Soul Fire Farm

Soul Fire Farm is a Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)-centered community farm which uses organic and ancestral techniques to end racism and injustice in the food system.

Soul Fire Farm
Town/CityGrafton, New York
CountryUnited States
Coordinates42.767170°N 73.410667°W / 42.767170; -73.410667
Established2010
OwnerLeah Penniman
Area72-acre (0.29 km2)

About

The 72 acre farm is located in Grafton, New York and was purchased by Leah Penniman and Jonah Vitale-Wolff in 2006. The farm was officially open in 2010. The name is taken from the song Soulfire by Lee “Scratch” Perry and began as a farm share for low-income people.[1] As Soul Fire Farm has grown, its mission is to end racism and injustice in the food system and by reclaiming the inherent right to belong to the earth and to have agency in the food system as black and brown people.[2]

Food is intensively cultivated using exclusively organic and ancestral techniques that increase topsoil depth, sequester carbon, and increase soil biodiversity.[3][4] To help capture carbon, the farm grows mostly perennials and practice silvopasture where livestock grazes in orchards to mitigate the effects of climate change.[5] The buildings on the farm are hand-constructed, using local wood, adobe, straw bales, solar heat, and reclaimed materials. The goals of the farm are to end racism and injustice in the food system. The team of workers and activists there also bring diverse communities together on the land to share skills on sustainable agriculture, natural building, spiritual activism, health and environmental justice through their programs.[3][4]

The farm's flagship program is the Black Latino Farmers Immersion, a 50-hour course to train beginner farmers. By 2018, 500 individuals had taken the course.[6] In 2020, the farm made plans to expand and began raising money due to its infrastructure being designed for a single family yet hosting 3,000 visitors per year.[7]

Programs

Soul Fire Farm Share (Community Supported Agriculture) The program delivers freshly grown produce each week, to the doorsteps of over 80 farm share members in Troy and Albany New York, based on the spirit of ujaama, or cooperative economics. Payment can be made according to an income based sliding-scale, EBT payments are accepted, and no one is turned away for lack of income. This program also provides #solidarityshares,[8] for immigrants, refugees, and those impacted by state violence. ”We are committed to working with the most marginalized issues. It's a different economic model. It's about relationships. It's not just a model of selling," says Penniman.[9]

Black and Latinx Farmers Immersion

This program teaches novice and intermediate growers the basic skills of regenerative farming and has trained over 350 farmers since 2011. The training covers skills like planting, transplanting, harvesting, compost, pest management, processing chickens, and use of medicinal herbs. The program supplies the tools for additional comprehensive commercial farm training. Participants learn in a culturally relevant and supportive environment that helps them connect to the land and understand "trauma rooted in oppression on land.”[10]

Uprooting Racism Immersion

This workshop provides farming and food justice leaders with theory and action. Participants examine the history of food injustice and then devise strategies to end the systemic racism in the food system.[11]

Youth Program

The goal of this program is to reconnect youth to their innate belonging to the land and to restore each person's rightful place of empowerment in the food system. It exposes young people to harvesting, cooking and food justice knowledge through one day workshops, including inter-generational groups. From 2013-2015, the farm’s restorative justice program allowed teens to earn money to pay off court-ordered restitution and avoid incarceration. Soul Fire Farm’s youth program began in 2011.[12][13]

Activist Retreats

“From prisoner justice to climate justice, our struggles for a world of dignity, empowerment, and sustainability are intertwined. Those of us on the front lines of social and environmental change understand the need to periodically step out of our everyday context to rejuvenate, strategize, and connect.” Soul Fire Farm makes their space available to activists working for social and environmental change so that they might "rejuvenate, strategize, and connect.”[13]

Community Farm Days

Each Month, from April to October, Soul Fire Farm hosts community farm days, where volunteers and staff work the land and learn together, followed by a potluck and conversation. The farm honors the Haitian cultural practice of Konbit, cooperative work and mutual aid.[14]

Partner Projects

Soul Fire Farm is a partner with the Victory Bus Project, which was created to assist the family members of incarcerated people with the cost of visiting loved ones because state funding for busing families was eliminated. Instead of purchasing an actual ticket for the bus fare to the prison for a visit, the family can instead pay for a box of Soul Fire Farm produce with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. They receive the benefit of visiting loved ones and receiving fresh produce.[15] Soul Fire Farm also partners with The Northeast Farmers of Color Network on the Reparations Map[16] for Black-Indigenous Farmers. The aim is to claim sovereignty of the food system that was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of black, Indigenous, Latino, Asian and people of color and calls for reparations of land and resources.[10]

Reference section
  1. "Farming's badly needed 'Blackstension agent'". www.dirt-mag.com. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  2. Goppart, Judy. "issue_id":256699,"page":6} "Leah Penniman: Growing A New Generation of Farmers". HerLifemagazine.com. HERLIFE. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  3. Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. "This Is How We Do It: Learning From Successful Farm Models". Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  4. "Soul Fire Farm". SoulFireFarm.org.
  5. Heyman, Stephen. "Soul Fire Farm's Leah Penniman Explains Why Food Sovereignty Is Central in the Fight for Racial Justice". Vogue. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  6. "Americans of color largely excluded from producing and eating fresh food". The Counter. 2018-11-08. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  7. Williams, Michael (2020-07-11). "Soul Fire Farm, farming for social justice, plans to expand". Times Union. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
  8. "#solidarityshares". 2010-09-02.
  9. Fox, Deanna. "CSA's in the Capital Region: How they Work". Times Union Albany. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  10. Willoughby, Jean. "A Digital Map Leads to Reparations for Black and Indigenous Farmers". Yes! Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  11. "Ep 13 Soul Fire Farm with Leah Penniman". Contemporary Black Canvas. 2017-06-08. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  12. Meadows-Fernandez, Rochaun (2017-06-08). "How Do We End "Food Apartheid" in America? With Farms Like This One". Alternate.Org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  13. "Leah Penniman, Jonah Vitale-Wolff, Jas Wade, Keidra Gordon, Larisa Jacobson, Amani Olugbala, and Gabriela Alvarez Soul Fire Farm, Grafton". Hudson Valley Magazine. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  14. "The Farm Hub's Fourth Season". 2017-08-10.
  15. Fox, Deanna (2016-06-22). "Soul Fire Farm grows social justice, too Soul Fire Farm in Grafton does not deny its products based on income". timesunion.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  16. "Northeast Farmers of Color Network on the Reparations Map".
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