Soul Fire Farm
Soul Fire Farm (SFF) is a community farm located in Petersburg, NY, a 45-minute drive
from BCC, and is committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system. SFF
uses Afro-indigenous agroforestry, silvopasture, wildcrafting, polyculture, and spiritual
farming practices to regenerate 80 acres of mountainside land, producing fruits, plant
medicine, pasture-raised livestock, honey, mushrooms, vegetables, and preserves for
community provisioning, with the majority of the harvest provided to people living
under food apartheid and targeted by state violence in our local community. SFF is
a resource for education in ancestral farming practices and collaborates with the
land to support our communities in healing from racial trauma and imagining bolder
futures.
Volunteering at SFF will teach students about some of the farming practices while
supporting SFF's work and getting their hands on the land.
Community farm days are one of the few times SFF is open to the public, so a range
of ages, geographies, and ethnicities are represented. Some people may be completely
new to ideas of food justice, farming, or racial justice. For those who have been
to the farm during immersions or another caucus space — this is different — there
are generally more white people than at other times on the farm. Everyone who comes
agrees to SFF's safe space commitments and generally the energy has been beautiful
and synergistic.
Spring 2025 Earthseed Speaker Leah Penniman (all pronouns) is a Black Kreyol farmer, mother, soil nerd, author and food justice
activist from Soul Fire Farm (SFF) in Grafton, NY. She co-founded SFF in 2010 with
the mission to end racism in the food system and reclaim our ancestral connection
to land. Her books, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm's Practical Guide to Liberation
on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists
(2023) are love songs for the land and her people.
Lecture: Some of our most cherished sustainable farming practices — from organic agriculture
to the CSA — have roots in African wisdom. Yet, discrimination and violence have deprived
the Black community of farmland, capital, and healthy food access. Soul Fire Farm
is part of a national network working toward food sovereignty and land justice. Learn
how we can build upon Afro-Indigenous wisdom in reshaping the food system to be based
on equity and abundance rather than exploitation and deprivation.
Dialogue: How can each of us be part of the movement for food sovereignty and help build a
food system based on justice, dignity, and abundance for all members of our community?
Building on Octavia Butler’s Earthseed vision, this dialogue will explore the world
we can create together in the face of societal collapse.
