Are you looking to learn more about organic farming, urban gardening, food justice or climate change? Then look to leaders from BIPOC communities – who pioneered farming methods that respect and care for the land long before industrial agriculture.
Today, due to systemic racism and discriminatory practices, less than 2% of America’s farmers are black. But despite incredible barriers, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) farmers, environmentalists and activists are leading the way to food sovereignty and regenerative agriculture.
Rodale Institute has compiled a list of Farmer/Grower Instagram accounts you can follow today to learn from today’s food and farming leaders and to support their work.
1. Black Girls With Gardens @blackgirlswithgardens
Black Girls With Gardens is an online community focused on supporting women of colour in growing and maintaining gardens, as well as connecting to a shared ancestry rooted in the environment. Not only a resource for gardening, BGWG (http://www.blackgirlswithgardens.com) is committed to increasing representation in the gardening community and providing resources for women of colour to thrive alongside their plants.
2. Sankofa Farms @sankofafarms
Focusing on food desert communities, Sankofa Farms (https://www.sankofafarmsllc.com) describes itself as a “multifaceted agricultural entity,” serving as a sustainable source of food in Durham and Orange County, North Carolina. Their Instagram includes videos detailing the process of setting up irrigation, updates from their educational apiary, and so much more.
3. Sundance Harvest Farm @sundanceharvest
An organic fruit and vegetable farm located in Toronto, Ontario, Sundance Harvest (https://www.sundanceharvestfarm.com) is owned and operated by Cheyenne Sundance, a self-taught farmer who has made it her life’s work to advocate on behalf of food and community justice in Ontario. In addition to growing food, Sundance Harvest provides educational opportunities like a full-season urban agriculture program and seasonal workshops. Follow Sundance Harvest on Instagram to learn tips and tricks about growing organic food, as well as education about the Black roots of many foods, like collard greens.
4. Black Futures Farm @blackfuturesfarm
A community farm in Portland, Oregon, Black Futures Farm (https://blackfutures.farm) is run by self-described “Black identified/Diasporic and Continental African people.” A project of the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, an organisation focused on stabilising food systems for BIPOC people in the Northwest, Black Futures Farms operates a sold-out vegetable CSA grown using organic practices. 
5. Rock Steady Farm @rocksteadyfarm
Rock Steady Farm (https://www.rocksteadyfarm.com) is a women and queer-owned cooperative CSA farm located in Millerton, New York. Growing sustainable vegetables and cut flowers, Rock Steady Farm also supplies floral designers, restaurants, social justice nonprofits, and other groups throughout the Hudson Valley. As part of their social justice mission, the farm strives to provide a living wage for all employees and increase equity in the food system.
6. Golden Organic Farm @goldenorganicfarm
Owned and operated by farmer and motivational speaker Kendrick Ransome, Golden Organic Farm (https://www.facebook.com/GoldenOrganicFarmLLC) is located in Pinetops, North Carolina and offers an organic vegetable CSA. Follow them on Instagram to learn more about the farm’s partnership with Down East Partnership for Children, delivering fresh fruits and vegetables to childcare centers in their region.
7. Melony Edwards @melbelle206 and @ebony.by.nature
A first-generation farmer and owner of Ebony By Nature, Melony Edwards started her journey into food in culinary school and the hospitality industry. After struggling to find opportunities to enter the farming industry as a woman of colour, Melony started working as Farm Manager on a 20-acre mixed vegetable farm in Washington state. She is now focusing her passion for seed-saving and fibre arts into her newly launched business.
8. Amber Tamm @ambertamm
Amber Tamm (http://www.ambertamm.com) is an urban farmer and gardener as well as a horticulturalist and florist. Amber came to farming following significant trauma in her life and realized the healing power of the earth. She now dedicates her efforts to connecting communities of colour with the earth and careers in farming and other earth-based professions.
9. Timothy Hammond @bigcitygardener
Timothy Hammond (https://www.bigcitygardener.com) is a gardener based out of Houston, Texas. Timothy’s Instagram page is filled with nearly 900 posts of tips and tricks covering gardening techniques, healthy eating, recipes, and much more. He also has a blog of the same name that is dedicated to providing answers for gardeners of all levels.
10. Leah Penniman, Soul Fire Farm @leahpenniman & @soulfirefarm
Author of “Farming While Black,” Leah Penniman is the Co-Director and Farm Manager of Soul Fire Farm (https://www.soulfirefarm.org) in Petersburg, NY. According to their website, Soul Fire Farm is “a BIPOC-centered community farm committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. We raise and distribute life-giving food as a means to end food apartheid.
With deep reverence for the land and wisdom of our ancestors, we work to reclaim our collective right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system. We bring diverse communities together on this healing land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health, and environmental justice. We are training the next generation of activist-farmers and strengthening the movements for food sovereignty and community self-determination.”
Leah Penniman has spoken and written about food sovereignty extensively around the country and continues to be a leading voice in the movement.
11. Oko Farms @okofarms
Oko Urban Farms, popularly known as Oko Farms (https://www.okofarms.org), is an Aquaponics Farm and Education Company in Brooklyn, New York. The first farm was built in 2013 when they converted an abandoned lot in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn into the Oko Farms Aquaponics Education center – NYC’s first outdoor (and only publicly accessible) aquatic farm.
The farm, located on Moore Street, cultivates a variety of freshwater fish and vegetables together in a closed-loop recirculating ecosystem known as Aquaponics. The farm utilises aquaponics because it allows to cultivate both freshwater fish and vegetables while saving water. The Moore Street farm was developed through a collaboration between Oko Farms, GreenThumb and the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation (BEDC).
12. Native Praxis @root.life
Native Praxis is the founder of Root Life (https://www.rootlife.org) , an urban farm and eco-friendly business in New Haven, Connecticut. Root Life is not only committed to offering organic products to the community (like organic and vegan hair and body butters), but also offers a variety of services to build an organic food system in New Haven. Services provided by Root Life include consultations on gardening, edible landscaping, workshops, and youth projects.
13. Karen Washington and Rise & Root Farm @riseandrootfarm
A community activist in New York City, Karen Washington began Rise & Root Farm 9 https://www.riseandrootfarm.com) in Orange County, NY to fight for justice and equity in a local food economy. Women-owned, the farm has worked with urban and community gardens in NYC as well as a variety of food-based nonprofits. Karen is a prominent advocate of food justice, garden protection, and is the co-found of Black Urban Growers. In 2012, she was named one of Ebony Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential African Americans in the country.
Source: https://rodaleinstitute.org/
