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Meet the Black Farmers Fighting Food Deserts in New York

Arian Rivera, 39, And Ashanti Williams, 32, Of Black Yard Farm Cooperative Pose With A Crate Of Peppers And Wild Flowers Picked In A Field Nearby In August 2021. (Photo: Henry Hung/Vice News)

Black Yard Farm Cooperative is producing fresh food to promote food sovereignty in Harlem and the Bronx.

By Yasmin Tayag
Vice
Sept 8, 2021

Excerpt:

SLOANSVILLE, NY — On a warm August morning in this hamlet in upstate New York, Ashanti Williams and Arian Rivera are breaking ground on a new vegetable plot on their 95-acre farm. Winter is coming, and they need to plant cover crops to prepare the land for new growth next spring.

Williams, 32, and Rivera, 39, owners and operators of the Black Yard Farm Cooperative, grow produce that’s culturally relevant to the neighborhoods they came from in Harlem and the Bronx. That means crops like lima beans, collard greens, callaloo, hot peppers, and different rice varieties. “Food is medicine,” says Williams. And in their communities, two historically underserved areas of New York City with large populations of color, people need the food “that actually helps you heal and grow, as opposed to things that are going to make you sick.”

Read the complete article here.