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This Is Good Ground

@thisisgoodground

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Afro-Queeribbean Family Farm in NY
Growing callaloo & cultural crops
Land Equity • Food Justice• Cultural Preservation
Brooklyn ↔ Argyle, NY

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Congratulations to DeVonne, our Director of Partnerships and Comms on opening the Food Tank Climate Week NYC events alongside other farmers for a multimedia performance and panel with @foodtank and @wholefoods. Her work with @thisisgoodground continues to inspire us!

Specials thank you and mentions to FoodTank Cofounders Bernie and Dani, Film Director Haven, Michelle Hughes, Executive Director, National Young Farmers Coalition @hughesonpaper , Caitlin Leibert, Global Head of Sustainability, Amazon Grocery and Whole Foods Market and Olivia from American Farmland Trust @americanfarmlandtrust

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Join Food Tank at #ClimateWeekNYC on Sunday, September 20th for “Putting Farmers First: How Young Farmers are Shaping the Future of Food.” In partnership with Whole Foods Market.

Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jason Buechel, Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores and Whole Foods Market; Tristen Buettel, Just in Time; Amalia Colón-Nava, Dirtbaby Farm; Cullen Curth, Just in Time; Emily Grant, Rise and Shine Acres; Roman Goron, Juilliard; Michelle Hughes, National Young Farmers Coalition; Sarah Jones, Jones Farms Organic; DeVonne Jackson Perez, Good Ground and Brooklyn Supported Agriculture; Caitlin Leibert, Amazon Grocery and Whole Foods Market; Brita Lundberg, Lundberg Family Farms; Becca Millstein, Fishwife; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores; Anna Turrell, Mars Snacking; and Janae Yates.

More details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-week-nyc-putting-farmers-first-tickets-1994697738632?aff=oddtdtcreator&keep_tld=true

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“System change is not abstract. We’re actually doing it in real time — making history in real time, even if it’s just one person at a time.” — DeVonne Jackson Perez @itsonwithdevonne @thisisgoodground

Find EA198 on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Simplecast 🎙️🎧

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EA198: Good Ground: Roots & Revolution with DeVonne Jackson Perez
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My conversation with DeVonne Jackson Perez (@itsonwithdevonne ) of Good Ground Farm (@thisisgoodground ) went everywhere — and I mean that in the best possible way!

She started with an illegal fire escape garden in Brooklyn during the pandemic and is now stewarding 17 acres of land in upstate New York with her family — growing callaloo, heritage peppers, pink eye beans and Afro-Caribbean crops that remain largely inaccessible to her community in Brooklyn.

We talked about the Right to Farm law protecting Good Ground’s land in Argyle, New York — and the contradiction DeVonne couldn’t shake: a right to farm on paper means very little if the land itself is unaffordable and inaccessible to the people who need it most. We also got into what soil teaches us about reciprocity, the deep lack of diversity across the food supply chain, and why right now is the most important moment for Black and queer farmers to get on the land.

And she said something I keep coming back to: “We’re not just growing callaloo and peppers and herbs. We’re growing repair.” 🖤

Link in bio to listen to full episode— also streaming on Simplecast, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 🎙️

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As a Black farmer, there’s nothing more powerful than having your vision invested in.

Honored to be selected as a Seeding Power Fellow, an investment in the work of advancing food justice, food sovereignty, and Black land stewardship through This Is Good Ground.

Cheers to the future we’re growing. 🌱🤎

#SeedingPower #ThisIsGoodGround #FoodJustice #FoodSovereignty #BlackFarmers

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It’s time to launch another year of the Seeding Power Fellowship! These twelve food justice leaders were chosen by a selection committee of Seeding Power alumni and other experts in the fields of movement building leadership development.

The Seeding Power Fellowship brings together experienced leaders working across issue areas to build equitable food systems in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Our nine-month curriculum designed by Emerging Equity includes three in-person retreats and 13 virtual sessions focused on collective learning, movement building, leadership development, and collaboration.

A deep bow of gratitude to all the outstanding people who applied. Our committee was inspired by the tremendous amount of talented folks doing vital work in our region.

Click the link in our bio for more info.

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“Our identities as Black women manifest far beyond our queerness, but holistically, we know our relationship to land serves as a vital reminder that unity is not uniformity. Mother Nature understands that life thrives because of our beautiful differences. Yet the agricultural and environmental sectors have historically operated through a singular white, male, heteronormative lens.

When the gatekeepers of land, funding, distribution, regulation and agricultural education all look and think the same, we forget that it takes a multitude to sustain life. And that the earth proclaims multiplicity.”

DeVonne and Nehemoyia are the hearts and hands behind Good Ground Farm: a family-owned farm on 17 acres in Argyle, New York, cultivating specialty crops for African American and Afro-Caribbean communities.

For @itsonwithdevonne, an Afro Queeribbean food systems leader and storyteller, land stewardship is about sacred connection: to food, family, ancestral memory, and to the narratives that deserve to be preserved. Raised by parents and grandparents who grew crops from their home islands in urban spaces, DeVonne carries forward a legacy of feeding community with gratitude and intention.

@nehemoyia, a reverend and social entrepreneur, sees the soil as spiritual. Her earliest memories of growing food (strawberries with her aunt, peas with her great-grandmother, apples straight from the tree) continue to shape the way she understands tending as a practice of purpose and transformation.

@thisisgoodground began in 2021 as a response to the pandemic, when food costs were rising and access was increasingly uncertain. They started designing grow spaces in underutilized home areas. Now they have a farm dedicated to crops like callaloo, which are often unavailable to New York’s African American and Afro-Caribbean communities.

“Mother Nature never asks a forest to be like a river.”

#QueerFarmers #BlackFarmers #AfroCaribbean #FoodSovereignty #QueerGrower

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When your fren has a farm next door to yours and your cousin funds farms and all your farm friends roadtrip to Argyle, NY for a workday!

Working alongside other Black growers on the land feels like a dream, like sovereignty personified, growing something rooted in us, for us. Shoutout to Ashanti Williams Founder of @theblackyardfarm and my cousin Olivia Watkins, Founder of @blackfarmerfund for this wonderful event.

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Trust The Process. Trust Local.

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Laying with nature processing processed foods, noticing how nutritional value is so far removed from the process due to profit that it no longer feels like part of the process of eating and asking at what point did our health stop being part of the process?

The Truth: Most foods are processed in some way but not all foods are processed heavily or artificially so read your labels, buy local and stay curious.

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When a Black Farmer, a Black Butcher, a Black Funder and a Black James Beard Award Winning Chef smile, know this is not just a photo, it’s a revolutionary food ecosystem budding.

Thank you to @blackfarmerfund for the invitation and to the amazing @chefmavisjay, hats off to you! Every dish was stellar.

Dinner just became a movement!

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Black Women in NYC & NYS Agriculture

From city lots to upstate farms, Black women are planting seeds, shifting systems, and feeding futures. 🌾🖤 This land tells our stories—of resilience, wisdom, and joy. Today we honor the Black women growers, educators, herbalists, and soil stewards making it happen across NYC and NYS. Y’all are the roots and the bloom.

#ThisIsGoodGround #BlackWomenGrow #FarmingWhileBlack #LandBackInBlackHands

Happy Women’s Month

1. Frances Rodriguez Perez, Land Steward @farmschool_nyc

2. Joanna Dorsey, Urban Farmer and Co Executive Director of @bfu_nys

3. Qiana Mickie, Executive Director of NYC Mayors Office of Urban Agriculture

4. Carolyn Wellington of the Wellington Herbs & Spices in Schohaire, NY

5. DeVonne Jackson Perez, Urban Farmer/ Non Profit Executive Director and Nehemoyia Young, Minister both founders of Good Ground in Brooklyn and Argyle, NY

6. Leah Penniman, Farmer and Founder of @soulfirefarm

7. Iyeshima Harris, Food Justice Advocate and with @greenguerillas Director of Programs

8. Maya Marie Farmer, Founder and Director of @deep_routes

9. Ashanti Williams, Farmer and Founder of @theblackyardfarm

10. Amber Tamm, Earth floral designer, horticulturalist, and farmworker

11. Christine Hutchinson, Director Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC)

12. Ora Kemp, Senior Policy Advisor of the Mayors Office of New York

13. Hattie Carthan, Activist and The Tree Lady of Brooklyn (deceased)

14. Sandy Nurse, Councilwoman and Founder of BK Rot @bk_rot

15. Isa Jamila, Artist, Activist and Farmer @theartistactivistfarmer

16. Olivia Watkins Founder of @blackfarmerfund

17. Karen Washington, Food Justice Activist, Founder @farmschool_nyc, @blackurbangrowers, co founder of @blackfarmerfund and Farmer at @riseandrootfarm

Two unpictured mentions:
18- Ribka Getachew, Director of Good Food Purchasing Policy Campaign @ribka_tizita

19- Farmer Yonette, Educator and Land steward of Hattie Carthan Garden in Bedford Stuyvesant

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