The Color of Food: How Gardens and Farms Can Help Us Heal From a History of Racism

When we work together, share meals together, and laugh together, we’re repairing relationships with the soil as a community.
Reposted from Yes Magazine

By Natasha Bowens

November 3, 2015

When I first decided I wanted to farm, it was because I wanted to find a way of growing food that worked with the earth instead of against it. I wanted to grow food that would rejuvenate my body instead of slowing it down. Like so many others, I was looking for answers in the “good food” movement sweeping the nation. I thought that to be a good steward, all I had to do was follow sustainable agricultural practices and grow healthy food. Now, after six years and stepping foot on more than 75 farms for The Color of Food, I’ve learned that I was missing the point completely.

Sitting at the table with so many farmers doing revolutionary work taught me that farming isn’t only about stewarding the land; it’s also about stewarding community and tending the soul. The land beneath our feet carries our history and carries freedom. It is healing and empowering and can be a commons that binds us together. My history traces back to the moment my ancestors’ shackled feet hit this soil, when the African farmer became the American slave. Today, continued racism makes healing crucial. In our gardening plots and on our farms, we can reclaim a connection with the land that was there long before the oppression. We can liberate ourselves by having sovereignty over our square of soil, over our food, and over our bodies.

Read the full article on Yes Magazine at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-debt-issue/the-color-of-food-how-gardens-and-farms-can-help-us-heal-from-a-history-of-racism-20151103