This episode of The Laura Flanders show highlights the nonprofit Soul Fire Farm, an organization committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. Soul Fire provides farm education to people of color, with a special focus on African-American and Latino youth from urban areas. The program attracts young people from New York to California and includes farm immersion programs, apprenticeships, and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
Soul Fire is located in rural southern Albany, New York, an area classified as a food desert by the USDA.
Soul Fire farmers teach more than just farming. Their programs also look at the history of farming in African-American and Latino communities and the origins of racial inequality in the food system. Leah Penniman, a farmer and educator at Soul Fire, refers to it as a “food apartheid” because of the historical displacement of African Americans from their land and, therefore, their traditional farming practices. Penniman hopes this type of deep historical understanding will empower young people of color to be leaders in their communities and reclaim their right to have agency in America’s food system.