket. So every time I go out there to feed these chickens, I think about my grandmother, and I go like, okay, I'm good, I'm good. Or I think of her mother and her grandmother, who all raised chickens.
So maybe that's why I'm doing it. Maybe that's why I'm farming because it's just instinctual. Like, it's part of that.
Part of my heritage and who I am. But wearing that jacket, it just makes me feel like. Yeah. So, anyway, that's where I'm at.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: This has done exactly what I wanted.
[00:12:09] Speaker E: It to do for me.
Sorry. No, this is beautiful.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: I'm so happy.
[00:12:15] Speaker F: If I may piggyback as a little boy, I go in early in the morning to go work on a farm, and I'm holding down the reel.
I'm complaining. So my grandmother say to me, she turns around and said, if I don't work, I don't eat.
Grandma got a starve.
But the thing is this, as I was saying earlier, they have a cliche where they say food, shelter, and.
And when we talk about farming, let's talk about Adam and Eve. They was in the garden.
I mean, it's amazing. So a garden is something that is farming, okay? And the beauty about farming, because all my cousins and uncles have large family unity. All of my uncles farm. There's no bickering and arguing. It's unity. And that's what working in the earth does. Everybody come together. And it's about hands on, you know, how to do something. It's not how you weigh your makeup or how you weigh your hair. You get your identity by your ability to do something, whether it's going feed in a hog or go get the chicken for grandma. Go get that one.
That's how you get your identity and your pride is what you can do, not what you look like. And that's what I got.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: And I think I really appreciate everything all of you have said, because for me, growing up, I know I always wanted to be on a farm and with the animals and everything, but I didn't think it was something that I was able to do with the skin color that I have. And so just hearing and seeing that it is possible for people that look like us and that it does heal and it does connect us. And even though we aren't all the same and don't have the same perspectives and opinions, it still can bring us together by healing.
[00:14:27] Speaker F: This is my reflection coming in consciousness. My grandmother was there with my mother, and I don't understand how my grandmother, I never seen her in the bed late. She's up.
I looked like, how does she do it? Her energy? She never was depressed.
The breakfast was cooked every day. Lunch was cooked. Dinner was cooked. She didn't get what they call going and get your groove on.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: She wasn't partying.
[00:15:05] Speaker F: It's the farmer connected her and grounded her the energy and made them supernatural.
Because I'm looking back and I'm like, I got a whole lot of stuff, and some days I don't want to get up.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Chloe, I actually really. Before you get into the next question, I really appreciate what you said about just growing up. You just didn't know. I've always associated farming. I talk about this a lot at the association. But when I go to the fair as an adult and I see all these four h kids, none of them.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Are black, so I thought it was.
[00:15:42] Speaker D: I didn't know that.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: I've never seen a black four hr at a farm. I can tell you that much or not at a farm, at a fair. Never seen one area until I was six years old. And they don't have them in Cleveland.
[00:15:53] Speaker F: As a piggy bank. My father, which I made, travel in 40 state and 40 cities. I go to fairs all the time. I love it. But my father and my uncle, but his family had a lot of land.
They had a store.
And this farmer was so progressive that one of them was. She was a principal, like, 19 and from the same family farm. Stan O'Neill was the second highest paid person on Wall street. That's his nephew from that farm. That culture. That's how powerful.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: See, there's that with Tia. She passes down that knowledge.
With me, my background, it was not passed down.
I was outside. I got allergies. I'm thinking, I'm not going to be outside. I'm going in the city. There is that disconnect.
So that's one thing that with our culture, we don't always pass down that storytelling.
And we need to fix that. We need to make that connection, because that's what you were saying with Khalid.
[00:17:14] Speaker E: But also, we're saying, too, that the whole thing was to get off the farm. I want my child to have a better education. I want my child to go to college, have education. I don't want them to be farmers like us. That was a way of building.
[00:17:24] Speaker F: And for my spring, farming was fun.
The beauty about farming, you have a lot of cousins, you have a lot of relatives, and you learn to socialize, and you learn to work collective. Okay. So my experience living in long Island, New York, off the farm. But every summer, I would go back to work in the tobacco fields with my uncle, with my cousin. And that was the most gratifying fun, even though we worked in the sun, because it was all about love, and I think it was in balance.
You got to sit down and eat at the table. In the morning, collective, sit at a table, at a table for dinner. And that was love. It's that organically balanced just for a second.
[00:18:24] Speaker D: I do want to mention that Representative Juanita Brent was in four h. Okay. Yes. For many years as a youngster.
[00:18:35] Speaker C: She.
[00:18:35] Speaker D: Like many of us that participate in predominantly caucasian activities, I have air quotes going. She was like, maybe one of the only ones.
I have a little story. When I was five years old, my mother, I wanted to be a brownie. And so my mother went to go take me to sign up for brownies or whatever, and it was predominantly non BIPOC. And when they saw me, they said, oh, we don't have any more space. But my mother didn't get upset. What she did was form her own group. And so we had one of the only BIPOC groups in all of Ohio. And we would go to the campgrounds and we would be that little Bipoc brownie know and Girl scout troupe. So that is what, you know when people say, you can't do over here, then, okay, I'll do over here, then. I'm not going to just stop and lay down and, oh, why can't I? No, I'll just go over here and do it. Until now, it's integrated more, right?
[00:19:43] Speaker F: If I may inject. Growing up, part of my self worth, my self esteem, came from my uncles, my dad, my uncles, my aunt, not the football players, not the actors. So my self value, able to grow up and not get involved in drugs or alcohol, my parents, you got that from your essence of working, seeing men, knowing how to do things, knowing how to fix things, command it. And in Virginia, North Carolina, growing up, I'm born in 53. My uncles, when you're talking about diversity, my uncles were very diverse because the white farmers and the black farmers, I guess my uncles and everybody were so competitive that we all needed each other. There was no visible friction, okay.
Because everyone was hovering. Was so, I guess needed to fit survival. It worked.
Farmers back in those days were so skillful crafting. My grandfather was a horse trainer, too, had a Logan. I mean, it's like people had skills, character. It builds character. Also, farming is just farmers. You don't lock your door either. You don't have no locks.
It's about trust, conversation, talk all day. How you doing? Friendly.
You never. How to find an aggressive, mean farmer. It's amazing.
They have time.
And it's having the experience like coming the mecca of the business world, Manhattan. I didn't live in Manhattan, but 30 miles away, having that balance is so beautiful. I mean, like, awesome.
[00:22:19] Speaker C: Thank you so much for all of those responses. When it comes to kind of making amends and the idea of everything that has happened with the USDA, it seems like the USDA has tried to make amends on some of the wrongs they committed early in the 20th century. Have any of you been able to take advantage of any of the loan forgiveness programs they've offered and do you think they're enough?
[00:22:46] Speaker D: Well, not our particular group, but. Ms. Sharifa, maybe you can speak about what you have participated in.
[00:22:54] Speaker E: So we don't have loan forgiveness?
Yeah.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Please tell it.
[00:23:03] Speaker E: But what I have taken advantage of is with the USDA is the high tunnel. So I put a high tunnel up this year and then also brush removal. And that's with the equip grant. And I will also be doing more grants along that line with equip again in the. Yeah, so, and one of the things with the regenerative farming fellowship, that a part of that program was that if it wasn't for brother Gregory, who was also in the program, saying that he did it, because I went in, I own this land. This isn't mine. I'm not getting involved with the USDA. Period. Period, period. That's just know they have a bad history and a bad taste in my mouth. So why would I do know they might end up taking my land away? Like, being like that. But then brother Gregory came along and he know, while he did it, so I was, you know, I trust his judgment. I'm going to go with that. So that's why I applied.
And then that has been a very good experience. And then when Ohio can came along, which is another USDA funded program, basically, I was like, I went to a couple of meetings, I heard a couple of things, and I was still like, I don't know about this either because this is still know. Love you guys, but it's still like USDA up here. Still kind of nervous. But that's been a wonderful experience, too. So I feel comfortable. I still think that you have to know what you're doing, talk to people and really look at the parameters and things like that. Make sure that you do all the required stuff, that kind of thing. But it's doable. So I like that. But not everybody sees it that way. Not everybody does USDA.
[00:24:46] Speaker D: Yeah. And I also want to make the comment that, so USDA has like, a strict guideline for getting into these programs where all of us, we took our personal funds, we didn't get this USDA loan, we actually should be qualified for this USDA loan because we are farming under these harsh conditions, having to, like I said, take our own funds to buy our.
Yeah, it would be great if they didn't have such a narrow definition of who qualifies.
[00:25:16] Speaker F: Like, you got to be farming for three years. And when homesteaders came here, when the European came here, they gave them land and gave them everything straight up or.
[00:25:26] Speaker E: Where you farm, even at 40 acres.
[00:25:28] Speaker F: No, they got more than 40 acres. You could ride on a horse as far as you could ride in a day.
That was all your land.
The government gave them everything. Fertilizer gave them. They had extension program to teach them how to get ahead.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: So they held their hand.
[00:25:51] Speaker F: They did more than.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: And I'm like geeked as heck because I got my track, I got my farm number, I got my USDA in Trotwood because we're not supposed to be urban farmers now. We're rural farmers because we're in a rural section of Trotwood. So knowing the game.
[00:26:10] Speaker E: Knowing the game. But that's the other thing, because I'm not in a rural area, I would never qualify for any of the rural things. But I have twelve acres, so I qualify.
[00:26:20] Speaker F: You're in a hybrid.
[00:26:22] Speaker E: But I'm not rural. So a lot of the USDA grants go to rural farmers and I'll never be rural.
[00:26:27] Speaker F: A lot of times there's exception to policy and this is where we come in in flexibility and we're not dealing with AI when we're human. There's always exception to the rule. We don't know that. But you can. There's always exceptions to the rule.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: All right, has anybody else taken advantage.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Of any other USDA programming?
[00:26:51] Speaker B: I applied for the quip with mentor from Sharifah. It's just lethargically slow.
Like the government, like a turtle.
I applied for that in June last year.
Yeah, I did. It was to June last year because I was like, okay, I got the farm. Yeah, April.
And knock on wood. Well, here. If we got accepted in this cycle, March or April. So slow.
[00:27:23] Speaker E: Three years. It was my goal for my regenerative farming fellowship the first year. And we are now going out into our third year in April. 3 year. So it took me three years to get this high.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: It's not expedited for anything, right?
[00:27:35] Speaker E: So when you're saying it's like, that's how long it took. Because every year I was like, what's your goal for this year? A high tunnel. High tunnel.
[00:27:45] Speaker F: So it should be based on need and based how far you come. Basically, like they say, the strong should help the weak who need it the most should get it.
It should be on a human factor. It should be on the human factor. When you have someone that look at it and look at the exception to the rule, say, okay, because you've been held back and denied, they call it fast track you.
[00:28:18] Speaker E: Okay, that was a fast track.
[00:28:20] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:28:21] Speaker E: For BIPOC.
[00:28:22] Speaker F: And you have to also have an umbrella, hold a person hand, because they're always going to look and say, we're not going to allow you to fail. Okay. Once you have a system, once you have put in a system, that system would kind of take care of itself.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: And when it comes to farming, black farming specifically, what do you think is important for the public to know about black farming in Ohio specifically and how it's evolving? And also, what do Ohio citizens need to know to support black farmers in being successful in the future?
[00:29:03] Speaker F: 40% of Ohio land is prime farmland. 40%.
I am been here, and I'm very observant. And my background has been in dog shows in the sport period. Dog. So I've traveled all over America, rural America, city America, backyards. I've been in places that normally I wouldn't. That's my passport, so you name it. Lima, I've been Ohio. I've been sugar bush all over. I don't see no black farmers now in Suffolk, Virginia. My relatives are black farmers, successful. North Carolina, my uncles.
I'm talking about a farmer with a thousand acres. Okay? Ain't no black farmer with hundred thousand acres. And plus the machinery that you need now, these machines are million dollars. The gps they have on the gps cost you six figures.
When you talk about black farmers. Ohio, where we are sprinkled.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: That made me kind of cry when I realized the numbers. I'm going, well, what happened?
[00:30:18] Speaker F: So also, the thing is, they're pushing to not.
They're pushing for soybean, corn for ethanol.
We can't eat corn and soybean. That's for livestock and ethanol.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: It's just accessibility. It shouldn't know this big, huge research because Google don't come up with anything for black farmers. It's just what's up there.
[00:30:43] Speaker D: Yeah. And I guess one thing the people don't understand, I hear some people say in the back rooms, like, well, we live in a 2023, and everything is accessible to people. And usually it's people that don't look like us saying this type of thing, and they don't understand that what they have, not always, but a lot of times it's because of what their grandfather had or what their grandfather's grandfather had. And we don't have that history.
Or maybe it was taken because, like mama Amope, she tells a story of her land, her people had land. And it was like a midnight call. A farmer wanted to either buy his land or buy his crops, or. I can't remember the exact story, and she's not here. But when he refused, there was a call basically on his head, and they had to leave their land by night so that he wouldn't be murdered. And that is a common story. So the land being taken, we again have all purchased our land without the assistance of the grants and that type of thing.
[00:31:57] Speaker F: But it's also programming, like television programming, which our community is affected by programming. And what you want to be now, want to be a rapper? You want to be a football player, you want to be a basketball player. Those are the things that are imprinted.
[00:32:24] Speaker D: On children, or even a lawyer, doctor.
These things are also like when Rasheef was growing up, she was never taught that she could be a farmer.
[00:32:35] Speaker F: Yeah, but what I'm saying is, you make it attractive, okay? What I'm saying is imprinted on children. What is their vision, what is programmed. So if you don't imprint, be. It's hard, because all of my cousins, I got.
One of my cousins has nine cousins on the tobacco farm. And my uncle Burgess had a lot of land. Very successful. He was my hero. He was like the governor of the mayor. And all of my cousins, every one of them, they all have their college degree, and not one of them is farming.
I just visit. And the farm, the land is still there. They have been growing some pine trees.
My other uncle, my mother, older brother was farming. He ended up with Alzheimer. And when that happened, hit, all of a sudden, he got lost.
And his younger brother, they was in it together. So when he had this mental illness, they end up losing the farm.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: And then the science behind farming as well, that's not taught in the schools.
You have this indoor classroom or whatever, maybe a little bit, but it's not a regular subject to talk about as far as this gardening.
And when our babies don't even know what real food looks like, some of it, okay, this is not Barbie doll food. So as far as black farmers knowing the culture of, like, okay, you're engineers, we're scientists, period. Every year, we look at the soil, we look at the growth we're observing, so not giving that credibility to that intelligence. As far as farming, instead of just looking at the labor behind it, you're going to get that overshadow of. Okay, so black farmers. Okay, yeah, that's nice.
[00:34:53] Speaker F: But if we take, for example, like, if I may, it's a farmer, but he's a billionaire.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Bill Gates got a lot of land.
[00:35:06] Speaker F: When we make it. Now we have some football players. When we make it, it's all about imprinting. It's very important that you do what you see and what's entertaining. When we look at the way we dress, look at how that's telling you your programming, how you dress, how you wear your hair, that's programming. And farming is something like, not natural.
No, farming is natural.
[00:35:37] Speaker B: No. For our babies.
[00:35:39] Speaker F: Well, you have to put. But it's epigenetics. Okay.
Where they said, lord is my shepherd. I should. I want. He makes me lay down the green past. So I was born into it. I was born in it. Got to move around and be honest. I want to say this.
I got paid $5 a day for working on the farm all day. So this is in Virginia. Give you a little history.
All day. So we got 1 hour for 12:00. You got 1 hour. So at 5 hours a day for working and peanuts and corn. So when you plant peanut, you plant it so far apart, and you got a hole, and there's enough space that you got to go down a row, and you got to chop the weed. Everybody has a row, says the ten of you. You get a row. You get a row. We all start off, and you got to go down, and that's a weed. You chop it. Same thing with corn. So corn is spaced. Now, they space corn close together because of roundup. So that's $5 a day I got. So you figure. So $25, and then Tobacco. I got $30 a day. That's at 13. That's like 50 years ago.
That's big money.
So I would come back to New York, long Island, and I buy all my fancy clothes with this tobacco money.
Very few people have that experience. I mean, 5 hours a day.
And what was so beautiful about farming with the family?
You move at your own pace. Everybody love each other.
So when people says, like, slavery, normally with your family, you pull together, and you also teach you not to waste. You learn not to be wasteful.
[00:37:56] Speaker C: Speaking of pulling together and kind of coming together, how do you think local food systems and food networks can help with supporting black farmers more? And that idea of the community being.
[00:38:12] Speaker E: Able to help you go, we just came from a meeting.
[00:38:17] Speaker D: Yeah, we just came from a meeting where we were talking about collaboration with the six, eight, eight incubator kitchen space being built the hub.
So collaborations like that, collaborations with grant supported Ohio can or Ohio association of Food bank, that Ohio association of Food banks runs those type of collaborations. But also I feel know educating people all our, not just our state but all around the country, educating them about supporting the local food system and their local farmers so that we can have a resilient food system because at this point we can grow all the food that we want to. But if the consumer is trained in going to Kroger or Meyer or wherever they shop at, if that supply chain fails and we haven't had the support and we're telling these young farmers to come in and they come in and there's no support and then they leave, then now we have a system that continues to be broken and we have a problem also.
[00:39:33] Speaker F: We can focus on health as wealth, your food is nutrition and how we grow. So the point is understanding what food has certain nutrition. Okay. And how to balance it out. That's the fun part that you empowering yourself and it's about peace of mind and not about just chasing a dollar. It's about family.
It's about family, it's about love in which we get back, we're lost in this hyper and we feel like a tribe. Yeah.
And what I would like to see is like they have. People could have something about the potato fest. They had a strawberry fest, the sauerkraut fest, corn fest. What I would like to see a harvest fest where when we come, because I grew up in the south, in the summer you have abundance of vegetables and there's a way to preserve them for winter canning, that's fun.
You learn how to do it. If the community can have something like that where you go to your local gardener and you buy abundance at a good price and then you learn how to package it for the winter to get ahead. It has to be some type of way of getting ahead.
And the way you get ahead is you buy it in bulk and then you come to community and you process it together. And now you could use it into the next harvest because we grow clean.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I was just saying when you go to Kroger's, you have that label, or Myers, you have that label, that title of organic food. So we're not at this moment certified, but we use regenerative practices. We don't use miracle grow crack.
[00:41:43] Speaker E: Although we're not certified organic. And a lot of times that fruit is not cost efficient for people that we want to serve. By just because you certified me organic, that doesn't mean. What does that mean? Although I'm doing organic practices, so I don't need your certification. Once again, playing in my own field, developing my own field instead of someone else's.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: I'm a poultry farmer, so when I saw that compost out there, that gold, right? I'm like, oh, yeah, we do that. We do that. That's going to be in the field. You would give them back. We don't throw a whole lot of stuff away. We try to figure out a purpose to use that in our field.
I don't want to give everything away, but I'm just saying we don't use a whole lot of the chemicals and stuff. That's not our nature.
[00:42:30] Speaker E: Right.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: We don't do a whole lot of tilling because that just messes with your ecological system. And that's the first thing when I see cross the field, oh, my goodness, they're going to get that corn and it's all this mold and everything. That's like releasing the air. And I'm thinking allergies is one thing, but, you know, harvest season is serious in Ohio, and all of a sudden you got a whole nother aisle. Oh, you got allergies. Oh, because it's harvest season. This is on sale now because you have to adapt to your environment and.
[00:43:06] Speaker F: Organic, in my opinion, it should be cheaper, basically. It should be cheaper. No, it's not. Because they use that word like health food. Yeah, the health food is more. No.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Sells a lot of herbs and stuff for teas and stuff. We're so quick to pick up a dang on supplement from cvs and not look into the food.
[00:43:33] Speaker D: So I think it really goes back to the consumers in our state, in our cities, in our counties, in our villages, supporting farmers. So going to the farmers market, subscribing to csas and actually supporting the farmers, that's what we need is people to realize that if we want to have a resilient system, you have to support your local farmer.
[00:44:04] Speaker E: And the other thing is also, for me, I do a lot of outreach. So wherever you see me, I'm like, hey, I'm Sharifah. You're a like, so people can put a face to farming. And it's like, whether you buy something for me or not is not my point. My point is you buy something for one of us, I never care who, but it's sort of like just getting out there and just saying, I'm Sharifah, I'm your farmer. And I hand out cards all the time I have the little app on my phone now. And just like, just so people know, like, oh, wow, farming. Oh, you know, and then sometimes people like, I just got a call from Mississippi wanting to know about farming because she saw some article. And I'm just.
People are just to get that word out that we're here because I don't think that people know that we're here. And now, because we do have the black farming food and farming network. We do have our RFF, we do have our collective. We're starting to get known that people are starting to say, oh, there are black farmers in this area. There are Bipoc farmers here. And then that's another way of getting out there, too.
[00:45:07] Speaker F: If I may, piggyback. One way to start from a seed is to start out. If a person start out gardening, you start out gardening, and then it gets bigger and bigger. And this is where the children, this is where the children learn from gardening. It's a hands on. So it's important for me because we have farm, but you also have a garden, a small. So gardening is critical because that is the incubator. That's where the children go out and pick a tomato and see you plant and go out.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: They planted that tomato and they watched it grow. They watered it, and they observe it in that magic to see harvest. It's hands on teacher.
[00:45:57] Speaker E: So that's one of the things that Edgemont solar garden is doing this year. They're going out. I'm not sure if it's 100 backyard. It's 200 backyard gardens. So they're going to be helping people grow 200 backyard gardens in the Dayton area. Wow. And that, to me, is like, that's another way. So everybody doesn't have to be, like, farmer on this scale. It's just growing. And that's why I don't like, sometimes I like the word farmer because it does kind of describe, like, farming a lot of times, but growing, growing something in your yard, in your apartment, in your RV, I mean, wherever you live.
[00:46:34] Speaker F: Growing something, install out a garden. As you learn to be efficient, you got to learn, if you can't get this little space to grow, you ain't going to get no thousand acres of growth.
If you can't grow a quarter of an acre, forget about it. So you practice and then you say, I'm good at this. I'm good at growing tomatoes. I'm good at cucumbers. I'm good at summer squash. I'm good at this. And that's where people come specialized.
[00:47:10] Speaker E: Okay, so Chloe, another thing you were saying was, what do Ohio citizens need to support black farmers in being successful in the future? One of the things that I'm doing is that we have twelve acres. Two of them we're keeping for our children with our house. The other ten acres we're leaving in trust for BIpoc farmers to continue to farm. So that's another thing. And that's not just like.
Because a lot of people that have farms now, if they don't have children that want to farm, here goes. This lands, it goes to developers. So even if the person is not your relative, if they're a BIPOC farmer, support them. What do BIPOC farmers need?
[00:47:47] Speaker B: Land.
[00:47:47] Speaker E: I mean, that's the bottom line. They need land. So why not leave that land.
[00:47:56] Speaker F: That you have? What about the tax break? We're talking about property taxes now. That's going to take the pressure off your neck so you can grow faster.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I see that point.
[00:48:10] Speaker F: Then you can get more seeds, you can get more equipment, a lot of stuff. Okay? You can get some pay for help.
[00:48:17] Speaker D: There is a cavu tax that you can do farmers that you could.
[00:48:21] Speaker F: After three years.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:48:24] Speaker F: What I say now.
[00:48:29] Speaker E: I know you.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: Go today just thanking you all once again for your time and your commitment and your resiliency. These conversations aren't easy, but they hold a lot of weight, especially during a time in America where real and true black history is being silenced and stifled intentionally. You all are leading and doing such important and vital work for yourselves, your families, and the people and your communities. I want to end with you all telling us, in three words or less, what does the black farm symbol to you?
[00:48:58] Speaker D: I would say peace, joy, and unity.
[00:49:08] Speaker E: Nice.
[00:49:09] Speaker F: For me, it's love, family, and happiness.
And a good meal.
Because one thing, you work on a farm, you love to eat.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: Honestly, hope, the science. The science.
Science. Or innovation.
And legacy.
[00:49:38] Speaker E: Legacy.
[00:49:41] Speaker F: Ms. Sharifa?
[00:49:42] Speaker E: Freedom, liberation, unity.
[00:49:46] Speaker A: That was a good note to end on. I appreciate that.
[00:49:50] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:50:00] Speaker G: As we consider the challenges black and minority farmers face in America due to discriminatory practices and the lack of true reparations from the american government, it is important to continue to remember that black farmers can succeed, they can live on, and they can pass their knowledge down to future generations. Although the traditional farming landscape of this country has not accepted or supported black farmers in the way it needed to, it is time to look forward at what can be done now. Thank you to my co host, Hope. And thank you to each one of the powerful, thoughtful, and dedicated farmers next to me. Sharifah Tomlisson, Khalid Kareem, Christine Irby and Tia Stewart. Without you, this episode would not have been possible. Thank you for being here today and for sharing not only the challenges you face in being black and being a farmer in America, but for also addressing how black farmers are taking back spaces for themselves that they were told they didn't have a right to. It is essential to highlight not only the challenges faced by black Americans, but also the spaces in which black Americans are thriving despite every obstacle that stands in their way. Thank you to all of our listeners and supporters of just a byte without you, just a byte wouldn't be possible. For additional reading on this topic, or if you'd like to connect with our guests on social media, please take a look at the show notes. Happy Black History Month.
