Farming with Care: Considering Black farmer practices, agroecology, and Black ecologies
Topics: Black Geographies
, American South
, Agricultural Geography
Keywords: Black ecologies, Black farmers, agroecology, farming
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 68
Authors:
Sarah Franzen, Louisiana State University
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Abstract
During one of my regular conversations with a Black farmer organizer in Mississippi, she mentioned that some university people wanted to talk to Black farmers about agroecology. She was not sure what this meant or how this concept might be used to evaluate the Black farmers she knew. I offered her some academic readings so she could see how the academic world was using the term. And I wanted to insist that some Black farmers were already practicing a form of agroecology. But I questioned this impulse. As I reflected on the notes, conversations, and video recordings from my research with Black farmers in Mississippi, I noted distinct ways of expressing care with plants, animals, history, heritage, and people dead, alive, and yet to come. These expressions had unique, albeit diverse, articulations of farming ecologically that also dealt with the anti-black context in which they were formed and pursued a vision of a world that could be otherwise. Such expressions may not easily fit within the category of agroecology.
For this presentation, I will revisit this topic with the organizer and engage in conversations that contemplate writings about agroecology, Black ecologies, and our experiences with Black farmers practicing forms of care. The presentation will collage these materials together in a dialogical format that resonates with our conversational engagement. The aim is not to conclusively categorize such practices, but to consider what they add to ecological frameworks and how they might be in conversation with discussions on agroecology and Black ecologies.
Farming with Care: Considering Black farmer practices, agroecology, and Black ecologies
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
Description
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