Remove Acre Remove Production Remove Sharecropping
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A Brief History of Discrimination against Black Farmers—Including by the USDA

The Equation

Such promises included “ 40 acres and a mule ,” the first unsuccessful systematic attempt at providing reparations. The Southern Homestead Act was enacted to redistribute 46 million acres of land to formerly enslaved people. The failure of this act likely played a role in paving the way for sharecropping and tenant farming.

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

Civil Eats

Patrick Brown, who was named North Carolinas Small Farmer of the Year by North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University this year, grows almost 200 acres of industrial hemp for both oil and fiber, and 11 acres and several greenhouses of vegetablesbeets, kale, radishes, peppers, okra, and bok choy.

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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. It’s still run by the family today, now growing 100 acres of mostly sweet potatoes, the warm-climate vegetable that is an important staple in African American foodways.

Acre 93
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Transforming the Delta

Food Environment and Reporting Network

If we took 5 percent of the acres and diverted them into almost anything that wasnt a commodity, its literally an additional $2.5 Over the next two decades, tractors, mechanical harvesters, and chemical herbicides made sharecropping obsoleteyou no longer needed much labor to farm cotton or grains. today it is less than 2 percent.

Acre 85
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Our Best Food Justice Stories of 2023

Civil Eats

We are committed to elevating the voices of people who produce our food, as well as those who are affected by its production. acre Growing Home farm grew fresh produce for restaurants and surrounding communities. Here is our best food justice reporting this year.

Food 93
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Urban Farms are a Lifeline for Food-Insecure Residents. Will New Jersey Finally Make Them Permanent?

Modern Farmer

It’s really developed into something really beautiful and productive and community-oriented.” Because she doesn’t have at least five acres, her application to join the federal Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program – which would have enabled her to accept food vouchers from low-income seniors – was denied four times.

Food 95
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The Future of Resilient Agricultural Communities in California Is Alive in Allensworth

The Equation

Over the next 15 years, California will have to repurpose about 1 million acres of cropland, most of it out of the 5.5 million irrigated acres in the San Joaquin Valley. In the case of Allensworth, the town is surrounded by hundreds of acres of pistachios that belong to a trillion-dollar insurance company.