Agriculture Offers Change

There are four main issues that plague black communities nationwide: food deserts, food related health issues, lack of education and poor economic development. The black community is always the one that suffers the most as it pertains to any major events that occur in this country.  COVID-19, tariff wars, borders closing, stock market plummeting etc. has had and will have a huge impact on the US economy. These will only exacerbate the issues that plague the black community.

Our organization has been tackling these issues since 2013 by offering classes, programs and hands-on training that teaches about the agriculture industry to socially disadvantaged groups with an emphasis in black/African American Communities. Many of the issues previous stated that affect the black community could be directly combatted through the agriculture industry by the individuals themselves. To do this however, you must have a population of people that are educated, trained in this field and the development of agribusinesses in these Communities. Agribusiness is a business engaged in the production, processing, marketing, distribution, or exporting of agricultural products. The term includes any related business the primary function of which is providing goods or services to an agricultural enterprise. The number of black-owned agribusinesses in the midwestern states of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana are almost nonexistent. While agriculture is not just farming, farming is a huge sector in this industry. 

Why are black communities in this region not pursuing careers in agriculture? The following are some of the factors that have contributed to the small numbers of socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in this region: 

1. Little to no exposure to the agriculture industry because of geographical location.
2. A negative perception of farming due to systemic racism along with exclusion; the lack of resources; and
3. limited to no knowledge on how to start a farming operation.

Through our training programs and service we hope to change this narrative and increase the number of black farmers and black owned agribusinesses in this region.

Program Funded by: