Nourishing Black Communities: What We Can Learn From Our Ancestors’ Sustainability

Black folks often don’t get the credit for their advancements at the intersection of environmentalism and food justice. In truth, we have long been at the heart of both. It used to be normal to grow your own food and contribute with a village mindset, so it came naturally for generations past to build a community with these practices centered on sustainability and nourishment.

Today, however, we are more separated from the land and the growing process than ever. With food security and environmental justice so tightly wound together, that distance has harmed both our food landscape and our physical one. To advance food justice and heal our environment, we must return to the practices of our ancestors which still run through us.

Our current system is unsustainable, and people are awakening to its limitations. In lower-income communities especially, corporate conglomerates offer few options for nutritious, fresh food. What exists is expensive, and options are inaccessible without reliable access to a car. This, combined with factory regions taking away green space and creating pollution, creates serious health concerns.

The lack of healthy food options and an unsustainable environment leads to very real health problems. Food apartheid significantly contributes to the prevalence of diet-related illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease, in a community. Pollution adds increased rates of asthma to the mix.

With this system, Black people aren’t given a say — in our food choices, in our health, in our environment. Whoever is producing the food and deciding where it goes has the power, but that is currently out of our hands; less than 2% of farmers in the U.S. are Black, and corporations are deciding who gets access to what food.

So how do we build back our power and create a more sustainable system?

We look to the generations before us and revive their methods. 

Black communities were the pioneering forefront of what is now known as restorative agriculture. African and indigenous practices have provided a model for sustainable, productive farming throughout human history, before, through and despite the oppressive systems imposed by white supremacists.

Afroindigenous knowledge systems are at the core of today’s permaculture practices. These traditional models relied on the same values and laid the foundation for modern permaculture.

George Washington Carver, who long led the agriculture department at Tuskegee University, forged the path to implementing and sharing regenerative agriculture practices.

Dr. Booker T. Whatley, a horticulturist and agriculture professor at Tuskegee University, developed the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. This model involves communities buying a share of the farm, and in return they get a share of the harvest.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s efforts with the Freedom Farm Cooperative showed how we may work with a community to develop co-ops and share access to the land. She long advocated for Black communities to produce our own food so that it may not be used to control us.

These sustainable practices are not new or fringe movements; they run deep in our bloodlines. They were not limited to a small group of elites. Our own grandparents and great-grandparents practiced sustainable gardening and farming every day. They used the land they had and were able to nourish themselves and their families.

The methods are better for the environment. Fresh produce improves our health. The process and the results improve our mental health and wellness. The benefits abound.

So many people are disconnected from the land today, but we have a model for how to rebuild a connection from the lessons of our ancestors. We can start learning and pick up these daily practices in our own lives.

There are people and networks all around who have learned, relearned, and continued the practices which sustained our ancestors and continue to sustain us. Organizations such as Soul Fire Farm offer resources and programming for those looking to get involved. The Black Church Food Security Network builds a system to connect land, farmers, and community members to become self-sustaining. Communities everywhere are coming together regularly, sharing resources, and advancing land stewardship efforts.

It is never too late to start gardening sustainably, whether it’s at a community garden or just a small patch of soil where you live. We can push through our distance and fear of failure to produce something good for us in every way.

Marie Tatti is the Garden Coordinator with the Black Church Food Security Network.

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