Black Farmers United - New York State

We are farmers, educators, and food justice advocates.

Black Farmers United NYS is a group of over 100 Black farmers, educators, and food justice advocates from across the state. Without serious investment and intervention, Black farmers in New York State will be marginalized out of existence. Our proposal aims to protect the legacy and ensure the future of Black farmers. They hold the power to radically change how black communities control access to safe, healthy food, and build a collective wealth and health in New York State.

We advocate for, unify, amplify, and create pathways to ownership for NYS Black farmers through education, policy development, networking, and mutual aid.

Black Farmers United NYS envisions a future where every Black person called to farm is a joyful and thriving farmer -- building collective power, generational wealth, fertile and abundant land, and healthy, equitable communities throughout New York State.

Our Mission

Our Vision

Our Values

We center Black farmers, build collective power, cultivate love and liberation, advance equity, and foster transparency.

  • We center Black farmers.  We are a community of Black people and organizations who grow food, fiber, and medicine or support those who do.

  • We build collective power. Our membership is open to all Black people who believe in our vision and uphold our values. Members share leadership and decision making through consensus-building and democratic processes. We work in solidarity and cooperatively with BIPOC communities and White co-conspirators in alignment with our mission, vision, and values.

  • We cultivate love and liberation. We believe in self-determination, radical love, radiant health, abundance, and liberation for all Black farmers and Black communities.   

  • We advance equity. As Black people, we believe in dismantling systemic oppression and repairing communities of color disproportionately harmed by those systems.

  • We foster transparency. We communicate clearly and honestly. We act with integrity and intention toward accountability, unity, and liberation. We advocate for transparency both within and beyond our organization, asking the same from our partners, our funders, and our government.

Our History

Black farmers have a long history in New York State, dating back to 1640 when the Dutch ceded sections of Manhattan stolen from the Lenape people to formerly enslaved Black people to farm. By 1910, despite the legacy of slavery and racist policies, 295 Black farmers lived and worked in New York State. Over the next 100 years, the number of Black New Yorkers increased by 2,000% to 3,073,800. Yet the number of Black New York farmers declined from 295 to 139, a 52% decrease.

Our Organizing

Farming is big business in New York State — an almost $2 billion industry on which every other sector relies. Yet Black farmers’ contributions in New York are often undercounted, overlooked, and undervalued, to the detriment of the health and prosperity of Black communities statewide. We have long felt the failures of food security approaches that relegate Black people to consumers -- ignoring the potential of Black rural and urban farmers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers, and other food and land workers who understand our needs and build power and wealth in our communities. Together, our group of more than 20 Black farmers, educators, and food justice advocates from across the state developed 9 Solutions for Racial Inequity in New York Agriculture.