We Can’t Talk About Farming Without Talking About Race

Leah Penniman is helping BIPOC become food sovereign at her 80-acre farm

When nationwide hoarding left supermarket shelves empty in early March, many were forced to get innovative about how they filled their refrigerators.

Through her work with Soul Fire Farm, Black Kreyol farmer and food justice activist Leah Penniman is making it easier for those communities to become food sovereign and reclaim their rightful relationship to the land.

Penniman co-founded Soul Fire Farm in 2010 on 80 acres of Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican territory in Grafton, New York.

The farm works toward a goal of ending racism and injustice in the food industry with immersion programs that train BIPOC in regenerative farming practices, anti-racist trainings for environmentalists and food justice activists, and no-cost doorstep delivery of fresh produce and garden-building for people living under food apartheid in New York’s Albany-Troy area.

Zora spoke with Penniman about the legacy she’s contributing to as a food sovereignty activist, systemic racism and injustice in America’s food systems, and how Soul Fire Farm is adapting amid a global pandemic.