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A Brief History of Discrimination against Black Farmers—Including by the USDA

The Equation

Following the formation of the USDA in 1862 and the abolishment of slavery in 1865, many formerly enslaved African Americans pursued independent farming. Such promises included “ 40 acres and a mule ,” the first unsuccessful systematic attempt at providing reparations. This was a losing battle for most of them.

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Black Earth: A Family’s Journey from Enslavement to Reclamation

Civil Eats

In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familys farm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown Family Farms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.

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Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2023

Civil Eats

We detailed how a Minneapolis neighborhood is working to turn a former Superfund site into a community-owned indoor urban farm and hub. The Organic Urban Farm Growing Healthy Food for One of Chicago’s Most Underserved Neighborhoods For two decades, the 1.5-acre

Food 124
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Urban Farms are a Lifeline for Food-Insecure Residents. Will New Jersey Finally Make Them Permanent?

Modern Farmer

In Montclair’s Third Ward is a tiny farm with big community value. In the summertime, Montclair Community Farms transforms its less-than-10,000-square-foot lot into a space with something for everyone: a garden education program for children, a job training site for teens, and a pop-up produce market for Essex County residents.

Food 97
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Meet the Arkansas Farmers Turning Sweet Potatoes into Spirits

Modern Farmer

Prime farmland, it attracted countless farmers, including the Black farmers seeking to fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the American Civil War. But Black farm ownership has dropped dramatically over the years, with just 1,500 estimated to remain in Arkansas today. But the process hasn’t always come easily.

Acre 95
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Transforming the Delta

Food Environment and Reporting Network

flatland of small, half-abandoned towns surrounded by large, mechanized farms. The farms mostly grow commoditiessoybeans, corn, cotton, and rice. The history of how this happenedhow one of the countrys most fertile farming regions became a knot of poverty, hunger, and racial injusticeis complicated and painful.

Acre 89
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Healing From the Past to Grow for the Future

Wisconsin Farmers Union

Martice Scales and Amy Kroll-Scales founded Full Circle Healing Farm in 2017, leaving stable career paths to start healing their community from the ground up. Full Circle Healing Farm is a two acre vegetable, herb, and flower farm in Mequon. I really started to farm because it’s an act of resistance.