Soul Food: [Re]framing the African-American Farming Crisis Using the Culture-Centered Approach

Abstract

Historically, African-American farmers faced a long and challenging struggle to own land and operate independently. In recent years, several factors, including unfair policy legislation, institutionalized racism, the mechanization of agriculture, and increases in agricultural technology have exacerbated land loss and decreases in farm ownership. Currently, African-American farmers are vastly underrepresented, comprising just 2% of the nation's farmers, 0.5% of farmland and 0.2% of total agricultural sales. As a site for inquiry, this topic has been examined across many academic sub-disciplines, however, the literature has not yet explored how the erasure of the African-American farmer influences the conversation about broader diet-related health disparities in the U.S. This overlooked perspective represents a novel approach to rethinking public health interventions and may improve methods for communicating messages about healthy eating to the African American community. In this essay, we extend (Dutta, 2008) the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA) to foreground the lived experiences and perspectives of a small cohort of African-American farmers (n = 12) living in the U.S. Mid-South as an entry point to address this underexamined area of research and inform future methodological directions of study. Two key themes emerged from the thematic analysis:(1) erasure of the African-American farming tradition and land loss; and (2) solutions to change. Drawing on the understanding that systematic land loss in the African-American community has contributed to wealth disparities between African-Americans and Whites, we argue that the erasure of the African-American farming tradition within mainstream discourses has created communication inequities that disenfranchise the African-American community and may contribute to broader health inequities in food system. Our findings may offer important insights into the methodological development of more effective health campaigns within these communities.

Re-Imagining Localism and Food Justice: Co-Op Cincy and the Union Cooperative Movement

“…Spaces like community gardens foster intergenerational learning among people normally removed from agricultural production. At the same time, efforts such as farmers markets may circulate a "white farm imaginary" (Slocum, 2007;Gordon and Hunt, 2018) that celebrates white farmers and white histories (McCullen, 2011), erasing Latino and other farm workers of color in consumers' minds (Carter and Alexander, 2020). Farmers markets and local groceries also may serve white and middle class consumers (Webber et al, 2010;Conley and Eckstein, 2012).…”

A critical analysis of plant science literature reveals ongoing inequities

“…Plant science, in particular, suffers from more acute historical exclusion and ongoing underrepresentation of marginalized identities compared to other biological disciplines (Madzima and MacIntosh, 2021). In Northern America, associations between plant science and agriculture with colonialism, slavery, and the exploitation of migrant workers (Carter and Alexander, 2020) have contributed to a disproportional lack of diversity in plant science compared to related fields. Global economic disparities, established under imperial colonialism and perpetuated through modern eurocentric frameworks, further exacerbate underrepresentation of diverse perspectives in plant science (Baber 2016; Li 2021; Marks et al 2021).…”

“…Plant science, which, for the context of this study, we define broadly as any research investigating an organism that performs photosynthesis , suffers from acute historical exclusion and ongoing underrepresentation of marginalized identities (7). In Northern America, associations between plant science and agriculture with colonialism, slavery, and the exploitation of migrant workers (8) have contributed to a notable lack of diversity in the discipline. Global economic disparities, established under imperial colonialism and perpetuated through modern eurocentric frameworks, further exacerbate underrepresentation of diverse perspectives in plant science (9, 10, 3).…”

Editorial: Food systems communication amid compounding crises: Power, resistance, and change

“…A growing body of scholarship is emphasizing communicative relationships among food systems, power, and organizing (see for example Dougherty, 2011;Frye and Bruner, 2012;Williams-Forson and Counihan, 2013;Knezevic et al, 2014;Broad, 2016;Hunt, 2016;de Souza, 2019;Dutta and Thaker, 2019;Carter and Alexander, 2020;Cruz and Sodeke, 2020;Ivancic, 2020;Singer et al, 2020;Gordon et al, 2021;LeGreco and Douglas, 2021;Zoller et al, 2022 among many others). This Research Topic invited contributions that expand and deepen examinations of food systems with attention to historical and contemporary food system struggles, injustices, and undercurrents revealed within them.…”