Farm School NYC Advocacy Work
A 2017 USDA Census of Agriculture report shed light on an alarming trend: farmers who identify as BIPOC make up just 1.4% of the country’s 3.4 million agricultural producers. In New York State, only 0.5% of farms are operated or owned by Black farmers. Farm School NYC advocates for changes that help beginning farmers, especially BIPOC and LGBTQI+ farmers, thrive.
We are excited to share opportunities to engage in the near future. Please visit our engagement opportunities page to join in on the advocacy action! Read below for info on work we’ve done in the past.
This workshop hosted by Black Farmers United took place on Saturday, February 18th 2023. NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins sponsored the event. This NYSABPRHAL 2023 Legislative Conference workshop was designed to not only define the problems that have led to the extreme decline of Black farmers in New York State but also to look at the solutions—as identified by Black farmers and their advocates. Black Farmers Thriving workshop highlighted the opportunities available to Black farmers who grow sustenance and commodity crops. Black Farmers United and Farm School NYC share resources and provide support and encouragement to Black farmers.
The panelists were:
Onika Abraham, Executive Director of Farm School NYC
Charles Madlock, Urban Agriculture Consultant Golden Carat Farms
Julian Mangano, Owner/Operator Della Terra Farm
Alexis Mena, Co-Founder & Lead Farmer Universe City NYC &
Pamela James, Professor of Anthropology Houghton University
Geography 2050
Farm School NYC students attended The Future of Food Symposium. The Columbia Climate School hosted this conference. Geography2050 and the American Geographical Society funded 15 spaces so FSNYC community members could be present. They also connected students to resource networks beyond the conference. In discussing the Future of Food, it is imperative to highlight and create space for BIPOC. We appreciate the coordination and generosity of AGS and hope universities continue to invite FSNYC to similar events and provide support so our students can attend. Pictured to the right are some of the students who attended. They posed challenging questions and advocated for further representation at this conference and in the future.
BIPOC Leadership & Opportunity in Farming & Food Systems
In April 2022, Farm School NYC joined a panel hosted by State Senators Hinchey and Persaud at the New York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators 51st Annual Legislative Conference. The panel explored the historical and current challenges and opportunities facing Black, indigenous and other people of color communities in building power and sovereignty.
Panelists included:
Dr. Anu Rangarajan Director, Cornell Small Farms Program Assistant Director, Cornell Cooperative Extension
Onika Abraham Executive Director, Farm School NYC Steering Committee Member, Black Farmers United NYS
Wendy McClintonPresident & CEO, Black Veterans for Social Justice
Community Food Funders
On December 1st, CFF partnered with Engage New York and Neighborhood Funders Group to host an event titled, For Us, By Us Farm-Based Education: Land, Language, and Liberation. The session brought together three farm-based education programs in New York State that are all rooted in culture and community, and designed specifically to serve the population that its instructors and organization are representative of: the Akwesasne Mohawk community for Akwesasne Freedom School; low-income BIPOC communities for Farm School NYC; and the queer community for Rock Steady Farm.
Click here to read a recap and watch a recording.
TESTIMONy
Our organization offers testimony to urge legislators, funders and other groups to support BIPOC land stewardship and sovereignty. Below is a snippet of our most recent testimony and the others are linked to the right.
The work of dismantling racism in the food system is generational work, and it is work that no one farmer or organization can do in isolation.
Our core constituency are Black and brown beginning farmers and food justice advocates. Our students learn that we are facing are not food deserts, but food apartheid -- a term that doesn’t treat our marginalization as a naturally occurring ecosystem like a desert, grassland or forest, but like the structured, racialized, political, economic and social system that it is -- a system that we can work to interrogate and dismantle.
At Farm School NYC, our students learn that accessing fresh, affordable food is a human right, but access is just the beginning -- true justice is Black and brown communities owning the means of production.
Farm School NYC is a founding member of Black Farmers United NYS, and we are humbled to serve as the fiscal sponsor of the coalition. Black Farmers United NYS is a collective of Black farmers, educators, and food justice advocates from across this state who developed 9 Solutions for Racial Inequity in New York Agriculture.
These solutions underscore how essential education, training, technical assistance and support are to supporting existing Black farmers and the scores of young and beginning Black farmers who are called to the profession.
Black Farmers United NYS provides full scholarships to all Black students pursuing agricultural degrees, and creates programs at these institutions with experienced Black farmers teaching new Black farmers on their farms with salaries and scholarships provided by the University.