TO FREE OURSELVES WE MUST FEED OURSELVES

Statement from Juneteenth Broadcast Presenters

In 1965, James Baldwin wrote to his nephew: “The country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon.” In the 55 years since, as anyone with eyes can see from the storm which continues to rage about our heads, very little has changed. We continue on a steady, centuries-long course, of systemic exploitation.

The U.S. Industrial food system is a direct descendant of the agriculture-based plantation system. It was built on land stolen from Native Americans, forcibly labored by enslaved Africans, and protected by a legal system designed and evolved to privilege land ownership and citizenship to white people.

Over the last hundred years, Black farmers have lost over 90% of their farmland. They have faced and continue to face formidable odds, from covert denial of financing and legal resources to overt land theft. And yet, Black farming in the U.S. persists and continues to grow food to nourish our communities despite the systems constructed to destabilize them.

How do we create a clear alternative to the current “conventional” industrial agriculture model? In order to decompose the existing “conventional” system based in land theft, enslavement, and white supremacy, we must build and adopt a new one. One that regenerates as much…