Want to See Food and Land Justice for Black Americans? Support These Groups. | Civil Eats

Want to See Food and Land Justice for Black Americans? Support These Groups.

Food justice is racial justice. As the nation rises up to protest atrocities against Black people, here are some organizations working to advance Black food sovereignty.

Protestors march in Philadelphia on June 1, in the aftermath of widespread unrest following the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others.

Food justice is racial justice. Food and agriculture, like everything in this country, are deeply intertwined with our nation’s entrenched history of slavery and structural racism. Our food system actively silences, marginalizes, and disproportionately impacts people of color, who are also being hardest hit by COVID-19.

As Americans rise up to respond to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, and to the ongoing violence, suppression, and brutality facing the Black community, we hope this list of organizations working to strengthen food justice, land access, and food access in the Black community will inform, inspire, and energize you to show up for racial justice.

If you have suggestions for other local, regional, or national groups working on Black food and land justice, please post them in the comments below.

Black Belt Justice Center helps African American farmers and landowners in the South’s Black Belt region retain land, establish sustainable land-based cooperatives and enterprises, and expand community wealth. Read more.

Black Church Food Security Network works to connect Black communities and other urban communities of color with Black farmers in hopes of advancing food and land sovereignty. Read more.

Black Dirt Farm Collective is a collective of Black farmers, educators, scientists, agrarians, seed keepers, organizers, and researchers guiding a political education process.

Black Urban Gardeners and Farmers Cooperative of Pittsburgh works with Black communities in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to grow food and to share Black cultural traditions through a farm, youth program, and policy work. Read more.

Black Urban Growers (BUGS) is committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. Through education and advocacy around food and farm issues, it nurtures collective Black leadership.

Castanea Fellowship offers a two-year fellowship for diverse leaders working for a racially just food system in any of the areas of health, environment, agriculture, regional economies, or community development. Read more.

Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive (CoFED) is a queer and transgender people of color-led organization that partners with young folks of color to build food and land co-ops.

Detroit Black Community Food Security Network ensures that Detroit’s African American population participates in the food movement through urban farming, youth education programs and the much-anticipated Detroit People’s Food Co-op. Read more.

Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (FARMS) is a legal nonprofit, committed to assisting Black farmers and landowners in retaining their land for the next generation. Read more.

Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund is a non-profit cooperative association of Black farmers, landowners, and cooperatives, with a primary membership base in the Southern States. Read more.

Food Chain Workers Alliance is a coalition of worker-based organizations whose members plant, harvest, process, pack, transport, prepare, serve, and sell food, organizing to improve wages and working conditions for all workers along the food chain. Read more.

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Food First works to end the injustices that cause hunger through research, education, and action.

Freedom School Demonstration Farm runs a Fresno, California-based program aimed at empowering Black and brown youth to grow their own food. Read more.

HEAL Food Alliance brings together groups from various sectors of movements for food and farm justice to grow community power, develop political leadership, and exposing and limiting corporate control of the food system. Read more.

The Land Loss Prevention Project responds to the unprecedented losses of Black-owned land in North Carolina by providing comprehensive legal services and technical support to financially distressed and limited resource farmers and landowners. Read more.

The National Black Farmers Association is a non-profit organization representing African American farmers and their families in the United States.

National Black Food and Justice Alliance organizes for Black food and land, by increasing the visibility of visionary Black leadership, advancing Black people’s struggle for just and sustainable communities, and building power in our food systems and land stewardship. Read more.

New Communities Land Trust is a grassroots organization that has worked for more than 40 years to empower African American families in Southwest Georgia and advocate for social justice. Read more.

The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust advance land sovereignty in the Northeast through permanent and secure land tenure for Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian farmers and land stewards.

Restaurant Opportunities Centers United is fighting to improve wages and working conditions for the nation’s restaurant workforce. Read more.

Sankofa Farms seeks create a sustainable food source for minorities in both rural and urban areas located in Durham and Orange County, North Carolina.

The Seeding Power Fellowship is an innovative 18-month, cohort-based food justice fellowship program. Read more.

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Soil Generation is a Philadelphia-based Black- and Brown-led coalition of growers building a grassroots movement through urban farming, agroecology, community education, and more. Read more.

Soul Fire Farm is a Black, Indigenous, and people of color-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. Read more.

Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network is a regional network for Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage land, grow food, and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet. Read more.

Urban Tilth is a community-based urban agriculture organization in Richmond, California, that takes vacant public land and transforms it into vibrant, living spaces. Read more.

Want more? Read our ongoing coverage of the many worthwhile efforts to expose and address structural inequities in the food system.

Top photo: Protestors march in Philadelphia on June 1, in the aftermath of widespread unrest following the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others.

Since 2009, the Civil Eats editorial team has published award-winning and groundbreaking news and commentary about the American food system, and worked to make complicated, underreported stories—on climate change, the environment, social justice, animal welfare, policy, health, nutrition, and the farm bill— more accessible to a mainstream audience. Read more >

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  1. Emily Schromm
    Thank you for putting this list together, and THANK YOU to each organization and the work that they do. Will share far and wide.

    Em
  2. Janet
    Canadian too please
  3. Eve
    Divine natural ancestery (DNA) in minneapolis should be on this list as well.
  4. Hello,

    I am the founder of a community garden in Salisbury, Maryland. We are behind the Charles H. Chipman Foundation Building. I would love to connect my mission with yours somehow.

    Thank you,
    Nicole
  5. Hillary
    Hello:

    Thanks for compiling this list. I hope there is a way to add others as folks find out about this article/list and want to make sure the resources listed are even more robust.

    A Black-led organization in our area (PNW) that is doing food and land justice work is Black Food Sovereignty Coalition (BFSC)

    https://blackfoodnw.org/about-bfsc/

    Thanks!
  6. claire
    Gardening the Community in Springfield, Mass would be a good addition to this list: http://www.gardeningthecommunity.org/
  7. Like Land Loss Prevention Project and others, the Center for Heirs Property is doing important work on a critical issue for Black farmers and landowners:
    https://www.heirsproperty.org/

    As background, see this excellent ProPublica investigative piece. https://features.propublica.org/black-land-loss/heirs-property-rights-why-black-families-lose-land-south/
  8. Alicia
    Thank you for this list! Here are 3 hyper community-based, food justice initiatives in Richmond, CA:

    Happy Lot Farm & Garden
    www.facebook.com/HappyLotFarmAndGarden

    Urban Tilth
    www.urbantilth.org

    Ecovillage Farm
    http://ecovillagefarm.org
  9. David Wallinga
    Would love to see you do the same for Indigenous groups working on food issues, to cover two of the legs of the BIPOC stool.
  10. Sustainable Communities Network
    Lexington/Richmond Kentucky
    ,
  11. Marta Bisconi
    Non black participants welcomed?
  12. Land justice project in Richmond Virginia
  13. Pam Young
    I am an average American citizen who is concerned about a lack of healthy food available in neighborhoods where grocers do not want to set up shop for a plethora of reasons. I would be happy to contribute to help this cause, but to me, BLM is a very separate political organization affiliated with blind violence. To paste that organizations' banner on your page does not do anything to help the world. Just sayin.
  14. We are a multi-racial non-profit that grows and manufactures a number of cottage industry products. we would love to get more urban gardening growing in Fort Lauderdale. We have access to some vacant land and are currently doing permaculture installations. Our goal is to reduce the hostility in our community by growing together. Urban gardening is a great way to create a dialogue between people of all cultures. Anyone that has suggestions for us, please get in contact!

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