How Soul Fire Farm Brings Social Justice To American Agriculture
In 2010, Leah Penniman co-founded Soul Fire Farm on an 80-acre plot in Petersburg, New York, with a three-tenet mission: create equity in land ownership, reverse the damage caused by industrial agriculture, and distribute fresh produce to people living under food apartheid. The farm is run by Afro-Indigenous people using ancient farming techniques, and equipped aspiring Black and Brown farmers to do the same. The ultimate goal is to ensure that by 2050 Black farmers own “100,000 farms on 10 million acres of rural and urban land.” Here, Penniman expands on the principles that guide Soul Fire Farm and explains why racial equity in agriculture is possible, and necessary. As told to Assistant Food and Drink Editor Elisabeth Sherman.