Farming While Black

by Leah Penniman

  Houngan Onelieu Wilsage, Houngan “Papa Loko,” and the community of Komye, Haiti, for Milocan and ancestor ceremony, and instruction in spiritual medicine making, prayer, and divination in Haitian Vodou tradition (2012–17)

  Jun Yasuda, Japanese Buddhist nun of the Nipponzan Myohoji, for her mentorship in mindfulness and spiritual activism

  * * *

  *Tonal accents and other pronunciation guides for words in Krobo, Yoruba, and other African languages are not provided in this text. For Yoruba language, please consult Fama’s Ede Awo (Orisha Yoruba Dictionary) by Chief Fama.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Restoring Degraded Land

  If the yam does not grow well, do not blame the yam. It is because of the soil.

  —GHANAIAN PROVERB

  The first time I plunged a shovel into the mountainside soil that would become Soul Fire Farm, I was able to dig precisely 7 inches (18 cm) before hitting hardpan gray clay, virtually impenetrable to crop roots and resistant to even the metal blade of the tool. In contrast, the prime river bottom soils of the Midwest have a typical topsoil depth over 40 inches (1 m).1 The open, south-facing portion of our land was on a steep slope, dangerous to navigate by tractor, and highly susceptible to erosion. In fact, we discovered that much of the topsoil had washed down the slope over decades and was trapped on the uphill side of the stone wall at the property’s edge. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets ranks agricultural soils by their potential to yield nourishing crops, and our soils were listed near the bottom as “marginal, unsuitable.”2

  Of course, our people are no strangers to marginal lands. I worked for years in Black and Latinx communities with Worcester Roots Project in Massachusetts, remediating urban soils that had been contaminated with lead. I regularly discovered gardens, yards, and playgrounds with lead levels as high as 11,000 parts per million (ppm), which is above the threshold for a highly toxic Superfund site, as designated by the US Environmental Protection Agency.3 Our own daughter, at just one year of age, was poisoned by soil lead. I had also seen firsthand how my family in Haiti was forced off fertile land by colonizers and made to retreat to degraded mountainsides.4 I held in my heart the countless stories of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people driven off prime lands by colonizers and onto the margins, from the Gullah-Geechee to the Standing Rock Sioux.5 While our fight for the literal and metaphorical “river bottom soils” must continue, it also behooves us to know how to remediate marginal land and bring back life where it has been banished.

  Because almost all wealth is inherited, and because our ancestors were among the dispossessed, many of us are not independently wealthy. This means that the land we are able to access may be contaminated with lead, eroded, or otherwise degraded. In this chapter we explore specific strategies for restoring degraded land to health, including lead remediation, no-till raised beds, terracing, and agroforestry. This chapter highlights the soil restoration techniques of the Haitian Peasant Movement, the terracing practices of Kenya, and the raised beds of the Ovambo people.

  Farmers in Leogane, Haiti, head back to the nursery to gather more tree seedlings for their reforestation project.

  UPLIFT

  Haitian Farmers Remediate Eroded Hillsides

  Haiti’s soil was stolen by the Spanish, who cut down the trees for sugarcane plantations, and then by the French, who continued the deforestation to make way for coffee, indigo, and tobacco. Without tree roots to hold the soil in place, the earth washed into the ocean. Farmers say, “Tè a fatige,” which means, “The earth is tired.”

  Peasant farmers across Haiti are leading grassroots solutions to soil erosion, with success. Haiti’s forests have made a comeback and now cover 30 percent of the land area. At Soul Fire Farm we have been working with farmers in Komye, Leogane, Haiti, since the 2010 earthquake and have learned about their soil conservation strategies. They plant a densely rooted perennial grass called vetiver in contour strips on the mountainside. Once the vetiver is established, it holds the soil in place and the farmers can plant mango, moringa, and cherry trees in the stable soil behind it. Approximately every 20 feet (6 m), they dig 3-foot-deep (1 m) trenches along the contour to catch runoff and soil that inevitably washes down the hillside during the heavy spring rains. Periodically, these trenches are dug out and the soil returned to the hillside. The combination of vegetated strips and soil conservation trenches increases water infiltration and maintains soil health.

  Remediating Soil Contaminated with Lead

  Lead is a pretty magical element. Before science realized that it causes brain damage in children, the West was wowed by its capacity to enhance the color quality of paint and prevent “knocking” in engines. Now that it’s been released into the environment, it’s ubiquitous. As an element, it cannot be broken down, only moved from one place to another. In many urban areas, lead paint continues to flake off of old houses and contaminate nearby soils.

  According to the EPA, soil lead levels over 400 ppm are hazardous to humans.6 The best way to determine if your potential garden or farm site contains lead is to get a professional soil test. Your state cooperative extension or land-grant university will offer soil tests at a nominal cost; in our area it’s about $12 to $20 per sample. The testing agency will give you specific instructions for how to conduct the test, but the basic process is the same. You create a “composite” sample by taking soil from a number of locations throughout your potential growing area. Dig down and gather your sample to a depth of 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) below the surface in each location; remove the rocks, roots, clumps, and debris; thoroughly mix the subsamples; spread about one cup on a clean paper to air dry; and then pack up the soil in a plastic bag and mail it to the testing agency.

  If your test comes back and shows less than 100 ppm of lead, you can safely use the soil in your growing area for crops. If the test reveals that you have over 1,200 ppm of lead, it’s best to call in professionals to remove the contaminated soil or find another piece of land. However, if the test reveals that your soil is in the sweet spot between 100 and 1,200 ppm of lead, you can try phytoremediation or immobilization.

  Phytoremediation is the process of using plants to remove contaminants from the soil. It takes at least one year and very careful monitoring, so it’s not for everyone. If you decide to try phytoremediation, you need to first make sure you have at least five months of above-freezing weather ahead of you so that the hardworking plants can live out their full life cycles. The next step is to fence off the area and put up signs indicating that it’s unsafe to touch the soil during the phytoremediation process. You need to protect yourself and your loved ones from interacting directly with contaminated soil. Identify designated shoes, clothing, and gloves for this project. This contaminated work attire should be bagged up at the end of each use and stored away from children. Always change into clean clothes before going back into your home.

  Soil from 12 points around the field is collected and mixed in a bucket to achieve a composite sample.

  Once you are ready to work with the soil, you need to chelate the lead, which means to make it more mobile by acidifying the soil to a pH of 6.0 (see chapter 5 for more on soil pH). The fastest way to acidify soil is to add elemental sulfur in the quantities described in table 4.1. Sulfur is also sold as ammonium sulfate, iron sulfate, and aluminum sulfate, which are slower-acting compound forms of the element. It’s also possible to acidify soil by using pine bark mulch, urine, or peat moss, but these methods require a lot more time and material.7 Apply your amendments and gently fork in to a depth of 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm). Ideally the sulfur is added months before planting, but you can get away with planting your phytoremediation crops four weeks after applying the acidifying agent.

  Table 4.1. Acidifying the Soil with Elemental Sulfur

  The best plants for lead phytoremediation in our trials at the Worcester Roots Project included scented geranium (Pelargonium spp.), sunflower (Helianthus annuus), Alpine pennygrass (Thlaspi caeru
lescens), and mustard greens (Brassica spp.).8 Pelargonium is an African indigenous crop with a rich, enduring scent. During our years working on urban soil remediation in Worcester, our bedroom was completely taken over with cuttings of this sacred plant. The growing requirements for pelargonium and the other bioaccumulators are listed in table 4.2. Sow these accumulating plants densely throughout the growing area, give them 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) of water per week, and wait until they are fully mature or your growing season has ended. Remember that you have now mobilized soil lead through chelation, so your growing site is temporarily more hazardous than it was before you acted. Make sure that neighbors, especially children, stay out. Continue to wear designated attire whenever working onsite.

  Table 4.2. Growing Requirements for Bioaccumulators

  At the end of the season, harvest the accumulator plants and put them into double trash bags. Check with your local waste disposal facility to determine the proper procedures for disposing of lead-contaminated plants. Most municipalities have a hazardous waste collection area. Do not compost these plants! Again, they are full of lead, and lead cannot be broken down; it’s an element.

  Now the moment of truth. It’s time to send your soil in for another test. Be sure to use the same procedure for your composite sample so that you are accurately comparing your pre- and post-remediation contamination. If your soil lead levels are now below 400 ppm, you can go ahead and use the area for growing crops. If lead levels are above 100ppm, it’s best to use at least 1 inch of phosphate-rich compost in all of your growing areas. Phosphorus binds with the lead and forms a compound that is less water-soluble.9 If someone were to accidentally ingest lead from phosphorus-rich soil, it’s more likely that the toxins would just pass through the body rather than penetrate the blood–brain barrier and cause neurological problems. Poultry manure, both fresh and composted, is by far the richest organic source of phosphorus, with cow manure a close second.10 Apply composted manure at 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.5 cm) per year. If you use fresh manure, allow 120 days to pass before planting food crops. In lieu of manure, you can also use rock phosphate, an organically approved mineral dust, at 10 pounds per 100 square feet (4.5 kg per 9 square meters).

  The sunflower is a hyperaccumulator and can trap lead in its tissues. Photo by Neshima Vitale-Penniman.

  If your soil still has lead levels higher than 400 ppm, you can try another round of phytoremediation, or you can take measures to isolate the contaminated soil from contact with plant roots or human feet. This latter process is called immobilization. If you choose immobilization, all of the areas that will become walking paths or crop beds need to first be covered with a layer of landscaping fabric, which is impenetrable to roots but porous to water. This fabric will hold the contaminated soil in place where it can do no harm, while you bring in layers of new soil for growing.

  UPLIFT

  Raised Beds of the Ovambo

  The Ovambo people of Northern Namibia and Southern Angola are clear that soil fertility is not an inherent quality, but rather something that is nurtured through mounding, ridging, and the application of organic matter. When the colonial government attempted to force the Ovambo farmers off their land, offering them equivalent plots with “better quality” soil, the farmers countered that they had invested substantially into building their soils and doubted that the new areas would ever equal their existing farms in fertility. The practice of the Ovambo is to demarcate the field, clear brush, then build raised rectangular mounds about 10 feet (3 m) long, 5 feet (1.5 m) wide, and 1 foot (0.3 m) tall. The pathways double as irrigation ditches. The Ovambo farmers add ample manure, ashes, termite earth, cattle urine, muck from wetlands, and other organic matter to increase the fertility of their mounds. This system concentrates fertile topsoil, aerates soil, and prevents waterlogging. The Ovambo also integrate a rotating fallow after a few seasons’ harvest of millet. During the fallow, cattle and goats graze the brush of the resting cropland and deposit additional manure and urine to replenish the soil.11 The Susu-Jalonke speakers of Guinea also planted their crops in mounds to decrease soil erosion. The practice of mounding the earth to grow tubers and other crops is common throughout West and West Central Africa.12

  Just as our Ovambo relatives in Namibia and Angola practice, you will grow your crops in raised beds to avoid contact with the contaminated soil. There are many right ways to build raised beds, and the simplest uses 2-by-12-inch (5-by-30 cm) wooden planks, framing angles, and fasteners. If you can source them, oak or cedar planks are best, because they are rot-resistant. We often settle for hemlock, because it is affordable and more durable than pine. Avoid using railroad ties or pressure-treated wood, because they contain arsenic and creosote, which can leach into your soil. You can make your raised bed any length, but keep your width to a maximum of 5 feet (1.5 m) so that you can easily reach to the middle for weeding and harvesting. An 8-by-4-foot (2.5-by-1.25 m) bed is a convenient size, since lumber is often sold in 8-foot lengths. Arrange your wooden planks in a rectangular design and use the framing angles and fasteners to hold then together. You can also make your raised bed out of cement blocks, stones, or logs from the forest. Once your structure is built, fill it almost completely with a blend of 50 percent topsoil and 50 percent compost. A raised bed that is 8-by-4-by-1-foot (2.5-by-1.25-by-0.3 m) holds exactly one cubic yard (0.75 cubic meter) of soil. Many cities have a municipal composting program where you may be able to get free or low-cost compost. Call your city parks department or community gardens coordinator and ask for support. In the case where you do not have ready access to compost, you can fill the raised bed halfway with raked leaves and then top it off with only ½ cubic yard (0.4 cubic meter) of the compost-soil blend. This reduces the expense and hassle of acquiring so much soil.

  Rosa and Rae construct a raised bed using hemlock boards and framing angles as part of the Soul Fire in the City initiative.

  Youth at the Sherman Park Community Garden construct new raised beds. Photo by Camille D. Mays.

  The pathways between the raised beds need to be thickly mulched with wood chips or other organic material to prevent foot traffic from stirring up contaminated soil. There is a common misconception that most exposure to soil lead happens by eating plants that have absorbed this lead and stored it in their edible parts. In fact, most soil lead contamination comes from ingesting the soil itself. People get soil trapped in the treads of their shoes and under their fingernails and then bring that lead back into their homes where children become exposed. To minimize this risk, the pathways should be covered with landscaping fabric and at least 2 inches of wood chips, pea stone, or other mulch material.

  On the garden edges and in between places, it’s acceptable to grow fruiting bushes and trees directly into the contaminated soil. The fruiting parts of the plants accumulate the least lead and pose little human health risk. Again, direct exposure to soil is the highest risk, so the soil around the bushes and trees should be covered with landscaping fabric and a minimum of 2 inches (5 cm) of mulch material.13 When working in soils with over 400 ppm of lead, remember to use designated shoes, clothing, and gloves that are stored separately from your everyday clothes.

  This community garden in Frederick, Maryland, immobilizes contaminants using landscaping fabric and wood-chip mulch. Photo by Natasha Bowens.

  Healing Erosion with Terraces

  In the rural landscape, lands that we are likely to be able to afford may be sloped, leached, eroded, rocky, and otherwise marginal. When George Washington Carver arrived at Tuskegee in 1897, he observed that “much of the topsoil had been carried away by a stream that cut across the property.” He and the students filled in the gullies and ditches with pine tops, hay, bark, old cotton stocks, leaves, and anything that would decay and eventually become soil. By 1905 Carver reported that “the injurious washing has been almost completely overcome.”14

  The soils at Soul Fire Farm were also severely eroded when we arrived, and we had to dedicate the first couple of growing
seasons just to getting the soil back in place. Local farmers in our community confidently informed us that it was “impossible” to grow decent crops given the condition of our soil. Fortunately, we are stubborn. After years of employing African ancestral land restoration processes, namely terracing and no-till mounding, the quality and nutritional value of our crops is excellent.

  Knowing that we had an upcoming community volunteer day and many of our experienced farmer friends from Oaxaca, Mexico, would be in attendance, we decided to start our agroforestry terracing project. The highly sloped areas on the farm with a grade over 15 percent were not safe to navigate with a tractor and susceptible to erosion. To bring these areas into food production, we needed to essentially create an exaggerated staircase that shapes the soil into a series of flat planting areas suited for trees or annual crops. We decided to lay out terraces 25 feet (7.5 m) apart from one another, allowing plenty of space for fruit trees to spread their branches.

  Terraces need to be built in line with the contour of the hill. Of course, you can use a transit level to determine elevations and stake out the terraces. However, our ancestors made use of clues from the environment to accomplish the same goals. Without any fancy tools, it is possible to accurately lay out the contours. Trees generally grow straight up and can be used as a reference point; the terraces should be perpendicular to the trees. You can also walk along the edge of your future terrace, tracing a path where you neither climb nor descend, but rather maintain your elevation. For a more accurate determination of slope, you can invite two friends over and use a string and level as described in the sidebar. Once the contour lines are determined, use wooden stakes, approximately 4 feet (1.25 m) apart, to mark and identify where each new terrace will be built.