I had the opportunity to visit the Organic Valley distribution center and office. It was great being able to see both halves of the cooperative come together, having one day with the farmers and the next day with the employees who sell and distribute their product. Visiting Organic Valley I got a chance to see how they work and how they work with the farmers. One big thing they highlighted is that it is the farmers who own the company. So instead of having people buy shares of the co-op or become members everything belongs to the farmers and they get to make all the decisions regarding the function of the co-op. Another thing the co-op highlighted is how seriously they take being organic–all farms must stick to being strictly organic and have the proper certification to prove they are in fact following organic farming practices. The speakers at Organic Valley talked a little about how they work with farmers to keep up their organic practices, and there are farmers who want to transition to organic from conventional to join the co-op. They have staff who works with farmers to help them move in to organic practices.
I am deeply committed to organic farming and think that most of these practices are beneficial, but I am concerned with the difficulty that comes along with transitioning from conventional to organic and how that process becomes even more difficult for Black farmers.
The 2018-2019 school year had an awesome opportunity to work with Furman professor, Dr. Habron, to come up with a program that combines social justice work and environmentalism. I learned quickly that this combination is a passion of his and he gave me so many resources to look to verse myself in the literature. One focus of environmentalism and social justice that I became invested in were the racial disparities that Black farmers face in America. One of those disparities include becoming organically certified. An article titled, Has the Organic Movement Left Black Farmers Behind? from the news website Civil Eats (provided by Dr. Habron), revealed from pretty shocking statistics. The article says, “the 2012 Census of Agriculture found that of the 33,000 Black-owned farms, only 116 of them (or less than .05 percent) are certified organic.” The article continues to write that some of struggle of becoming certified organic comes from stigma in the black farming community and tension around the word organic. It is revealed in the article that Black farmers have trouble grappling with and accepting USDA certification because for some farmers they have always been farming organically but now it for them to receive the benefits of the practice they have abide by government policy. Part of that policy includes, “the USDA’s grueling 19-page application.”
Has the Organic Movement Left Black Farmers Behind?
Something I wanted to ask at Organic Valley, but didn’t have the courage to ask, for fear of making the mood uncomfortable and because the specific answer probably wasn’t available was, how many black farmers are members of the co-op? l think have resources to help with organic certification is in huge step in the right direction as far reforming agricultural practices, but they would be even more helpful in removing the inequitable gap between Black and white farmers. So, I can’t say that Organic Valley does not provide to Black farmers because I don’t have the answer to my question.
So these still leaves me wondering, how are we empowering our black farmers? And also questioning, how are we telling the story of organic farming? When Robert Paarlberg, author of Food Politics, writes about the organic practice he mentions how all food prior to the 20th century was always organic, but never mentions how the regulation of the practice disenfranchised groups of farmers around the world. I want to continue my research to discover what black co-ops exist and there are any specifically for food and/or agriculture. Uplifting Black farmers should be crucial in agricultural policy. To achieve food justice in America we must give all farmers equal opportunity.
I am an invisible man…I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids–and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
— Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man