Benefits Of Farming: How To Start Growing Your Food
Black Farmers Share The Benefits Of Farming & How To Start Growing Your Food
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There can be obstacles to obtaining healthy food, especially in communities where food deserts run rampant. There has been a farming revolution as of late with everyday people starting small farms within their communities.
At the Essence Festival of Culture this July, a panel discussion was held on the Black farming movement featuring Dreka Gates, Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley and Bill Releford, D.P.M. Actress Keshia Knight Pulliam served as the moderator. She owns a farm outside of Atlanta, GA and calls it a joy to grow vegetables and raise animals.
“I think what a lot of people forget is that this is our heritage,” she remarked. “We didn’t start as slaves, and when we came over, we brought with us seeds, we brought with us rice, we brought with us the knowledge of farming that allowed this country to be what it is.”
Aside from basking in the bounty of lush crops produced from farming, there’s a health component to owning your own piece of farmland. Releford of Bloom Ranch in California is also a doctor and said farming is a form of exercise.
“If you start moving around, just pick up a hoe or a rake and see how many calories you can burn,” he said. “You can burn 500 calories an hour when you’re raking and, hoeing, watering.”
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It doesn’t take much to start your own farm either. The panelists encouraged the audience to start small and grow what you like to eat.
“Start low,” Gates, who owns a 43-acre blueberry farm in Mississippi, said. “Yes, start low and go slow. We have window sills and you have balconies. There are such things as microgreens that you can grow on your window sill.”
Gates added, “Think about some of the things, like herbs, that you already consume, and just start there. It’s super rewarding.”
If you already accomplished window sill farming and are ready for your own plot of land, you don’t need a bunch of acres to be a real deal farmer.
“The USDA only requires that you have 100th of an acre in order to be a farm that’s recognized by the government,” Farmer Cee said. “So I would say do your market research.”
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