This Black History Month, Bon Appétit Management Company is centering the experiences of Black farmers as key drivers of more equitable food systems. We are exploring the storied past, present, and future of farming in the U.S. through the lens of Black farmers by investigating a dark history of land dispossession and the ongoing work towards a brighter future filled with greater opportunities for the next generation of land stewards.
Following centuries of enslavement of Black Americans for agricultural work, many liberated slaves were pressured into imbalanced agreements with white landowners like sharecropping and tenant farming that inhibited meaningful wealth generation. Despite these predatory arrangements, Black landownership began to rise in the early 1900s as Black farmers gained more financial independence. By 1910, Black farmers owned as many as 16 million acres of land, which still only accounted for 1.8% of farmland.
However, in the last century, Black farmland ownership has plummeted to 0.32% of all farmland due to decades of land theft through discriminatory agricultural policies. In the 20th century alone, Black farmers lost over 13 million acres of farmland, and the amount of land continues to dwindle. Back in 1920, there were nearly one million Black farmers compared to around 45,000 today. One of the major culprits of this widespread loss of land for Black farmers is the systemic denial of loans and funding from the USDA throughout the 20th century, in addition to a lack of adequate legal protection and falsely inflated property taxes that pushed Black landholders into debt and foreclosure.
It’s clear that a legacy of systemic racism continues to impact the success and prevalence of Black farmers to this day, which is why we using this Black History Month as a chance to uplift our long-time Farm to Fork partners with businesses owned and operated by Black farmers. We are also committed to advancing a more equitable future for Black and other disadvantaged growers, thanks to organizations like the Persimmon Collective Fund who seek to facilitate access to land, markets, technical assistance, and financial capital for BIPOC farmers in the Southeast.
Join us as we confront a complex and unjust past to inform a hopeful future in which Black farmers have equal access to land and opportunities in honor of Black History Month.