Deydra Steans Is Keeping Her Texas Farm Community on Solid Ground
In partnership with: Texas Department of Agriculture
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.
“It’s amazing that fourth- and fifth-generation cattle folk didn’t know that the USDA has offices in every county with a wide variety of programs to help support farmers and provide a level of risk aversion,” Steans says.
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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.
“For the first time ever, we participated in this program as provisioners of locally raised ground meat,” she says.
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.
“I have a mission to protect and preserve Texas Freedom Colonies and landowners in marginalized, urban and rural communities from land loss.”
– Deydra Steans, Black Gold Resourcing LLC
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 eastside.
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.
“I have a mission to protect and preserve Texas Freedom Colonies and landowners in marginalized, urban and rural communities from land loss,” Steans says.
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.
As a mom of two, Steans encourages her children to broaden their horizons.
She expects them to attend college and get degrees so they can carry on the legacy that she is helping to realize.
“I have expectations that my children will continue the legacy of owning this land and do something productive to expand our community,” Steans says.