Farming While Black
April 9th 2019. 18:00 to 21:00FoodShare is hosting a gathering with Author Leah Penniman, Soul Fire Farm's Founding Co-Director & Program Manager. Leah Penniman will be discussing her book, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation of the Land.
The event is prioritizing people who self-identify as Black; African, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, Afro-Indigenous, Scotian, African-Canadian, African-American, and all other African diasporic communities, or people of African/Black ancestry
A light vegan and vegetarian dinner will be provided!
For details on accessibility please visit: https://foodshare.net/accessibility/
If you have further questions relating to accessibility please call us at 416-457-5315
Parking: limited free on-site and street parking
By TTC? Bus 71B from Runnymede station will drop you off right at 120 Industry St in 20 minutes.
More About the book Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation of the Land
Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices have roots in African wisdom. Yet, discrimination and violence against African-American farmers have led to their decline from 14 percent of all growers in 1920 to less than 2 percent today, with a corresponding loss of over 14 million acres of land. Further, Black communities suffer disproportionately from illnesses related to lack of access to fresh food and healthy natural ecosystems. Soul Fire Farm, co-founded by author, activist, and farmer Leah Penniman, is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system. Through innovative programs such as the Black-Latinx Farmers Immersion, a sliding-scale farm share CSA, and Youth Food Justice leadership training, Penniman is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of color, restore Afro-indigenous farming practices, and end food apartheid.
About Leah Penniman
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer who has been tending the soil for twenty years and organizing for an anti-racist food system for fifteen years. She began with the Food Project in Boston, Massachusetts, and went on to work at Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts, and Many Hands Organic Farm in Barre, Massachusetts. She co-founded Youth Grow urban farm in Worcester, Massachusetts. She currently serves as founding co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a people-of-color led project that works to dismantle racism in the food system through a low cost fresh food delivery service for people living under food apartheid, training programs for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous aspiring farmer-activists, Uprooting Racism training for food justice leaders, and regional-national-international coalition building between farmers of color advocating for policy shifts and reparations. She has dedicated her life’s work to racial justice in the food system and has been recognized by the Soros Equality Fellowship, NYSHealth Emerging Innovator Awards, The Andrew Goodman Foundation Hidden Heroes Award, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Program, New Tech Network National Teaching Award, Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching (New York finalist), among others. She has contributed to two published volumes, authored numerous online articles, and given dozens of public talks on the subject.