Green Movements Grow in Central Brooklyn

Last weekend, November 19-21, the first annual conference to forge food, farming and policy solutions for the Black Community convened at Brooklyn College in New York City, convening farmers, gardeners, activists, students and community leaders from across the nation and around the world.
The 3-day conference, attended by more than 500 people, was hosted by Karen Washington of La Familia Verde and sponsored by Black Urban Growers (BUGS), an alliance of predominately Black urban farmers and food activists.  Farmer Devanie Jackson, who founded with her husband Rev. Robert Jackson the 5,000-square-foot Bed-Stuy Farm facility on Decatur Street in 2004, proudly represented the community in workshops and as a keynote leader.
Participants spent the first day mingling and the last day on a tri-borough tour of community gardens in the City, including the globally known Hattie Carthan Community Garden on Lafayette Avenue.  Other Brooklyn organizations represented at the conference included Weeksville Heritage Center and East New York Farms, among many others.

Participants and presenters came from far and wide to hear Will Allen, an urban farmer, founder and CEO of Growing Power, Inc in Milwaukee, WI,  and a MacArthur genius grant awardee, who opened the conference.  They also gathered to learn from the distinguished Ralph Paige, Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives of East Point, Ga., whose keynote closed the conference.

According to Ms. Washington, The conference, aimed to strengthen networks and inspire new ideas among people working across disciplines to address food-related issues that contribute to inequities in health, wealth and justice in black communities.  So why are we compelled to focus on food, farming and justice now, in these embattled times?  Allen and Paige both said in so many words, “we can not afford not to be concerned “about the inequities in a food system that is increasingly alienated from the needs of African Americans and dismissive of their demands.”
NBFC’s shared statistics that also answer the question:
· Our farmers are in peril:  ninety years ago, over 14% of U.S. farmers were African American. It’s now dwindled to about 2%.  In New York State alone, there are only 110 African-American farmers in 56,000.
· Our communities are malnourished and our collective health is suffering.  Nationally, the typical low-income neighborhood has 30 percent fewer supermarkets than higher-income neighborhoods. Nearly 50% of African American children will develop diabetes at some point in their lives. About four out of five African American women are overweight or obese.

· Our communities are dying: Deaths from heart disease and stroke are almost twice the rate for African Americans as compared to Whites.
But the beauty of the 3-day conference is that it offered proactive solutions, the kind that get your hands dirty. Some examples follow:
· Paula Thompson and Trineka Freeman from 42nd and Steele St Parking Lot Farm in Denver shared the story of how they took a parking lot back and made it their paradise.

· In ‘By Any Greens Necessary: Food as a Tool of Colonization and Joining the Resistance’, Jade Walker from the Mill Creek Farm and Chris Borden-Newsome led a discussion on the interconnectedness of oppressions.  They also taught participants how to challenge these negative systems.

· Youth from Brooklyn’s East New York Farms! Joined the conversation on ‘The Next Generation’ along with folks from Real Food Challenge.

·Tanikka Cunningham from Healthy Solutions led the discussion on increasing access to affordable food in communities of color.

· Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min (Muhammad), Minister of Agriculture and Farm Manager, Muhammad Farms of Albany, Ga., talked about the effect of USDA and other goverment policies on Farming and Urban Gardening.  He was joined by Gary Grant, President, Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association of Tillery, N.C.; Spencer D. Wood, PhD, Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS; and Barry Crumbley of the Intact Community Development Corporation in Mt. Vernon, NY.
· Michelle Hughs, Director, GrowNYC: New Farmers Development Program, presented some resources and support services available for all farmers on the local level.
Urban gardeners from Upstate New York and New Jersey, Black farmers from across the country representing the states Wisconsin, Michigan, Mississippi, California and and the nation of Canada learned how  a $5 per foot investment could convert an abandoned parking lot into rich farm land.
To a captive audience, Allen broke his success down to one phrase, “If you’ve got good soil, you can do anything.” Allen then detailed how soil was derived from composting dirt and garbage. “The key to good soil is garbage and access. I was walking yesterday and saw you all have a lot of garbage. For composting, it’s like a smorgasbord.”
The conference  – which featured over 20 breakout sessions on other topics like ending racism in the food industry and the resurgence of the urban black farmer in Denver and Detroit – came on the heels of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act which passed in the U.S. Senate a day before. Among other changes of note, the bill would make public a National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy that may give opportunities for black farmers.
“This is just the beginning,” said Paige of the need to continue the talk around black and urban farmers.
At the conference, the 2010 Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners George Washington Carver Awards were announced.  Workshop subjects were compelling.  They included: Scaling Up! Creating 100,000 New Farmers: Local and National Resources for Rural and Urban Farmers, Designing Linkages between Upstate Farmers and Downstate Food Desert communities, Undoing Racism in the Food System:  Lessons from the Detroit Struggle, Urban Farming as a Framework for Wholistic Community Development, Young, Black and Gifted: Creating Niche Food Communities, The Next Generation: Youth Creating Food Change, By Any Greens Necessary: Food as a Tool of Colonization and Joining the Resistance and a Place for Us: Black Farmers in the Organic Movement.
For more information, visit: www.blackfarmersconf.org
(Publishers note:  Bernice Elizabeth Green contributed to Mr. Kene’s article.)

Magnolia Tree Earth Center’s Garden Party Fundraiser

Offers Surprises and 2010 Hattie Carthan Founders Day Awards to Ten Top New Yorkers SATURDAY, JUNE 26 at the VICTORIAN MANSION in Brooklyn

New York City prides itself on being ahead of the curve in the “green” movement.  But more than 40 years ago, the late visionary Hattie Carthan, Bedford Stuyvesant’s First Lady of the Environment saved one magnificent tree from Model City bulldozer’s, inspired several block associations to join in the planting of 1500 trees, and subsequently jumpstarted the neighborhood’s first “green” initiative.

Her Magnolia Tree Earth Center — three connecting brownstones on Lafayette Avenue across from Von King Park – still stand protecting the magnificent Magnolia grandiflora, from north winds. The Board of Directors there has formed a protective embrace around Mrs. Carthan’s legacy, and is working hard to bring it into the 21st century … as Mrs. Carthan would have wanted.  And you can join in the effort.

There’s still time to help the Board reach its goal for the summer.  Their annual Summer Solstice fundraiser – complete with lemonade, music, networking, remembrances, silent auction (including framed photograph of a window in environmentalist Harriet Tubman’s home donated by artist Olivia Cousins; a book of John James Audubon’s watercolors work donated by Bernice Elizabeth Green; Matthew Fraser’s popular Miracle Step health product, an officedesk water fountain crafted by Joanna Williams), and more — takes place this SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 4:00-8:00pm in the elegant Carthan-like setting of the historic Victorian Mansion, 247 Hancock Street, near Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn.  Tickets are $40.

In addition, ten of New York’s most distinguished community leaders who exemplify Mrs. Carthan’s ideals of excellence, leadership, and proactive vision, will be awarded The Hattie Carthan Founder’s Day Award, the highest honor of the Board of Directors of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center of Bedford-Stuyvesant.  Awards ceremony commences at 5:45pm. 

The honorees include: Kristina Beecher, principal of The Bedford Village School/P.S. 3; Carlton Brown and Walter Edwards, COO and CEO, respectively, of Full Spectrum New York green construction firm; Pamela E. Green, Executive Director of the Weeksville Heritage Center; Sydney Katz, founder of Super Foodtown; Liam Kavanaugh, First Deputy Commissioner of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation; David McMaster, Vice President, Bartlett Tree Expert Company; Akiima Price, Chief of Education, New York Restoration Project; Dr. Vicente Sanchez, USDA Forest Service; and Antonia Yuille Williams, Director of Public Affairs, Con Edison.
This award is bestowed annually to individuals, organizations or enterprises that best exemplify the standards and vision of the late great environmentalist Hattie Carthan whose visionary work more than 40 years ago – in developing a neighborhood ecology and environment center for children – continues to inspire young people today.  Her accomplishments – ahead of their time – also have contributed directly to Bedford-Stuyvesant’s active participation in New York City’s movement towards sustainability.
Says Board Chair David Mark Greaves, “These leaders, through their work and commitment to building a sustainable future for the City’s under-resourced neighborhoods where Mrs. Carthan lived and worked, are deserving of this honor.  We’re proud they are part of our family and we’re proud of them.
“Also, this year, the Board is proud to announce two milestones: the 40th anniversary of the designation of the Lafayette Avenue environmental center’s 19th century magnolia grandiflora as a New York City historic landmark (New York’s only living landmark), and the debut in the fall of a perfume developed by Rodney Fitzgerald Hughes from the essence of the tree’s flower petals.  The perfume, now in its 12th month of an 18-month process, will be ‘tested’ by Hattie’s Angels, Alma Carroll, Elsie Richardson and Vernell Albury, three stalwart pioneers in Bedford Stuyvesant history.  And as a salute to Mrs. Carthan’s emphasis on children first, there will be music and oratorical performances by young people associated with the Center through Project Green and other programs.”
This annual summer solstice event kicks off Magnolia Tree Earth Center’s seasonal fundraisers; one is scheduled for early fall, when the much-anticipated, high-end Magnolia Grandiflora perfume will debut and in the early winter, when a possible Harvest/Winter Ball will take place.
This season’s event is being catered by Simply Elegant and will feature the R&B sounds of the popular U4RIA group.  For more information, call Andrea Brathwaite: 718-387-2116.  Tickets are $40.  For press interviews, call Bernice Green, 718-599-6828.