Red Tomato and Shirley Sherrod: Supporting Black-Owned Farms

It can be hard to perceive the ways that systemic racism affects food you eat, whether it's the inequitable efforts behind getting a package of pecans to market, or noticing the farmers who aren't present at the local farmers' market.

It's a sad irony, that racial discrimination, largely based on skin color, is not, in fact, observable. But if we look hard enough, with a better understanding, we will see and maybe we will act.

In Season 2, Episode 2, of "What is American Food?" - co-hosted by Hannah Semler and Ali Berlow-- you will hear the incredible story of activist Shirley Sherrod and her decades of partnership with Red Tomato. We hear how black farmers in Georgia sought out Red Tomato-- a small hybrid nonprofit food hub in the northeast-- to help get their watermelons, and years later their pecans to market. Shirley Sherrod, co-founder of New Communities, Inc., and Michael Rozyne, founder of Red Tomato, built a relationship of trust around fair food supply chains.

Shirley Sherrod is a warrior for black land ownership and farmer equity. She's served as an activist, elected official, and community member addressing systemic racism in farming for the last 40 years. Shirley was born 1948, the daughter of black farmers in Georgia. After her father was murdered by a white farmer-- who was never convicted despite multiple witnesses-- Shirley chose to dedicate her life's work to community food systems and black farmers. She turned her experience of injustice into a quest for justice for others. During the Obama Administration, she was appointed to Georgia State Director of Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture-- only to be forced to resign after a smear campaign by Breitbart. She persisted, in pursuit of justice.

Through it all, Shirley co-founded and continues to operate New Communities, Inc., which oversees a 200-acre pecan orchard on land that was once one of the largest and richest slave-labor operations in Georgia.

In listening to Shirley's story, we feel that there is hope for restoration. And we hope that Shirley's passion and sacrifice, her resilience and joy, will bring you new light and understanding.

You can learn more about New Communities at www.newcommunitiesinc.com.

You can subscribe to new episodes and sign up for our newsletter at www.whatisamericanfood.com.

We are so grateful to The Betsy and Jesse Fink Family Foundation for their ongoing support to make this podcast happen. Check out more of their work at www.BJFFF.org.

To continue learning about Black-owned land loss, systemic discrimination, and Shirley Sherrod, check out the following resources.

• Read about The Pigford Case
• Listen to The 1619 Podcast, episodes 5 (part 1 & 2)
• Order pecans from New Communities Inc.
• Check out events by The Federation of Southern Cooperatives