An Educational Series by GOD AND W.E.E.D.

Farmers & Mother Earth

The Earth Feeds Us. The Farmers Make It Possible.

W.E.E.D. — We Eat Earthy Dishes

Before there was a store. Before there was a tee. Before there was a movement — there was soil. There were hands in the ground. There were people who rose before the sun, who knew the names of plants, who fed entire communities with nothing but faith, seed, and sweat.

This page is a living classroom. It is for them — every farmer, on every continent, in every season, of every background. The farmers of the world are among the most important people who have ever lived.

Chapter One

🌾 Black Farmers in America: The Full Story

At the turn of the 20th century, Black farmers owned over 16 million acres of land across the United States — a staggering achievement built on resilience, sacrifice, and an unbreakable bond with the earth. Today, that number has fallen to fewer than 3 million acres. This is not simply a statistic. It is a story of systemic dispossession, generational loss, and a resistance that continues to this day.

The Roots: Farming Under Slavery and Reconstruction

Enslaved Black people were the agricultural backbone of the American economy for over 200 years. They cultivated rice, indigo, tobacco, sugar, and cotton — crops that built the wealth of a nation — without compensation, without legal protection, and without acknowledgment. After emancipation, the promise of “40 acres and a mule” was made and then swiftly broken. Despite this betrayal, Black families built farms from the ground up during Reconstruction, purchasing land, establishing cooperatives, and feeding their communities.

The Great Land Loss: 1910–2000

By 1910, Black farmers had acquired approximately 16 to 19 million acres of farmland. What followed was a systematic dismantling of that ownership through predatory lending, discriminatory federal loan programs, intimidation, legal manipulation, and outright theft — including the use of “heirs’ property” laws that allowed outsiders to force the sale of land passed down without formal wills. Black farmers lost nearly 90% of their land over the next century.

The USDA played a direct role in this dispossession. For decades, USDA county offices systematically denied Black farmers loans, disaster relief, and technical assistance that were routinely granted to white farmers. A landmark 1999 class-action lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman, resulted in a $1.25 billion settlement — one of the largest civil rights settlements in U.S. history. A second settlement, Pigford II, followed in 2010, providing an additional $1.25 billion to those who had missed the original filing deadline.

These are the many faces of God — people of immense faith, strength, and dignity — treated as though they were invisible. They were not. They are not.

The Reclamation: Black Farmers Today

A new generation of Black farmers is reclaiming the land — and redefining what farming looks like in America. From urban rooftop gardens in Detroit and Atlanta, to regenerative farms in the Deep South, to food sovereignty movements led by young Black women, the reclamation is real, growing, and powerful.

Ways to support Black farmers:

• Buy directly from Black-owned farms and CSA programs in your area
• Support the Black Farmer Fund, SAAFON, Soul Fire Farm, and the National Black Food & Justice Alliance
• Advocate for equitable USDA lending policies and heirs’ property protections
• Share their stories — amplification is action
• Support ALL farmers who nourish our communities with real, wholesome food. Know your history so you can help shape a more just future.

Chapter Two

🌍 Farmers Around the World: The Hands That Feed Us All

Over 500 million small-scale farming families feed the world. They are the quiet backbone of global civilization — largely uncelebrated, frequently underpaid, and often invisible to the consumers whose lives depend on their labor.

🌎 Africa: The Original Agricultural Civilization

Africa is home to some of the oldest agricultural traditions on earth. West African farmers have cultivated sorghum, millet, yams, and cowpeas for thousands of years. Across the Sahel, women farmers — who produce up to 80% of the food in some regions — are leading innovations in drought-resistant crops and water conservation. These are not struggling communities waiting for help. These are knowledge holders whose wisdom the rest of the world urgently needs.

🏯 Asia: Feeding Billions with Ancient Wisdom

Asia is home to the majority of the world’s smallholder farmers. In India, Indigenous farmers protect over 100,000 varieties of rice — a biodiversity that is irreplaceable. In the Philippines, Ifugao farmers have maintained terraced rice paddies for over 2,000 years — a UNESCO World Heritage site built entirely without machinery. Asia’s farmers are not primitive — they are pioneers.

🌺 Latin America: Guardians of Biodiversity

Indigenous Andean farmers in Peru and Bolivia have cultivated over 3,000 varieties of potato — the crop that now feeds billions worldwide. In Mexico, Milpa farming — the ancient intercropping of corn, beans, and squash known as the “Three Sisters” — has sustained civilizations for millennia and represents one of the most nutritionally complete farming systems ever devised.

🌿 The Middle East & Mediterranean: Where Farming Began

The Fertile Crescent — spanning modern-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and Turkey — is widely regarded as the birthplace of agriculture, approximately 12,000 years ago. Wheat, barley, lentils, and chickpeas were first domesticated here. Their perseverance is a testament to humanity’s unbreakable relationship with the soil.

🌻 Indigenous Farmers of North America

Long before European contact, Indigenous peoples across North America were sophisticated agricultural societies. The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) developed the Three Sisters intercropping system. Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and other nations cultivated vast gardens of corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, and medicinal herbs. Today, organizations like the Native American Agriculture Fund are restoring food sovereignty to Native communities.

Chapter Three

🌱 How to Honor Farmers Every Day

You don’t have to own land to honor the farmers who feed you. Here is how to show up — for all ages, in all seasons:

• 🥦 Eat intentionally. Know where your food comes from. Choose local, seasonal, and organic when you can.
• 🛒 Shop at farmers markets. Every dollar you spend there goes directly to the people growing your food.
• 🌿 Grow something. A windowsill herb, a container garden, a backyard plot. Reconnect with the soil.
• 📖 Learn one new thing about farming this week. Watch a documentary, read an article, follow a farmer on social media.
• 🤝 Talk about it. Normalize food justice conversations at your table — with children, parents, and elders.
• 💰 Donate. Even $5 plants a seed for organizations fighting for farmer equity.
• 🙏 Say thank you. Before your next meal, pause. Someone’s hands — somewhere in this world — made this possible.

“We can plant seeds. We can grow anew. We can start with what we put in our bodies. We can remind others with what we say. Thank you, Mother Earth!”

— ReVonda Bowen, Founder — GOD AND W.E.E.D.

At GOD AND W.E.E.D., we believe the earth is sacred. The people who tend it are sacred. And every meal — every earthy dish — is a prayer of gratitude.

Know your farmers. Honor the harvest. Wear the movement. 🌿✝️