Village Bottoms Farm
Part of the vision for The Village Bottoms area is to have a strong economic base, with a community led economy that drives local employment. As well as the culturally led initiatives involving music and the arts it was recognised that other more traditional businesses have a lot to offer. These business can help educate as well as add to the local economy.
Having a local ran farm would be a challenge but a massive achievement if it was successful. It was important for the farm to be black ran and to be located in the area which is obviously largely black. The initiative will hopefully provide quality nutritious vegetables that will assist the neighbourhoods health. The farm is across various plots on Pine Street.
There are other farm initiatives in the Bay Area but these are funded and ran by white institutions in black areas, we want these projects to be black run so we can reconnect black people to the land. These white interlopers want to civilize and save the black community, this project aims to show that given the opportunity the black community can make a difference themselves. We understand that there are many none black people who may have good intentions with their initiatives but we want them to know that they can cause long term damage. Indeed we believe all these types of initiatives should be black run and more importantly led, if there are well meaning groups out there they should help and not take the lead in these projects. The message is clear we as a community can do it for ourselves. It is clear that Black Inc are willing to accept help if the help understands the dynamics of the privileges and economic oppression of the black population in America. As long as the help understands and accepts this reality and is willing to be part of the machine and not be the machine I believe the organization would accept with open arms any assistance these individuals or groups can give.
With a black led farm in particular there are deep routed issues in our communities psyche. Reuniting black people with the land is a difficult task because of the past and its effects physiologically on black culture. History of the black community and land in America has been fractious at best. Land and the black people were bonded together through brutal slavery for generations and those stories passed down from generation to generation leave a long term psychological scar. Since those times the instance of black farm ownership and black farm role models are difficult to find. So an initiative like this faces hurdles beyond the normal economic and operational difficulties any fledgling business faces we face decades of entrenched mindset. Only with a progressive program, effort, education and community inclusive effort can this be overcome. This is probably the most difficult and ambitious project yet.