Food & Ag Anti-Racism Resources + Black Food & Farm Businesses to Support

We at Food+Tech Connect stand in solidarity with the Black community against systemic racism. Built on the exploitation of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), our industry – from farm to fork – has an opportunity and imperative to chart a more equitable and diverse future.

We have compiled the following list of resources to help you learn about systemic racism in our food industry and how we might work to dismantle it. We have also featured lists of food and farm businesses and organizations for you to support. This list is by no means complete. We will be working to update it regularly, so please email us at danielle@foodtechconnect.com if you have any resources, organizations or initiatives you would like to see added.

Special thanks to Niyeti Shah MPH (Associate Director, Milken Institute Center for Public Health), Athena Roesler MPH (Associate Director, Milken Institute Center for Public Health) and Diane Kim (Associate, Milken Institute Center for Public Health) for their help with compiling this list.

Articles To Read

• Battling Inequity in Food Systems with Entrepreneurship – Olivia Rebanal
• Beyond Plant-Based: The Racial History and Future – Journey Foods
• Dismantling Racism in the Food System – Food First
• Entrepreneurs Share How Industry, Investors Can Make Good on Promises to ‘Do Better,’ Support Anti-Racism – Food Navigator
• Food Media Must Work Harder to Fix Its Racism Problem – Grub Street
• The Great Land Robbery – The Atlantic
• How USDA distorted data to conceal decades of discrimination against black farmers – The Counter
• Leaders of Color Discuss Structural Racism and White Privilege in the Food System – Civil Eats
• People of Color are at Greater Risk of COVID-19. Systemic Racism in the Food System Plays a Role – Civil Eats
• Reckoning with Racial Justice in Farm Country – Civil Eats
• Restaurants Must Use This Moment to Change, Too – Eater
• The Sugar That Saturates the American Diet Has a Barbaric History as The ‘White Gold’ That Fueled Slavery. – The New York Times
• There were nearly a million black farmers in 1920. Why have they disappeared? – The Guardian
• To Natural Products Industry Leaders: Let Us Act Now to Dismantle Systemic Racism – New Hope Media
• Why Food Belongs in Our Discussions of Race – Civil Eats
• Working Against Racism in the Food System – Bioneers

Videos To Watch

• A Growing Culture’s Hunger For Justice Series – Multiple videos all worth watching!
• Black Food Matters: Race and Equity in the Good Food Movement – Devita Davison
• Farming While Black: African Diasporic Wisdom for Farming and Food Justice – Leah Penniman
• Race Equity in the Food System – Michigan State University
• Taste The Nation With Padma Lakshmi – The Gullah Way 
• The Underlying Racism of America’s Food System – Regina Bernard-Carreno
• What Natural Products Industry Members Need to Know About Racial Inequity – Ijeoma Oluo

Media to Follow

• Civil Eats: Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
• Black Food Folks: Instagram / Twitter
• For The Culture Food Magazine: Website / Instagram
• Pass The Spatula: Website / Instagram
• Whetstone Magazine: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter

Podcasts To Subscribe To

• 1619 Podcast (episodes 2& 5)
• Point of Origin
• Racist Sandwich
• All of the 20 Food Podcasts by Black Women (compiled by soulPhoodie)

Books To Read (support Black-owned bookstores):

Check out Black Food History’s Black Food Studies Book Lists for more books to read!

• The Color of Food by Natasha Bowens
• The Cooking Gene by Michael W. Twitty
• Farming While Black by Leah Penniman
• High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Dr. Jessica B. Harris
• Black Food Geographies by Ashanté M. Reese
• Building Houses out of Chicken Legs by Psyche A. Williams-Forson
• Feeding the Other: Whiteness, Privilege, and Neoliberal Stigma in Food Pantries by Rebecca T. de Souza
• Freedom Farmers by Monica M. White
• Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay
• Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi
• Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine One Plate at a Time by Adrian Miller
• The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks by Toni Tipton-Martin
• Working the Roots by Michele E. Lee
• Land Justice: Re-Imagining Land, Food, and the Commons by Justine M. Williams

Educational Resources & Toolkits

• The Young Farmers Racial Equity Toolkit
• Studio ATAO’s Toolkit For Recognizing, Disrupting & Preventing Tokenization in Food Media 
• Michigan State University’s Annotated Bibliography on Structural Racism Present in the U.S. Food System
• Food Solutions New England 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
• Building the Case for Racial Equity in the Food System by the Center For Social Inclusion
• Racial Equity in the Food System Workgroup & Listserv
• General Anti-Racism Resources Document compiled by Sarah Sophie Flicker & Alyssa Klein

Training Programs For Dismantling Racism From Farming While Black

• AORTA Collective 
• Beyond Diversity 101
• Catalyst Project
• Interaction Institute for Social Change
• People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
• Soul Fire Farm’s Uprooting Racism in the Food System
• Training for Change 
• White Noise Collective

People & Organization to Follow on Social Media

Samin Nosrat has a great list of Black farmers, chefs, writers, historians and more to follow on Instagram.

Lists of Black-Owned Farms, Businesses & Organizations To Support

• Black-Owned & Operated Farms + Organizations That Support Black Farmers by Shannon Lai and A Growing Culture
• Black-Owned Farms in The US
• Black-Owned Restaurants in The US
• BIPOC in Agriculture and Food: A Comprehensive Resource Database (Spreadsheet / Google Doc)
• BIPOC-Led How-to Videos, Gardening Projects & Online Learning Resources
• EatOkra Black-Owned Restaurant Guide App
• Equity at The Table’s database for food industry professionals featuring only women/gender non-conforming individuals and focusing primarily on POC and the LGBTQ community
• Food & Land Sovereignty Resource List for COVID-19 (Compiled by Soul Fire Farm, Black Farmer Fund, and Northeast Farmers of Color)
• Journey Foods’ Black Companies to Support

Campaigns to Support Black Farms & Businesses

• Black Farmer Fund (NY): Black Farmer Fund (BFF) is an emerging community investment fund that invests in black food systems entrepreneurs in New York State. Beyond making investments in these communities, BFF also emphasizes in building financial and investment literacy and active involvement of the community when discussing and creating financing options

• Black-Led, Regenerative Farm: As a Black, queer, woman land ownership has felt evasive for much of Kiley Clark’s life, not having the capital or the generational wealth to make this possible. She launched this campaign to build a regenerative, no till farm that pays homage to the traditional ecology knowledge of her ancestors, and the land’s original Indigenous caretakers.

• Detroit Dirt: Detroit Dirt is raising money to support its composting operations and drive forward a low carbon economy by diverting waste and promoting materials management. Its campaign is supported by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), which will match all donations dollar for dollar.

• EatOkra: EatOkra has a crowdfunding campaign to fund it Black-Owned business directory app connecting people to Black food and beverage.

• For The Culture Magazine: The biannual printed food magazine celebrates Black women in food and wine. The stories in For the Culture will be about Black women throughout the diaspora, written by Black women and photographed and illustrated by Black women. It will be the first magazine of its kind.

• Forty Acres & A Mule Project: Wisconsin-based restaurateur Adrian Lipscombe is raising money to purchase agricultural land. The land purchase will help guarantee farm-to-table resources for the food industry, serve to provide an outlet for Black foodways and establish a safe haven to secure the legacy of Black foodways.

• Future Farm Fund: Farmer and activist Amber Tamm Canty launched this fund to buy a farm in upstate in New York. She is also working to secure land in New York City’s park systems for BIPOC communities to farm. Support the fund here.

• Oko Farms:  The only outdoor aquaponics education and production farm in NYC. The farm dedicated to both increasing food security for NYC residents and the promotion of ecological and humane food cultivation practices. Due to change in policy and licensing requirements, it can no longer operate sustainably at its current site. It is currently raising money to move the farm to a new location.

• Reparations Map for Black-Indigenous Farmers: The food system was built on the stolen land and stolen labor of BIPOC people. Soulfire Farm’s map calls for reparations of land and resources for the farmers listed, so they can grow nourishing food and distribute it to their communities. Read more about the Reparations Map here.

• Sylvanaqua Farm: The Farm is looking for gifts and low-interest loans to build a vertically-integrated, employee-owned cooperative of farms, nurseries, mills, processors, retail outlets and wholesale distributors.

• Soul Fire Farm: A BIPOC-centered community farm in upstate New York fighting racism and injustice in our food system. Its food sovereignty programs reach over 10,000 people each year, including farmer training for Black and Brown growers, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food justice workshops for urban youth, home gardens for city-dwellers living under food apartheid, doorstep harvest delivery for food insecure households, and systems and policy education for public decision-makers.

 Round-Ups

• Cherry Bombe’s List of Black Businesses (cookbooks, CPG products, chefs & creatives, restaurants & cafes, media & special initiatives)
• Civil Eats: Want to See Food and Land Justice for Black Americans? Support These Groups.
• Food Tank: 21 Individuals and Organizations Building Stronger Black Communities and Food Systems
• A Reading List For Learning About Anti-Black Racism and Food – Epicurious
• MOFAD BLM Community Resources

CPG Organizations To Follow & Support

• Hotbread Kitchen:  Website / Instagram / Twitter
  Helps turn talents and dreams into financial security for women and entrepreneurs. Its workforce development program  helps women get good jobs in kitchens and food manufacturers around the country. Its small business incubator provides emerging food entrepreneurs with wrap around support and connections to the food community to grow their enterprises.

• JEDI Collaborative: Website / LinkedIn
  The OSC² J.E.D.I Collaborative of CPG industry peers and experts is leading this project for the natural products industry to frame the business case for embedding justice, equity, diversity and inclusion into our entire food ecosystem.

• La Cocina:  Website / Instagram / Twitter
  A nonprofit working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants and people of color. It provides affordable commercial kitchen space to entrepreneurs, as well as access to mentorship and market opportunities.

Hospitality Organizations To Follow & Support

• Black Culinarian Alliance: Website / Twitter / Instagram / Facebook
  This organization, founded as the Black Culinarian Alliance, works to advocate for Black people in the food and beverage industry, a demographic that has been largely left out of mid and upper management opportunities in the culinary sphere. Today, they work to “promote not only people of color but to increase diversity overall and develop women as industry leaders.”

• Food Lab Detroit: Website / Instagram
  FoodLab is a community of food entrepreneurs committed to making the possibility of good food in Detroit a sustainable reality. It designs, builds, and maintains systems to grow a diverse ecosystem of triple-bottom-line food businesses as part of a good food movement that is accountable to all Detroiters. It is currently accepting applications for its Fellowship for Change in Food & Labor, a six-month, stipend based fellowship opportunity.

Farm & Land Justice Organizations to Follow & Support

• Black Family Land Trust: Website / Facebook / LinkedIn
  The Black Family Land Trust is one of the nation’s only conservation land trust dedicated to the preservation and protection of African-American and other historically underserved landowners assets, utilizing the core principles of land conservation and land-based community economic development. BFLT provides families with the tools necessary to make informed, proactive decisions regarding their land and its use including their Wealth Retention and Asset Protection (WRAP) program.

• Black Urban Growers (BUGS): Website / Facebook / Twitter
  Black Urban Growers (BUGS) is an organization committed to building networks and community support for growers in both urban and rural settings. Through education and advocacy around food and farm issues, they nurture collective Black leadership to ensure they have a seat at the table. Check out their Facebook page for virtual events.

• Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (FARMS): Website / Facebook / Instagram
  FARMS is a legal nonprofit, committed to assisting Black farmers and landowners in retaining their land for the next generation.

• Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund: Website / Twitter / Facebook / Instagram
  A non-profit cooperative association of Black farmers, landowners, and cooperatives, with a primary membership base in the Southern States.

• HEAL Food Alliance: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Linkedin / Instagram
  HEAL brings together groups from various sectors of movements for food and farm justice to grow community power, develop political leadership, and exposing and limiting corporate control of the food system.

• The Land Loss Prevention Project: Website
  The Land Loss Prevention Project responds to the unprecedented losses of Black-owned land in North Carolina by providing comprehensive legal services and technical support to financially distressed and limited resource farmers and landowners.

• The National Black Farmers Association: Website / Facebook
  The National Black Farmers Association is a non-profit organization representing African American farmers and their families in the United States.

• The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust: Website / Facebook / Instagram
  The Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust advance land sovereignty in the Northeast through permanent and secure land tenure for Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian farmers and land stewards.

• Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network: Website
  SAAFON is a regional network for Black farmers committed to using ecologically sustainable practices to manage their land and the natural systems on it in order to grow food and raise livestock that are healthy for people and the planet.