2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners conference 2010

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon Food and Farms Partnership sponsored my trip to New York City for the 2010 Black Farmers and Urban Gardeners Conference. It was held at brooklyn college which is a small school located in the heart of the brooklyn borough. The conference had a lot of energy invested into it and was very well attended by roughly 500 people from all over the nation. There were people from all over Oakland, Detroit, Maryland, NC, BAltimore, Dominican Republic and many others.

The conference was held the day of the Pigford II passage trough congress, which is a class action law suit filled against the National Department of Agriculture claiming long standing discrimination against African American farmers, it was some of the biggest news from the weekend. Some of the lead organizers and campaigners for this case were in attendance and gave a keynote address. This lawsuit has created political waves nationally because of its shear size and scale of impact. It is very rare that victories like this one happen within the Black community not to mention that Native American landowners won a large class action lawsuit settlement also in recent days.

I also spent time touring around the different boroughs of New York to see the various Urban Garden designs that had been established for community residents. We heard stories about how people had to fight for their space and establish youth opportunities. The conference promoted building stronger networks, scaling up business opportunities, and promotion of urban gardening and rural farming. The experience was very educational and I was able to bring back a lot of information that will help me in my work here in Oregon.