Figuring out how to scale up Black farming and the food Black communities control

Reality Check | ecoWURD | radio

Earl Harvey, Black Business Leadership Coalition and Darral Addison of Torpedo Pot joined ecoWURD radio on WURD’s Reality Check w/ Charles Ellison for a discussion on how Black communities can expand their farming activities and create food sovereign supply chains.

“We knew that, in this pandemic, the state of Black business was going to be in a very fragile state,” said Harvey. “Okay, it’s expected that over 50 percent of Black owned businesses may close as a result of this COVID shut down. So we took the liberty of forming this Business Leadership Coalition to get an advance start on putting together a strategic plan for the business community. But we wouldn’t be all over the place and be disorganized. We knew we were gonna have to be right on point to get out businesses the services that they need. In order to keep them in business. It’s expected that 50 percent of black owned businesses may close post COVID. Do you want to mitigate that effort?

“So we’re examining every possible aspect of how businesses can be more inclusive. This is the largest consumer country on the planet.We know that those businesses have to be constantly supplied. And you know, the question is, where they’re getting their supplies from? Who are they purchasing from in order to run these mega corporations? And traditionally, our businesses have been marginalized to the point that we can’t get into the supply chain. Okay, even through inherent racism, or scale, they come up with every kind of resistance to keep us out of the total economy of providing goods and services to this country. So we’re looking at every possible Avenue right now, where we could include our businesses. Agritech and farming is one avenue.”