A Black farming incubator in Edgecombe County wants to help other aspiring Black farmers learn about agriculture.
The goal of the incubator is to bring racial equity to eastern North Carolina through hands-on experiences, produce boxes and farming workshops.
Kendrick Ransome is a Black farmer with Golden Organic Farms that is responsible for the incubator. Ransome said equity is important in the agriculture industry, especially for Black farmers.
鈥淲hen we talk about equity, we're talking about building our farms up first,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 have a 100-year family farm and you look at my infrastructure compared to another white farmer who's always been farming for 100 years, the infrastructure pieces are totally different. We're talking about focusing on us what we can do to help improve our situations.鈥�
A recent from Modern Farmer magazine showed that over the last century, Black farmers have lost 90 percent of their land.
Roughly, 98% of all farmland in the U.S. belongs to white landowners according to a 2020 from the National Young Farmers Coalition.
Ransome said Black people who get into agriculture cannot only help reverse those statistics, but it will also help to heal the Black community.
"The mental health aspect of just having your hands in soil, it is eliminating depression, eliminating a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger,鈥� he said. 鈥淐onnecting with our souls you know through nature and understanding our bodies is another way that we can all heal."
Ransome says the incubator will have workshops, equipment sharing programs and hands on experiences and opportunities for aspiring Black farmers.
He hopes to have it up and running by the spring.
