Radically Relational Farming Reclaims Local Food

By Caroline Tremblay

Nationwide, a new agricultural movement is taking root, but it’s not just about growing food. It’s about growing power, healing and community through radically collaborative models that challenge generations of injustice and land loss.

According to the USDA’s Economic Research Service, Black farmers operated nearly 926,000 farms in 1920, holding around 15 million acres, most of it in the South. By 1997, that number had plummeted to fewer than 20,000 farms and just 2 million acres, marking a loss of more than 80%.

Today, Black farmers are sharing land, business space, tools and infrastructure, as well as creative funding opportunities to reimagine a blueprint that drives dynamic local food systems and more resilient communities.

One such model took shape in North Charleston, South Carolina, where community organizer and food justice leader Germaine Jenkins helped transform a former food desert into fertile ground for change.

In South Carolina, food insecurity looms as one of the most common struggles families face. The state has the 7th-highest rate for overall food insecurity, putting it significantly above the national average. In a state of about 5.5 million people, Feeding America estimates 757,840 people are facing hunger, including  196,320 children.

Racial disparities and poverty are big contributors, entangled with lack of access to affordable, nutritious food and the reality of numerous food deserts. The Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood, part of a cluster of 11 areas without reliable access to grocery stores in North Charleston, was one of them.

In response, Germaine Jenkins, a Black mother of two, leased a vacant lot from the city in 2014, determined to bring quality food and jobs to her community. That was the beginning of Fresh Future Farm, a collaborative effort to end the food apartheid that nearby low-wealth communities had endured for generations.

Fresh Future Farm brought the first grocery store to the neighborhood in 11 years, distributing 18 tons of food while creating jobs, offering agricultural education opportunities, and inspiring additional neighborhood gardens. These achievements directly combatted the very inequities the term “food apartheid” was created to call out.

It’s a term attributed to political activist Karen Washington, who shared on her site, “Let’s face it: healthy, fresh food is accessible in wealthy neighborhoods while unhealthy food abounds in poor neighborhoods. ‘Food apartheid’ underscores that this is the result of decades of discriminatory planning and policy decisions.” Jenkins has embraced the mission to address these disparities on a larger scale as a Community Weaver with EFOD (Equitable Food Oriented Development).

EFOD is a national network of practitioners dedicated to building wealth and food sovereignty in communities of color through shared leadership, non-extractive capital, and culturally grounded practices. As a Community Weaver, Jenkins serves as a connector between farmers, organizers, and funders, helping to ensure the people doing the work on the ground have what they need to keep going.

She helps answer questions like: Who’s already growing? Who’s ready to launch something new but just needs capital? How can we move resources quickly, respectfully, and with trust?

The work isn’t easy, and Jenkins has been candid about the toll it’s taken on her health and personal life, carrying the weight of both local leadership and a role in the larger food justice movement nationwide. Her journey is chronicled in the documentary Rooted, which follows her personal and political commitment to healing communities through food.

“What I’m learning now through my work on a national level is how similar the struggles are when you’re doing radical work—no matter where you’re based geographically,” she said. She’s most interested in finding ways to cut through bureaucracy and support other social entrepreneurs so they have the resources they need to be game-changers in their local food systems.

“It’s very hard to concentrate on a grant report when you’re trying to keep your crops alive or your livestock’s not selling,” Jenkins  said. She believes targeted funding and radical trust can shift the system toward justice and abundance. “If we want the best quality food, we have to have the best cared for farming community,” Jenkins said.

She refers to this approach as “radically relational,” which is not just about working together but about being willing to show up, lift each other up, and put trust before paperwork. These kinds of relationships deliver practical results, like healthy food on the table, as well as restorative outcomes, like communities regenerating after years of being isolated and under-resourced.

“Some folks have been put in a position where they no longer have control over a lot in their lives. But there was more control about how we live and eat when we owned our own land,” Jenkins said. What she helped build in North Charleston is just one expression of a much larger movement across the country.

The Black Food & Justice Alliance plays a critical role in connecting these efforts. The Alliance is a coalition of Black-led organizations and individuals working at the intersections of food sovereignty, land, and racial justice. Members share strategies, push for policy change, and build collective power to dismantle food apartheid and reclaim self-determination in their communities.

With hundreds of members nationwide, including Fresh Future Farm, the Alliance shows how the future of food and farming is already being reshaped through shared knowledge and coordinated action. For communities just beginning this work, Jenkins said, “The thing to understand first is that more than likely, there’s somebody already doing it—so support them instead.”

“Get rid of this illusion of perfect people. We’re all healing and growing in our own ways,” she said. For those looking to be part of the change, the key is to start where you are, support the good work that’s already happening, and keep going.

This article first appeared on The Daily Yonder and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

—

Previously Published on dailyyonder.com with Creative Commons License

***

–

The world is changing fast. We help you keep up.

We’ll send you 1 post, 3x per week.

Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.

All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. A complete list of benefits is here.

—

Photo: unsplash

The post Radically Relational Farming Reclaims Local Food appeared first on The Good Men Project.

View the full article