BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Black Farmers Market and the Connection to National Black Business Month and learning about the efforts to increase black-owned family farms, and bring affordable produce to the community
- Black Farmers Market in Bakersfield aims to increase the number of black-owned family farms.
- Currently, less than 1% of all farmers in Kern County are black.
- Kern County Black Farmers Association founded in 2023 to support black farmers.
- The association aims to bring affordable produce to the community and change perceptions about farming.
- The Black Farmers Market will be held on August 24th at the MLK Center.
Broadcast transcript:
It's not a business that has a lot of black owners yet. Dr. Young Spath tells me she is on a mission to grow the number of black-owned family farms.
Dr. Evelyn Young Spath is a local farmer here in Kern County. Growing up in Bakersfield she said there were many black-owned family farms, but now, that has now dropped significantly.
"Less than one percent, only 0.9 percent of all farmers in Kern County are black and that number has plummeted from 14 percent 100 years ago. I'm saying why? Where are all the black farming families?" She said.
In 2023, the Kern County Black Farmers Association was founded as a resource for black farmers. Their goal is to bring affordable produce to the community and to change the way people think about farming.
Dr. Young Spath says, "The stigma of farming, the stigma of working the land, that has been our past, our history. I'm saying we can stand on that history, and build a new way of looking at farming, a new way of connecting with the land, and learning to love the land again."
Dr. Young Spath wants to remind us all of how important farming is and where our food comes from.
"Now I have a new appreciation of the soil, I know that farmers feed the world. Not only do we feed the world, but we feed the nation, we feed the state, and we feed our local communities." She said.
The Black Farmers Market will be on August 24, 2024, at the Martin Luther King Community Center.
Dr. Young Spath also wants to invite the community to build raised beds at the Compassion Community Garden on August 17, 2024.
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