I’m just a girl who wanted to farm; to have my hands in the soil; to give back to the land; and to learn the skills of sustaining myself with the basics of our environment. That desire is leading me on a journey far greater than I could have expected. It’s connected the dots between our disconnection with the Earth, with one another, and with our health. Food and farming has revealed itself to me as a foundation for much of the world’s injustice; yet a powerful foundation for building community and inspiring peace. It’s even led me on a path of self-discovery and a connection to my roots. Brown. Girl. Farming. is a place where I write, photograph, farm and dream of ways to empower young brown folk like me.
Welcome.
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come to california! i’m sure you have heard of people’s grocery in west oakland right? and i work for a farm called pie ranch where our focus is education, social justice and regional advocacy. i work with youth of color educating about food justice and i’m a brown girl too! check us out at http://www.pieranch.org. many blessings on your journey! -peace, mary ann
yes I have heard of People’s Grocery! And in fact I had planned on coming to Oakland and working with City Slicker Farms, but plans changed and I may have to postpone my trip out there, but would love to come meet you at pie ranch when I do!
How can I get in touch with you? I founded and run a food justice organization for youth in MDC. We work in District 5 to train youth as food justice activists who gain job skills through partnerships with farmers’ markets and urban farms.
So, I am not alone! I’m a nutrition-educator-in-training studying at Columbia and am deeply interested in connecting brown farmers to brown communities as a tool for economic development and food parity. I plan to work more in organizing and raising the profile of brown folks interested in these issues this summer–when I have a break. When are you back in New York? I’d love to be in touch. All the best! Jaime
Jaime, that’s fantastic. I’ll send you an email now so we can connect!
I live in Harlem NYC with a pretty good-sized backyard that I’m eager to make productive for the community. Would appreciate an opportunity to chat and swap resources. Hit me up when you have a chance.
Looking forward to speaking further and continued reading of your blog.
Best!
Hello!
How can I get in touch with you to learn more about this project?
Thanks!
-Gabriela
Greetings, It’s so nice to find your blog:). My husband and I are new farmers (1 year now) in the Bay area, Ca. We are having so much fun meeting young farmers but feeling super frustrated at the lack of brown people/diversity. At some point we would love to start some sort of an alliance for people of color farming, or if there is already one out there, join it! If you come out to Cali, please look us up and check our our blog, http://www.soulflowerfarm@blogspot.com.
Wonderful to know there are kindred spirits out there!!!
Maya, I am so sorry I missed this earlier comment, the season is taking a toll on my time! I am so happy to hear of you and your husband’s new farm ventures. I make it out to CA from time to time to visit family, so we will definitely have to connect next time I’m out there. As for the alliance for people of color farming, I had the same thought when I began farming and farm hopping/writing about farmers of color, so I have started The Color of Food, an initiative to raise the voices of farmers of color – and that includes a network directory/map so we can all find each other and stay connected! Check it out and please join!!! http://thecolorofood.org. So glad to connect sister soul farmer<3
Good evening. You spoke at the Campus Progress National Conference a few days ago in DC. I attended the conference (in addition to speaking in the morning plenary) and I am very inspired by what you are doing. Keep up the great work!! Continue to stand out and make a difference. — Kiara Lee
Kiara, thank you so much, that means a lot!
Hello, I am actually watching you on CSPAN so I thought I’d check out your blog. I have a friend who is very interested in rooftop farming in Atlanta. I keep telling her about all of the opportunities that exist for what she’s interested in doing. Hopefully she will achieve her goal just as you have! Just want to tell you how inspiring you and the panel were today! I’m actually going to law school next spring (lol), but maybe I’ll think a little harder about that now.
Thanks!
Shalece
That’s great! Glad you caught the panel and great to hear about your friend in Atlanta, tell her its possible, but if there is some abandoned patch of dirt somewhere not to forget about that land below before going to the roof! 🙂 thanks and good luck in law school an other future ventures!
Hi Natasha. I just saw`you on cspan. Inspiring. I am upstarting an ice cream business in east harlem. I am very much interested in the localvore mvement and am using locally grown produce when available. Do you sell in the nyc area?
Thanks
Walter – KINGLeche Cremes. kingleche@gmail.com
That’s great! We should connect, ill shoot you an email.
Well done sis. Give thanks for the connection. this is me http://www.gebsite.com. Lets grow!
hello–I found you through the color of food series and just wanted to say thank you for your writing and including lots of resources in your posts. it has been really helpful for me, someone who loves organic farming but wants to find more radical farming possibilities, and in general I think you (and all the people you work with etc and the radical food movement too and so on!) are doing really awesome work, especially with sharing the stories of brown farmers. it is so necessary and good and you ask great questions. best of luck to you and thank you for being a real inspiration to me!
-tess
Tess, thanks for your kind words – be sure to check out http://thecolorofood.org for more resources – a directory of brown farmers!
Good job here. I would love to read your entire blog, but ironically the “color” of your background makes it very hard to do. Would you consider a different shade rather than the dark gray? Maybe I’m getting old or my eyes are bad, but I’m really straining to read it. Thanks!
hello! for a while now, my own experiences of being a brown farmer and feeling a little isolated have made me want to do a project that sought out other black farmers and recognized our deep history with agriculture. while doing some research as to what was already being done in this subject, i stumbled across your wonderful blog! i’m a southeast dc resident whose been working in urban agriculture for the past year. unfortunately, most of these projects take place in nw, but i hope of starting a project that will make a worthwhile impact in the east of the river community. thank you for being an inspiring force in real life with the community you work with and on the blogosphere.
i’d love to connect and talk more about your experience living in DC (i’ve only been here for a year) and working with the community here.
in solidarity,
whit
Peace Whit,
I miss DC with all my heart. Would love to connect and talk more about it and the projects you work on there! Sending an email now
-tasha
Wow, natasha, as a brown girl with a heart full of passion for food, agriculture and justice for people of color in their pursuit of food justice and sovereignty, i am so moved by your work. i often forget just how isolating it can be to feel unrepresented, and in food work the gap is so clear that i almost take it for granted until i encounter a voice i identify with and re-learn that yes, we do have a role in narrating this movement. your energy is what is going to drive community change up to scale and i’m so glad to have tapped into it through this blog! as i am trying to get oriented with the word of urban gardens, agriculture, and food justice landscape in dc i would love to be in touch when you have a moment. learning about how you got to where you are would undoubtedly be helpful for me, but also i want to hear about how i can support you personally too through my own small networks. peace to you sis!
Peace Sis! Thank you so much for this kind comment, I am glad we are able to connect. Hit me up anytime, I’d love to share my experiences and talk about DC. Right now I may be a little delayed on emailing as I’m going full speed for this last 20 days of fundraising (which you can definitely help support!), but otherwise I am reachable! I think my contact is on the Color of Food site at the bottom…:)
Do you have an email I can reach u at? Would love to talk and through an idea out to you. Thanks!
Shoun
Hi Natasha I love your story and your fight! Im fighting the same fight in LaLa land (LA). Hope to meet you one day.
AllGoodThings!
Ron Finley
LAGreenGrounds.org
looks like great work you’re doing out there, maybe I’ll see you when I head out west ! thanks for the love, peace.
Hello Natasha! First off, I would like to congratulate you on all of the great work that you are doing. I am a senior at Penn and I am doing an independent study focusing on minorities that are involved in food activism and dedicated to addressing and assessing the health concerns of minorities. I was wondering if I could contact to and ask you more about this topic. Your help would be greatly appreciated!
no problem sis, email me at natasha@thecolorofood.org
Hi, Would you be traveling through Iowa on your journey? If so, the George Washington Carver Academy in Waterloo, Iowa would be a great stop to tell your story and inspire the middle school students here. Let me know your thoughts please.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to Iowa 😦 Thanks for the thought though!
Hello Natasha!
As a participant in social justice and environmental sustainability movements, I have a deep appreciation for food as an epicurean experience and as the essence that sustains out bodies and lives. As you work on connecting food to the larger framework of racial and economical justice, you know that there is more interest in food now than at any point in our nation’s history. Yet so often missing from this trend is the interest in the hands that pick our food.
For the last year, my team and I have been on the road producing a documentary about the lives and condition of farm workers across the US. We’ve taken an 8 month journey through the heart of America’s farm land to truly understand the complexities of our nation’s food system and the people behind it. The truth is that farm workers have always been amongst the most vulnerable people in this country: from indentured servants and slaves to migrants and sharecroppers. But for the first time in our nation’s history we have the power to change this; and Food Chain explores the ways in which we can do so.
We’ve recently launched a Kickstarter campaign and would love your support getting the word out to food-lovers such as yourself. We are featuring dozens of incredible farm workers, farmers and people like Eric Schlosser, Bobby Kennedy Jr, Dolores Huerta, Barry Estabrook and Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
I’d love it if you would take 3 minutes to view our teaser:
We have received incredible support over just the past week and are hoping to spread the awareness nationwide. I would be so appreciative if you could spread the word and share this among your networks (mailings, Facebook, Twitter, etc). If you have any questions please feel more than free to contact me.
Many Thanks,
Alana Carstens
Food Chain
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/illumine/food-chain
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Food-Chain/124266197662438
Hi Natasha,
Your current farming project is very inspiring! Even if everyone thinks that you’re crazy ;). I know that you’re familiar with the DC area and wanted to share this UrbanAgriculture in DC Infographic.
I’m sure most of your readers are probably more advanced gardeners. But I think the visual guide can be helpful for those getting started on their 1st rooftop or balcony garden.
Love your introduction about yourself. You are a very good writer, and I wished I could write like that. I have my own farm blog, and my wife and I are beginning farmer in South Central Iowa. I am white and my wife is a brown girl who has always lived in the city of Chicago. We own 40 acres and are in the process of turning our bare land into a farm and ourselves into farmers. We are both excited to start our new life as farmers and we are always educating ourselves about farming and that is how we came across your blog. Love your story and your cause and we look forward to following your journey.
Best Regards,
Gordon, and Niki
hey, just found your blog, it’s amazing! I second the call to come to Cali- my friends work at Phat Beetz (http://www.phatbeetsproduce.org/) an amazing POC farmers market and urban farming project in the North Oakland flatlands, and are connected with many Black and brown farmers around the Bay. let me know if you want some email address!
Thanks so much! Yes I planned on making it to Cali this tour, but I am spent after 5 months and so Cali interviews will come next spring! However I do know Phat Beets and have been there before, when i came to Oakland for CFSC 2011! Dope work, cant wait to profile your friends! I’ll hit you up for contacts down the road 🙂
not sure if this posted, but check out this project in Oakland: http://www.phatbeetsproduce.org/
Your words inspire me to keep on moving and loving myself through my farming journey. Thank you! Come visit me in Youngstown, Ohio where I am pioneering Lady Buggs’ Farm! Be well! Peace!
Dear Natasha, tried to find your email address on your website. Could not find it. Please email me. I want to know what your experience with Indiegogo was like.
Tks. Adjoa Linda
You’ve literally just described me. Looking forward to reading your blog. Keep up the good work!
Natasha, like a few others, I’m looking for your email. I’m writing a chapter for a book and would like to tell a piece of your story. Could you email me? -Rev. Peggy Clarke