Racial Disparities in Land and Farm Ownership

Seward Co-op prioritizes purchases from Community Foods producers, which includes Black-owned companies and farms. As a food business, we see the majority of our fresh produce, meat, and dairy available from non-Black-owned sources. Structural and economic racism in our country has robbed Black Americans of land. Though Black farmers have always been the leading marginalized group among U.S. farmers, even at the peak of land ownership in 1920, Blacks were still only 14 percent of all farmers. Today, we still see evidence of this harmful history reflected in the numbers: less than two percent of farmland is owned by Black people. In our capitalist economy, “wealth typically grows over time, compounding interest and assets, then transfers from generation to generation. Most Blacks in the United States have not had the opportunity to expand their family’s assets over time due to discrimination and racial inequities,” according to an article from The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. This means until systematic changes occur across the rural landscape, the percentage of fruits and vegetables at our co-op grown by Black farmers, and chickens, hogs, and cattle raised by Black farmers will not reach its full potential. As a co-op shopper, make the commitment this month to educate yourself about historic and ongoing broken promises, racial discrimination, and land loss suffered by Black farmers in the United States.

Learn more:

• Memo: Land Access for Beginning and Disadvantaged Farmers
• Racial Equity in U.S. Farming: Background in Brief, from the Congressional Research Service
• The Federation Of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund
• National Black Farmers Association
• Black Lands Matter: The Movement to Transform Heirs’ Property Laws

Cooperation as a Tool for Social and Economic Justice

Cooperative economics has been a tool for survival since the beginning of time, and it’s how we existed long before the concept of capitalism. The story of cooperation, and furthermore cooperative economics, is not exclusive to any one ethnic or racial group; it has been adopted by countless cultures around the globe, and this is especially true throughout African American history. Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard opens the door to critical aspects of Black cooperative history in her book “Collective Courage.” Nembhard continues the research of W.E.B. Du Bois from the early 20th century to catalog the extensive efforts of Black and African American cooperatives. She places co-ops solidly as precursors to and tools used in the Civil Rights Movement and clearly demonstrates that the co-op narrative belongs to everyone. This book has inspired Seward Co-op to conduct a deep dive of the rich history of Black-led co-ops in the Twin Cities, as we continue to use cooperation as a tool for social and economic justice.