African American’s own less than 1 percent of farms today

African American’s own less than 1 percent of farms today

Black Blue Dog

African Americans virtually lost a grip on land ownership and farming. In 1920, African Americans owned 14 percent of all farms in the United States. Today, African Americans own less than 1 percent of farms in the U.S.; and in 1910, nearly one million African-American farmers owned 15 million acres of land. By 1969 that number decreased to 6 million acres of land.

Gary Grant, National President of the Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association, a nonprofit organization created to respond to the issues and concerns of African American farmers in the U.S. and abroad, expressed the importance of African-American land ownership.     “We are losing land and wealth that our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents worked, fought, and died to acquire for us,” he says. ”We owe our ancestral warriors a debt– We must help ourselves by insuring that the next generation is ready to control the land.”

Being that nearly 60 percent of African-American women are obese and African-Americans are the number one consumers of fast food, which is overly processed and has been linked to a slew of physical ailments, there is no greater time than now for African-Americans to reconsider investing in land ownership and growing their own crops. Under the leadership of Min. Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam has purchased land and is growing its own crops. Min. Farrakhan has a number of sermons/speeches encouraging African-Americans to get back into farming. “Farmers are the smartest people. Most of Jesus’ parables had to do with land, farming,” Min. Farrakhan told an attentive audience at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. “Every one of you should aspire to own land. When you have land you have the basis of independence. Farming is a science and an art.”