Black History Month on the Farm: These Black Farmers Are Making a Big Impact on Agriculture
Black History Month in February is a time to recognize and celebrate the achievements and contributions made by Black Americans – both past and present – across all facets of our nation’s history. In the stories below, meet a few Black farmers who are breaking barriers and making a big impact on agriculture as they carry on their family legacies, feed their communities and steward the land for the next generation.
John “Ronnie” Nix
Farming has been part of John “Ronnie” Nix’s life for as long as he can remember. The operation he runs today in Alachua County, Florida, was started by his grandfather in 1910, growing row and vegetable crops as well as raising cattle.
In the early 1900s, when the Hall family farm was started by Nix’s grandfather, there were approximately 900,000 Black farmers in the country. Today, that number has dwindled to 45,000. In Florida, only about 2,000 farms are owned by African Americans.
“Part of the reason is a lot of systemic discrimination over the years that didn’t allow Blacks to purchase or maintain farmland,” Nix says. “But there’s also a stigma among Black people that farming has ties to slavery. We want to help change that thought process and teach the next generation that it’s not the same thing. Farming today is about technology, food security and health. It’s so important for our community.”
To help make a difference, Nix is involved in several organizations, including the North Central Florida Black Farmers Association and the Florida chapter of Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association. Both have the same goal: to maintain Black farms and keep them profitable.
Read the story: Florida Family Advances Agriculture for Black Farmers
Bobby and Derravia Rich
Raised by her grandparents in South Memphis, Derravia Rich loved watching her grandfather tend his tomatoes, cucumbers and other vegetables while she and her sisters and cousins played in the yard. The produce he raised fed his large family and many of his neighbors too.
By the time Derravia and her husband, Bobby, moved back to Memphis after a decade in Nashville, her granddad had passed away. At that point, weeds were choking the beloved garden. When Bobby showed an interest in it, Derravia’s uncle, Robert “Bubay” Freeman, started showing him how to restore it to its original state.
In July 2021 the Riches turned a vacant lot in the Uptown neighborhood of Greenlaw into a full-blown business. Much like the family garden that inspired it, Black Seeds Urban Farms raises – and openly shares – all types of vegetables and fruits. They grow a variety of produce, from zucchini and eggplants to apples, raspberries and pears, and herbs like peppermint, lavender and thyme.
“Whenever we have a harvest, we’ll let people know throughout the neighborhood,” Bobby says. “Sometimes we contact the church next door and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got tomatoes, we have bags of okra.’ Most of the things that we grow, we pretty much give away.”
Bobby, now a certified master gardener, does all the labor, while his wife handles the agribusiness side. They’ve grown close to their new Greenlaw friends in what was once a food desert.
Read the story: Black Seeds Urban Farms Feeds the Soul of Its Memphis Community
Seth Steward
Growing up in urban New Jersey, Seth Steward fell in love with farm life on trips to visit his grandmother in Akron. The son of a pastor, he also studied religion and mythology and learned that people around the world shared a common denominator: a reverence for honey bees. It wasn’t until years later that Steward found out that his maternal grandfather had raised the valuable pollinators as a hobby in the 1940s and ’50s.
When Steward first revealed to his mother, Linda, that he was thinking of raising bees, she was perplexed.
“She said, ‘Ain’t no beekeepers that look like us,’” Steward recalls.
But the more they talked, the more excited she became about the prospect of fresh honey.
In 2014, after working on a mentor’s bee farm, Steward harvested his first batch of Linda’s Sweet Honey in his own backyard. A few years later, a farmer asked Steward to set up an apiary on his property, and Linda’s Bee Farm was born.
Steward now tends up to 100 hives at a time, harvesting honey to sell while his wife, Adrienne, makes skin care products ranging from lotions to beard balms. The Stewards also run a gift shop in Westlake, offering artisanal honey products, gifts and bee-themed items.
Read the story: Linda’s Bee Farm in Ohio Is a Sweet Success
Deydra Steans
Ever since she launched Black Gold Resourcing LLC in 2018, Deydra Steans has worked tirelessly to provide education and resources to marginalized agriculture producers, including the population of Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) in Texas and across the country.
One of her proudest projects is the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, a food delivery program for the Texas Department of Agriculture where more than $30 million in funds has been awarded, the most of any state. Steans utilizes information she’s gained in her involvement to advocate and build sustainability into these efforts.
The Sustainable Food Center’s Value Chain Coordination Workgroup is another passion of Steans, where she plays a vital role in connecting local Texas agriculture producers to programs and resources that focus on local food systems. She is also making an impact in food desert areas by working on value chain programs in Louisiana and opening the Soil Sisters Farmer’s Market in San Antonio’s east side.
Steans is using her resources to protect Texas Freedom Colonies, historically significant land settled by formerly enslaved people during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras in Texas from 1865 to 1930. Since their founding, Freedom Colony descendants have dispersed, making it difficult to establish the status and locations of the land.
All of Steans’ work is shaping larger efforts, including a cooperative agriculture consortium and a land trust to assist in carrying forth the mission.
“I’m proud to be one of the first Black women in Texas to have a B Corporation, set up for sustainable projects,” she says.
Read the story: Deydra Steans Is Keeping Her Texas Farm Community on Solid Ground
Huey Howard
When Huey Howard first arrived in Immokalee, Florida, from Mississippi in 1953, he knew he wanted to be part of the state’s historic cattle industry.
On his path to building what is now a thriving family cattle ranch comprising close to 7,000 acres, one of the biggest obstacles he encountered was acquiring land.
“People would tell me, ‘If I sell you some land, it’s going to make my friends mad.’ Then they wouldn’t sell it to me,” Howard, now 86, recalls.
In order to kickstart his dreams of ranching, he collaborated with a white friend to purchase 20 acres.
He introduced himself to a rancher in Kissimmee who sold him his first few head of cattle, and, over time, he took every opportunity and made strategic choices to gradually increase the amount of acreage he owned.
Although data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows the overall number of Black growers in the U.S. has been slowly but steadily rising over the past decades, Howard points out that he and his family are a rarity among Southwest Florida ranchers.
“I don’t know of any Black farmers in Immokalee but me and my family,” he says. “There’s a lot of opportunity, but no Black farmers around and no Black cowboys either – other than my sons.”
Read the story: Florida Cattle Rancher Huey Howard Lassos a Legacy
James Brewer
Near Greenwood, Mississippi, James Brewer has been growing vegetables since his retirement in 2007 and has grown his farm from 1 acre to more than 7 today. Brewer grows tomatoes, green peas, cucumbers, squash and okra. The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce’s (MDAC) partnership with local food banks has given Brewer an avenue to support his community through his produce. He is dedicated to bringing fresh, healthy, affordable food to those less fortunate around him in a variety of ways.
“I work with MDAC to increase food access in underserved communities, delivering fresh vegetables to elderly families that cannot drive,” Brewer says. “I sell produce at my farm and at farmers markets, accept WIC vouchers, senior citizen vouchers and EBT cards, and have field days in order to convince other citizens to grow healthy vegetables; I show them how to grow sustainable vegetables.”
Read the story: Mississippi Local Food Purchase Assistance Program Connects Farmers With Communities in Need
Shara Trierweiler
Organic farming is the way to go for Shara Trierweiler with Agape Organic Farms in Michigan.
Trierweiler raises mushrooms and purebred Berkshire pigs on her 30-acre farm with the motto “No Bad Stuff Ever” in mind – and it’s no easy task.
“My organic systems plan for my pigs is 19 pages, and for mushrooms, it’s another 20,” she says.
Those plans include inputs, practices and environmental stewardship, as well as being organically certified by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Not spraying or having your animals outside doesn’t mean your food is organic,” says Trierweiler, regarding common misconceptions within the industry. “We have a high level of accountability and a lot of record-keeping and data tracking to do to be considered organic.”
Read the story: Michigan Farmers Reap the Benefits of Organic Methods
Zephrine Hanson
Zephrine Hanson of Hampden Farms is a farmer and entrepreneur. She has been farming since 2017 after moving her family to Colorado on a journey of healing, self-care and empowerment. Hanson is an Air Force veteran and a Black woman in the Veterans to Farmers program at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms, where she conducts a lavender feasibility study and teaches how to grow, harvest and use lavender in numerous ways.
Hanson describes herself as a serial entrepreneur. “All the cumulative jobs I have stepped into led me to be the kind of farmer I am today,” she says.
Her multiple communities include her family, Veterans to Farmers, Mile High Farmers and FrontLine Farming. Each provides different support in Henson’s agricultural career as she navigates her path as a person with intersectional identities.
Read the story: Labors of Love: Colorado’s Agriculture Industry Boasts Diverse Talent
Angelique Taylor and David “Kip” Ritchey
In Florida, Angelique Taylor and David “Kip” Ritchey of Smarter by Nature Farms are working to change the landscape and the statistical numbers in farming. Since 2017, Taylor and Ritchey have managed a 5-acre plot of land in Quincy situated on what was once a thriving farm 20 years ago. Through their use of regenerative agriculture, permaculture and other sustainable methods, they furnish more than 100 families per year with fresh, organic produce and aim to provide healthy, affordable food. In addition, Taylor and Ritchey share food-growing knowledge and earth stewardship with members of the community. They are on a mission to facilitate sustainable relationships between people and the natural environment.
“Our goal is to increase soil fertility, grow healthy plants without the use of synthetic fertilizers and excessive tilling of the land, and give the community power in knowing how to feed and sustain itself,” Taylor says.
Continued ecological health, economic survival and community strength can only be fortified and sustained by diversity. America is a melting pot of many cultures. Its diversity of crops is a direct reflection of the diversity of people calling “the land of the free” home.
Read more: Soil, Seed, Soul: Improving Diversity in Florida Agriculture
Bruce-Michael Wilson
As a boy growing up on a 160-acre farm, Bruce–Michael Wilson loved spending long days and nights harvesting corn while riding the tractors and combines. He also enjoyed hearing his father tell stories about how Wilson’s grandmother, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, crafted a medicine sack for her son each spring and stuffed it with garlic and other remedies to ward off the old and usher in the new.
Despite his bond with farm, family and heritage, Wilson went into real estate and investing, regularly returning to the family farm to help out. But the tug of the land wouldn’t go away, so in 2019 he bought a 7-acre organic farm in Zeeland, Michigan, to help his parents in their retirement and rekindle interest in what was once a thriving industry for the Black community. The farm was named Groundswell, signifying “a coming together.”
Wilson now grows about 200 different varieties of 60 to 80 vegetables, from staples like potatoes, sweet corn, squash, beets and carrots to more exotic varieties of kohlrabi, fennel, sorrel, eggplant and leeks.
Read the story: For Groundswell Farm Owner Bruce-Michael Wilson, Farming Isn’t Just About Crops