Nom Chomsky

Reversing the stigma of 40 Acres and a Mule

There is a movement for more African Americans to get involved in our country’s food production. But, there are serious societal challenges

because farming carries negative connotations for many African-Americans due to the legacies of slavery, sharecropping and recent discriminatory government policies.

“Black farmers were the backbone of American agriculture,” said John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. “We went from being slaves to sharecroppers. Black farmers left farming because they didn’t see the financial rewards. Instead, they saw pictures of the old South where there were racial tensions and they didn’t want that for their families.”

With regional American cooking making a huge splash on the restaurant scene, an African American First Lady getting our nation’s children off the couch and into the garden, and serious nutrition issues disproportionately affecting minority communities, the movement has a lot of opportunities ahead, but this struggle against post-bellum discrimination and stigmas will be crucial in years to come.