Black farmers in Texas build a home-grown community with nonprofit support

From KERA News:

For years, Veronica Petty has cultivated her own little secret in the back of her suburban Lancaster home.

Past the wooden gate, green extends in every direction. The chirping of birds fills the air as bees and aphids zoom around elderberries, peppers, swiss chard, blueberries, figs and peaches. A steady trickle of water flows from her homemade irrigation system as compost bins do their microscopic work.

From 9 to 5, Petty works as an insurance claims adjuster. When she gets home, she heads into her backyard farm.

“Even when it’s hard with the physical labor, the bags and all of that, I love it. I wouldn’t change anything about it at all,” she said.

Petty is one of a few Black farmers based in North Texas who owns a USDA-registered farm and business. She’s part of a cohort called The Soil-to-Profit Initiative with the Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, which is aiming to grow the number of Black farmers and ranchers in the state.

P. Wade Ross, CEO of the nonprofit, said his parents W. Wade Ross and Anita Ross started the organization in 1998 to champion other Black farmers.

For over a century, the Ross family has farmed and ranched 120 acres near Bryan. The land was passed down from Ross’ paternal great- grandfather, a runaway slave from South Carolina. Grandpa Jack was forced to pay for his land twice. But he never lived to see the final deed.

“Black farmers have always been on the outside looking in commercially when it comes to monetizing their land,” he said.

Veronica Petty, a Lancaster-based farmer and master gardener, plants seeds on a nursery bed on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 at her backyard in Lancaster.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

The root of the issue

Black farmers make up less than 2% of all U.S. farmers, according to a McKinsey study. While funding is available for Black farmers, Ross said emerging farmers and ranchers often don’t meet the criteria to qualify because funders want to see proof of performance.

That can create a “vicious cycle,” according to Ross.

“They’re saying ‘I don’t really have any real true data.’ Even the farm service agencies and places like that, they want to see a business plan and your track record over the last three years,” he said.

In recent years, the decline in Black farmers has also resulted in significant land loss. From 1992 to 2002, 94% of Black farmers lost some or all of their land, which is three times the rate of white farmers, according to the Berkeley Institute of Food. An estimated $326 billion has been lost in profit and land in the 20th century.

Ross is big on teaching the basics of financial literacy and leveraging social media to do so. He posts reels on saving and investing to the Instagram account @blackfarmerscbo and invites economists and financial experts to talk about issues like accessing capital.

Petty said learning concepts like “soil to profit” in the cohort has helped her see her backyard farm as a real business.

“You learn everything from managing your ground to production of your food to building a business to actually selling. … It’s like a holistic program,” she said.

It takes a considerable amount of money just to maintain her quarter acre of land. Last year, she invested nearly $26,000 into her farm and so far this year she’s invested $12,000.

While she’s been running a deficit, she’s eager to break even in the coming year. The producer sells her crops at local farmers markets like For Oak Cliff, and has plans to grow her business by selling herbs to a local Mexican restaurant and her loofah plants to a soapmaker. She’ll also have the help of a USDA Environmental Quality Grant, which will subsidize $5,000 for new farm equipment.

Veronica Petty, (left) a Lancaster-based farmer and master gardener, works with her daughter Jessica Bennett at her backyard garden on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 in Lancaster.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

Julianna YeeFoon, director of food justice at For Oak Cliff, said it’s important for local communities to turn to their neighbors for fresh, nutritious food. She said historically Black and brown people have done much of the labor to support food systems but have not profited from that work.

“The way that our food system has evolved has largely come out of the United States history of colonization and enslavement, and the ways that labor has been used and exploited to build our food systems is still around us now,” she said.

That’s why her organization supports local farmers of color by subsidizing their entry fee to the farmers market and providing tents, tables and chairs so they can just focus on selling.

P. Wade Ross, CEO of the Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Community Based Organization, speaks to a group of Black farmers.
Courtesy Of The Texas Small Farmers And Ranchers Community Based Organization

Grappling with history

YeeFoon said her organization has taken extra care to support Black and brown growers because they understand the history of racism they’ve faced, particularly in areas like South Oak Cliff and southern Dallas where Petty lives. Parts of those areas are federally recognized food deserts or areas with limited access to affordable, fresh food.

“The USDA has largely been discriminatory against particularly Black farmers and growers, has excluded them from the ability to get funding, to have loans, to have the supports that a lot of white farmers have,” YeeFoon said.

The USDA has acknowledged a long history of discrimination against Black farmers. In July, the USDA announced the distribution of $2 billion to farmers and ranchers who faced discriminatory lending prior to 2021. The majority of the payouts went to Black farmers and ranchers.

In recent years, Ross’ family was invited to participate in a county program connecting cattle ranchers with meat processors. But when his family showed up, a well-known meat processor in East Texas took one look at them and said, “This is not a Black man’s game.”

“The guy from the county could not believe it. He almost fell over because he couldn’t believe that kind of blatant, overt, systematic racism happens and there was nothing we could do about it,” Ross said.

These historical challenges have left many Black farmers with emotional trauma that isn’t addressed, Ross said.

“There’s very little hope in these communities. Very little trust,” he said. “It’s a huge thing that most people who are privileged don’t really understand that piece of it.”

The nonprofit provides a space for Black farmers to talk openly about painful experiences. That kind of candid discussion has cultivated a strong community. Petty said everyone in her cohort is always willing to lend a helping hand. At the end of October, cohort members will visit Tyler to help one of their friends with harvest season.

Veronica Petty, a Lancaster-based farmer and master gardener, pauses between clearing out weeds at her backyard garden, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024 in Lancaster.
Shafkat Anowar / The Dallas Morning News

“Finding my tribe, we’re just making sure that we’re all OK. I found that in this organization and I’m just so grateful to be connected to that family and to everyone in the community,” she said. 

Petty dreams of buying 50 acres of Texas farmland where she can live with her family and some goats. It’s a vision that seems a little more possible with the community or “tribe” she’s found in the nonprofit.

That dream may not come to fruition right away. But for now, Petty will be in her happy place, weeding and harvesting among the birds and bees.

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