Farming While Black

by Leah Penniman

  Delegation of tasks supports efficiency and clarity of expectations. For example, Emet is responsible for weighing and packing beans for the farm share, while other members of the team take care of marketing and delivery.

  Roles and Responsibilities

  Last winter our family was forced to cancel a trip to visit my mother when the solar hot-water panels malfunctioned. Just as we were about to pull out of the ice-crusted driveway, we realized that the pumps were not circulating properly. We needed to cover the solar panels with reflective tarps immediately or risk the panels exploding. This was just one example of the countless times that our collective business project offered an unexpected and obligatory task for which no one was clearly responsible.

  Rather than being caught off guard by the variety of roles and responsibilities present in a collective business, it is best to plan ahead and decide who will specialize in each task. For a cooperative farm business, here are some likely roles:

  Bookkeeping and tax reporting

  Business and preseason crop planning

  Certifications and filings

  Communications with customers, maintaining contact information database

  Day-to-day operations, manual labor

  Managing visitors and volunteers

  Outreach, marketing, emails, web maintenance

  Procurement and budgeting

  Record keeping of production, sales, and maintenance schedules

  Repairs, maintenance, and upkeep of infrastructure

  While specialization is now part of our efficiency strategy at Soul Fire Farm, we have found that it builds empathy and ownership in our team when we each participate in some aspect of all of the roles. Specifically, we have a commitment that everyone in the organization spend at least some time each week with their hands in the soil. Everyone also takes responsibility for one aspect of the administration, whether marketing, program logistics, or fund-raising. Mistrust can quickly build between team members if there is a perception that others are not pulling their weight. Each person having deep knowledge of and participation in all aspects of the collective work is an antidote to suspicion.

  Finances

  Having a desire for material security is not inherently capitalist. The traditional petition in the religion of Nigerian Yoruba Ifa includes the phrase, “Efun mi no owo … Ko si ailowo,” which means “Please give me money … keep away poverty.”5 As someone who grew up in relative poverty, I find that my attention to material security is greater than that of my friends who were raised upper- or owning-class. Those of us who know lack do not assume that the world owes us anything. Those of us who know suffering and exploitation understand that we need to pay careful attention to our agreements, lest we perpetuate our difficulties. This is why determining how to share money in your collectively owned business is perhaps the most difficult negotiation.

  Here are some questions to consider as your draft financial agreements for your cooperative business:

  Who will provide the upfront costs for starting the business? How will they be reimbursed, if at all? If you take out a loan, who is responsible for paying it back?

  When income is generated, how much of it will stay in the business bank account to cover costs and reinvestments in the business? How much will be distributed to the members?

  Does everyone make an equal hourly wage or are wages different based on longevity, experience, or need? Are additional profits distributed equally or based on how much total investment each member put into the collective?

  Can members build equity in the business? In other words, when they leave or the business is sold, do they receive some return on their investment?

  What checks and balances will be instituted to prevent cheating, stealing, or financial dishonesty? How will you maintain transparency?6

  Organizations like The Working World provide capital, loans, and technical support to help worker-owned cooperatives get established.

  This meeting of the Freedom Food Alliance opens with a reflective moment to thank the ancestors and the land for the bounty we enjoy.

  Decision Making and Meetings

  The 15 board members of Soul Fire Farm stood with their palms raised facing the center of the circle. The three new staff of Soul Fire Farm were invited into the middle of the circle to receive the blessings, welcome, and gratitude of the current team. These new farmers would be doing the sacred work of tending the land, feeding our beloved community, and building the “we” of the project. The new team members then joined with the wider circle, where we offered a song: “We are an old family, we are a new family, we are the same family, stronger than before. We honor you, inspire you to be who you are.” This symbolic ritual of welcome was part of our quarterly board meeting. During the meeting we also ate delicious food, danced, approved budgets, and updated bylaws. We believe in meetings as opportunities for authentic and productive connection, not a time for tedious and rushed recitations of disembodied data. We strive for a balance of heart and head.

  There is a minimum of three types of meetings that your business cooperative should consider: logistics, strategic discussion, and reflection. Logistics meetings can be as short as 15 minutes and deal with the “what” of the project. Strategic discussion meetings last a minimum of 60 minutes and consider the “why” and “how” of the project. Reflection meetings are used for evaluation, gratitude, or conflict resolution and take a minimum of 90 minutes. Offering clarity as to which type of meeting is occurring helps to avoid frustration and impatience. For example, if during a logistics meeting conversation on who will feed the chickens over the weekend, someone asks, “Do we really want to be using this conventionally grown feed?,” the group can suggest postponing the feed sourcing discussion to the next discussion meeting. The following are sample agendas for each type of meeting:

  Logistics Meeting Sample Agenda

  How is everyone feeling today? Do you need any support? (5 minutes)

  Task delegation for today. (10 minutes)

  Reminder to update chalkboards with the weight of harvested items. (2 minutes)

  Upcoming calendar events for the week. (5 minutes)

  Strategic Discussion Meeting Sample Agenda

  What are you feeling grateful for in this moment? (5 minutes)

  Crop planning discussion: What varieties worked well this past season? Do we want to adjust the timing of plantings to reduce the labor burden of bean picking? What did our CSA member survey reveal about preferences? Vote to approve crop plan. (25 minutes)

  Budget discussion: What new infrastructure and equipment do we need to purchase? Are we willing to incur debt for those purchases? Vote to approve budget. (25 minutes)

  Closing circle. (5 minutes)

  Reflection Meeting Sample Agenda

  What is a rose (something going well), thorn (a challenge), and bud (a goal or opportunity) for you in your role in this project? (10 minutes)

  “Real talk” feedback session: Each person receives feedback from each member of the team on how they are performing in their role. Three types of feedback are offered: positives, deltas, and requests. The recommended phrasing is, “Something I appreciate about working with you is … A challenge that I observe in our working relationship is … To continue to develop our working relationship, I request that …” (60 minutes)

  Evaluation review: We read evaluations written by our members or customers and have an open discussion about what we are doing well and how we can improve. (30 minutes)

  Closing story: Each person shares a brief story of a moment when they felt fully alive in their role. (10 minutes)

  Regardless of the type of meeting, it is important to be clear how decisions are going to be made. Many cooperatives use different types of decision making depending on the circumstances. At Soul Fire Farm, for example, a person can make a unilateral decision about the tactical way to implement a task for which they are responsible, like choosing paint colors or planning a menu. We use consultative decision
making when we redesign programs. This means that everyone gives input and the person in charge of curriculum integrates that input according to their best judgment. For decisions that impact the whole organization, like hiring or budgeting, we operate by consensus.

  Board members of Soul Fire Farm use a ranking tool to determine program priorities for the next season.

  Types of Decision Making

  Consultative. The leader or manager has the ability to make decisions, but gathers input from all those who are affected by a decision.

  Majority and supermajority vote. Members vote democratically on proposals after discussion of the pros and cons. The group decides what constitutes enough of a majority to move forward with a decision, from a narrow majority (51 percent) to a near-total supermajority.

  Consensus. Members raise proposals that are then discussed, modified, and passed by the whole group. Members seek agreement among all decision makers to move forward with a proposal. Members are encouraged to listen to others and adapt their ideas, which can result in a much stronger proposal and one with strong community backing. To limit the power of one individual to block a decision, modified consensus procedures exist. These include consensus-minus-one, when all but one member need to agree in order to approve a proposal; principled objection, when blocking is only permitted if the proposal goes against the core value of the group; and sunset clause, which allows a set trial period for a proposal that does not yet have full consensus. Seeds for Change UK and the Olympia Food Co-op have both produced excellent guides for consensus decision making.

  Delegation. Committees or working groups are granted authority to make certain decisions within parameters set by the entire cooperative. For example, the cooperative may decide that they want to grow more crops that are culturally relevant to African American people and set a budget of $500 for seed. The group may then empower a committee to research crops, select varieties, purchase the seed, and integrate the new crops into the farm plan.

  Farm-Share, Community-Supported Agriculture

  I am quite introverted and usually eager to get home, so my farm-share delivery strategy looks a lot like “ding dong ditch.” I pull the big white van with the cute Soul Fire Farm magnet up to the curb, double-check the spreadsheet for instructions as to where the veggie box should be left, and then place it as quickly as possible, ringing the bell on my way down the stairs. Larisa, Damaris, and others on our team are warmer and more extroverted, taking time to chat with our members, happy to spend an extra hour or two on deliveries nurturing the relationships we cherish. Whatever the delivery strategy, the end result is the same: Over 95 families, or 350 individuals, living under food apartheid receive a box full of fresh veggies at their doorstep weekly from June until November. For those who live outside our delivery area, we offer group pickup locations on back porches and in church garages.

  Our Ujamaa Farm Share CSA is founded on the principle of food as a basic human right and the belief that community food access is compatible with financial solvency for the farmer. The program has four central components: community-based marketing, wealth redistribution, flexible payment, and doorstep delivery.

  UPLIFT

  Booker T. Whatley’s Clientele Membership Club

  Booker T. Whatley, professor at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute and student of Dr. George Washington Carver, was one of the original thinkers behind community-supported agriculture (CSA). From 1974 until 1981 he refined his formula for a successful small farm. He advocated for a Clientele Membership Club with a pick-your-own operation. Whatley explained, “That’s the twist that makes this whole project innovative. The farmer has to seek out people—city folks, mostly—to be members of the club. The annual membership fee, $25 per household, gives each of those families the privilege of coming to the farm and harvesting produce at approximately 60 percent of the supermarket price … One of these 25-acre farms should be able to support 1,000 member families, or around 5,000 people. The clientele membership club is the lifeblood of the whole setup. It enables the farmer to plan production, anticipate demand, and, of course, have a guaranteed market. However, that means the grower had better work just as diligently at establishing and maintaining the club as at producing the crops. Put it this way: If you fail to promote your club, something terrible happens—nothing!”7 Further, he planned crop successions such that there was year-round income and never too much to harvest at one time. His members enjoyed grapes, sweet potatoes, black-eyed peas, blueberries, strawberries, and mustard, collard, and turnip greens. He prioritized crops with an annual income of at least $3,000 per acre, which eliminated lettuce, onions, and white potatoes. He tried to make subscribers feel as if it was their own farm by sending out a newsletter that reported on picking dates and other farming activities.8

  Community-Based Marketing

  The initial 20 families who joined the inaugural Farm Share were the same people who encouraged us to start Soul Fire Farm. We did not need to market to our “founding angels,” as we affectionately termed them. Since then, we have decided to build our customer base using a grassroots organizing model. Certainly, if we wanted to sell all of our food to suburbanites connected to the so-called good food movement, we would be sold out with a waiting list. Our vision is different. Seeing food as a basic human right and not a privilege compels us to do the hard work of getting our harvest to those marginalized by food apartheid.

  Every winter we offer free lectures and workshops in the community on food justice topics, including self-determined health, structural racism in the food system, and reconnecting to land. Through these workshops we connect with public school children, neighborhood association members, Little League parents, church deacons, and other powerful community leaders. We listen as well as speak, asking what barriers stand between people and food and how a farm like ours can deepen our solidarity work with community. Through these conversations, our youth restorative justice program was imagined, which is explained in detail in chapter 13. Many of our Farm Share members find out about the program through these workshops in their neighborhoods.

  Ujamaa, cooperative economics, imagines a nonextractive relationship between producer and consumer, rooted in authentic relationships, not just the casual exchange of the market. This is what we believe we cultivate in our farm share. We make a long-term commitment to nourish each member with the bounty of the land and they, in turn, make a commitment that Soul Fire Farm will be their source of produce for the season. We foster and honor these relationships by welcoming feedback, sharing thoughtful newsletters with recipes and updates, hosting monthly community days on the land, and saying thank you to those who volunteered with a bonus box of food in mid-November.

  Soul Fire Farm provides free workshops on nutrition, farming, and food justice as one way to engage community members in the Ujamaa Farm Share program.

  Wealth Redistribution

  In the United States, we spend less on food, as a percentage of our income, than any other country in the world.9 This is because the true costs of industrial food on the environment and human health are externalized. While we recognize the need to realign the economy to value food at its true worth, we are also heartbreakingly aware that members of our community do not have the means to access even this cheap food. We address this at a neighbor-to-neighbor level, asking that people with more wealth pay more for their farm-share subscription to subsidize shares for those with less wealth. See table 2.1.

  Table 2.1. Soul Fire Farm Ujamaa Farm Share Sliding Scale

  In addition to working with individuals to redistribute wealth and make food access possible, we are starting to explore institutional partnerships to the same end. Our family doctor is a member of a board of directors. She noticed that patients who had recently immigrated to the area through a refugee resettlement program were quickly relinquishing their healthy, vegetable-rich cultural diet when relegated to food apartheid conditions. If we could provide a reliable, affordable supply of vegetables to these neighbors, t
hey could continue to cook their traditional foods and maintain their health. This doctor leveraged institutional money from the community health clinic to help subsidize the farm shares and to provide translation services.

  New Entry Food Hub in Massachusetts and Rock Steady Farm in New York also use institutional partnerships. For example, Rock Steady partners with the North East Community Center (NECC) to distribute over 70 CSA shares at three emergency food shelters throughout Dutchess County. NECC raised the money through a grant from the Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley and pays the farmers the full price of the CSA share. This supports the financial viability of the farm while ensuring food access for the most vulnerable members of the community. Nonprofit organizations, schools, daycares, medical facilities, elder care facilities, and residential facilities are potential institutional partners that may be able to leverage funding sources to purchase farm-fresh food for their clientele.

  Flexible Payment

  The classical CSA model requires members to pay the full share price at the beginning of the season, providing farmers with necessary income at the time when most expenses are made. Spring is the time when farmers purchase seed, equipment, supplies, and compost, often taking on large debt in the hope that a bountiful harvest will ensue. The CSA model mitigates that risk by welcoming community members to invest up front and accept whatever dividends are reaped, whether abundant or scarce. In times of hurricane, flood, or pest outbreak, the customer bears part of the burden of the crop loss, democratizing the food economy.

  We implement the pay-up-front requirement for our middle- and high-income farm-share members. For those who cannot pay in advance, we offer payment plans with automatic billing through QuickBooks Payment. We also accept Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), previously known as food stamps. Run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), SNAP is an entitlement program that offers eligible low-income people a set budget to purchase food. The process of applying to accept EBT/SNAP is cumbersome but surmountable. You can complete an application online (https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/retailer-apply), though I recommend that you call your local SNAP Retailer Service Center (1-877-823-4369) to walk you through the process. A CSA farm is neither a retail store nor a farmers market, so your work may not fit neatly into the categories outlined on the application. Since we do not require our members to come to the farm for food, we cannot rely on them swiping their EBT card in our reader. Rather, we ask members to fill out paper vouchers in advance of the season, which we redeem on a monthly basis.