I’m really not too different from many other young people picking up the pitchfork and joining the ranks of the rapidly growing food movement … except that I seem to be the only person of color I know doing so.
As a highly educated, privileged, white-bread agriculturalist, I’ve so far avoided addressing the issue of bringing sustainable, personally-responsible agriculture into the minority communities that suffer worst from agribusiness’s two inevitable sidekicks: obesity and malnutrition. The back-to-farm movement so many of my contemporaries seem to be picking up doesn’t seem to be applicable to minority youth. Farming has ever been the province of the less-privileged classes, and although my own ancestors 
were blue-collar farmers through and through and it would be acceptable for me to eagerly grow radishes and heirloom chickens to my heart’s content, the struggle towards upward mobility still seems firmly entrenched in American minority societies. Farming simply isn’t an acceptable option. Natasha Bowens seems to be tackling this with a gently personal touch, and I’m eager to read more of her essays as she continues her journey.
The color of food
In search of black and Latino farmers in the sustainable food movement
