Bioneers 2003

The Restorative Development Initiative partnering with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives

There is a tradition of African-American farming in the rural Southeast that extends back to slavery. The legacy of black-owned land has its origins in the slave land grant at the end of the Civil War. In the early 1900’s, Black farmers numbered almost one million. Today, those numbers have dwindled to approximately 18,000, with fewer than 175 under the age of 60. Factors exacerbating the decline have been: U.S. farm policy favoring large-scale agriculture, institutionalized discrimination, and a lack of information, technical training, resources and access to alternative markets. The United States Department of Agriculture frequently discriminated against Black farmers applying for farm loans. In the 1980’s, the Reagan administration shut down the civil rights complaint division of the U.S.D.A, but failed to notify the public. Complaints about discrimination were never even looked at and were merely stored in a warehouse in Washington, D.C. This discrimination became the basis for a class action lawsuit by Black farmers against the U.S.D.A. The lawsuit was filed by J.L. Chestnut, the first Black attorney in Selma, Alabama, civil rights activist and colleague of Martin Luther King. The class action suit has resulted in the largest civil rights judgment in the history of the United States.

The Restorative Development Initiative, in an effort to address some of the non legal aspects of the decline of Black land ownership and to support small family farmers, has for the past two years been working with Federation of Southern Cooperative growers, developing a training program in herb production, and organic agricultural.

The Herb Project
RDI has provided instruction and technical assistance to Federation farmers in medicinal herb cultivation, product standards, and market access. Initially, RDI chose to introduce medicinal herbs to Federation growers for two primary reasons. Medicinal herbs enable farmers to diversify their crops and increase their access to new markets. At that time, the national market for medicinal herbs was skyrocketing, experiencing a 20% growth rate annually. Since then, the market has flattened to some degree, driving down prices to growers, although the long-term trend remains robust. As a result, RDI has expanded the scope of the project to address local and regional markets.

At the local community level, medicinal herbs are under-utilized by rural Black people in the Southeast due to the lack of information and product availability. Historically, there was a rural, Black, herbal tradition that has been lost, for the most part, when people and information migrated to the North. Slave practices, including an understanding and use of native medicinal herbs, were frowned upon as inferior and archaic.

In 2000, RDI secured a grant for the herb project from The Foundation of the Mid South. With this additional funding, Federation growers have been sponsored to RDI produced training sessions on herb cultivation, medicinal herb use, organic farming techniques, and marketing. Leading the workshops were some of the foremost herb experts in the country. In 1998 and 1999, RDI held two workshops at Elixir Farm Botanicals, a twenty-year-old Biodynamic herb farm in Missouri. Presenters were Steven Foster, renowned author of twenty-one books on herbs, and Vinnie McKinny, Elixir farm manager and herb plant researcher for over twenty years. RDI also sponsored Federation growers to an herb workshop in the Fall of 2000, at Taylor Maid Herb Farm in Sonoma, California, where Steven Foster and Richo Cech, owner of Horizon Herb Seed Company, provided two days of intensive instruction.

RDI has extended the necessary technical assistance at each stage of the project. The project has partnered with the research farm staff of Frontier Herb Co-op in Iowa, the largest seller of medicinal herbs in the United States. The Frontier staff visited farms in Mississippi for training sessions, and also hosted Federation growers at training sessions and farm tours in Iowa. On-site technical assistance is currently being provided by Gabriel Howearth. Howearth, who co-founded Seeds of Change with Kenny Ausubel, has consulted for the American Botanical Council, and is the founder and director of Siempre Semillas which works with local farmers in organic agriculture in Baja, Mexico. His expertise in herb cultivation and organic farming is extensive and based on more than twenty years of experience throughout North America.

Organic Farming Project
Although the organic food industry is growing at almost 20% annually, rural African-American farmers in the Southeast are not participating in that economic opportunity. In Alabama and Mississippi there are no organic certifying agencies and only a handful of commercial organic farms. The training, resources, and access to markets have not been available.

The Organic Farming Project is designed to restore the roots of a locally based organic food system founded in community. The Project hopes to create a community of "Lighthouse Growers," local experts who in turn become teachers and provide working models. One important asset of these communities is their already existing close community ties and their existing cooperative structures.
RDI is collaborating with the Federation to design a comprehensive training program to teach Federation farmers how to transition into organic agriculture and value-added biodiverse crops.

Reverend Charleston’s farm
In April 2000, RDI project director Arty Mangan and Gabriel Howearth made one of their regular visits to Mississippi and Alabama. One stop was to Reverend Elister Charleston’s farm in Sumpter County in central Alabama. Seedling flats of thyme, lemon grass, mint, marjoram, chamomile, and hyssop were transplanted into the Reverend’s sandy loam soil. The Reverend, a spiritual man, who leads a congregation each Sunday at one of his two nearby churches, remarked that in the Bible, Gabriel is God’s messenger. It seemed an appropriate comment referring to Howearth, who has worked his life to spread the word of biodiversity. Gabriel gave the Reverend a book called "Plants of the Bible" and we read some passages that made reference to some of the herbs we had just planted. The Bible states, for example, that it was the hyssop plant that was used to mark the doorways of those who the Angel of death was to pass over.

Organic Farming in the Blackbelt
RDI co-produced, with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the "Organic Farming in the Blackbelt" workshop at the Federation’s training center at Epes, Alabama. Gabriel Howearth and Johnnie Stubbs shared their knowledge and experience with the group of Federation members. Johnnie Stubs is an African American Farmer from Augusta, Georgia, who had farmed organically for fifteen years. Those attending are involved in a variety of agricultural activities: community garden projects in Atlanta and Mississippi, larger conventional farming, looking for land to start organic farming operations, etc.

Gabriel, in his presentation, made a point to highlight the heritage of African crops in American cuisine: okra, watermelon, sweet potato, sorghum and others. A broad range of topics and hands-on activities were part of the program: composting, making raised beds, seed planting in flats and in the ground, transplanting herb seedlings, soil testing, cover cropping, and biodiversity. As part of the wrap up on Sunday morning, there was a visioning session. People shared their ideas on design of future trainings and the implementation of organic farming in the Southeast. One of the cultural challenges that was brought up, is the present day disdain by some Black people for working the land because of it’s association with the oppression of slavery or the feeling that it is backwards. Issues that surfaced were: how to bring back the sense of agricultural heritage among African Americans, how to make the connection from agrarian culture to modern culture, and further how do you "indigenize" the information. Outcomes from the visioning session were very positive. It was acknowledged that, in fact, this workshop was the beginning of the development of leadership for the organic agriculture within the Federation.

It was agreed that this group would explore creating the first organic co-op within the Federation. People would attend Cooperative development training offered by the Federation, and would meet on a regular basis around natural cycles like Solstice and Equinox. The group would organize an organic banquet that was supplied by the gardens and farms of its members, and exchange seeds.