Get your fresh vegetables, we grow them, you eat them.
We grow them, you eat them.
Get your fresh vegetables, we grow them, you eat them.
We grow them, you eat them.
Yes, this is a chant that I use at the Lafamea Verde Farmers Market.
Believe it or not, we're going on our 10th year.
Who would have thunk it?
Who would have thunk it that community gardeners and community residents
will be able to develop a farmer's market and reach out into the community?
This is why I like this work so much.
The farmer's market.
The average age of the growers at our farmer's markets are in their 80s.
There's something about being at a farmer's market and growing food and giving it to communities.
The reason why I do this work, number two, community.
Before we found our farmer's market, we were told that people in low income neighborhoods
didn't want fresh vegetables and fruit.
That farmers couldn't come to our neighborhood because it was too far.
Well, that farmers didn't want to come in our neighborhoods because we, as people of color, couldn't afford the food.
That was quickly erased.
Now going on a 10th year, there is a connection between rural and urban farmers.
I've got the best rural farmers out there.
Ray Rockamp and his brother from Long Island.
Alan Tresolito, Marlboro, New York from upstate.
He provides us with the fruits.
I have David and Veronica Horton from Clintondale, New York, Jamaican farmer.
And I have Claudio Gonzalez, a Mexican farmer, who have been with the Lafamea Verde Farmer's Market for 10 years now.
And it's something about those farmers, those rural and those urban farmers that connect,
that do something because it's not about the money.
They're not making money there.
The majority of the proceeds and the majority of the money that's being made is from the WIC coupon and the health box.
But it's something about being in that market that goes deep, deep within a person that wants to make sure
that everybody is entitled to food that's affordable, fresh, and local.
So when we look at the food movement, we have to look at it as an inclusive movement.
That food at the very heart is not a privilege, but it's a right for all.
Now, I stand here before you as an urban farmer, but believe it or not, I didn't start that way.
Yeah, I did have a pass.
I had two parents and I had grandparents who had no idea about farming.
They didn't care about food in the way that we care about now.
Neither did I to be truthful.
All I cared about was like eating three meals a day and make sure the food tastes good.
My parents wanted to make sure that they could get a good buck for a meal.
So when I look at my past in terms of this food movement, I grew up in the 60s.
The revolution that we cared about was mostly on civil rights and ending the Vietnam War.
So you youth that are out here today when we're talking about this urban agricultural movement,
you have such an advantage because for me growing up, it wasn't like that.
And so as I proceeded to grow and get involved in a food movement, it happened when I moved to the Bronx
and started working at a community garden.
And that sort of changed my perspective about food because it was more than just growing food,
but looking at the social implications that food had.
And I became a community organizer because when you look at food, you must look at the dynamics behind food.
And I saw the issues of immigration, affordable housing, unemployment, overcrowded schools,
and became an organizer just because I was in a community garden and I was able to think outside the raised beds.
And so when we look at this food movement today, it cannot be looked in isolation,
but it must be a movement that takes in the parameters of social, economic, and environmental issues.
So when people talk about an urban agricultural system that is sustainable, how is that so?
If we look at the system itself and see there are barriers and challenges.
So for me, as I look through this food movement, I had to sort of step back and also analyze the food movement in a different way.
Not only in terms of growing food and providing food for my community,
but looking at a broader sense of the food system and the food movement from the seed to the table.
And now I look at the food system with different eyes.
I look at the food system from the seed and who are the people who are planting the seed
and how are they being treated and recognized.
And as you look from the seed, what happens along the way to the people that harvest the food,
the people at the restaurants with no wage or minimal wage, and down to our plate
and start asking questions about this food movement in such a way that is fair, just, and equitable.
So I have one more year before I retire as a physical therapist, 37 years,
but I'm going to move forward with some friends and do farming.
But farming in such a way that is going to be broad-based, that it would have a full justice component,
that it would challenge people in the food movement to ask questions, to read labels,
to share a meal with people who are different than you.
I charge you today while you are here for these two days to engage with someone who is different than you.
Learn about the history of this farming movement from your elders.
Go out and read labels and challenge the people in the food movement
when you are eating something that you can't pronounce.
Invite the conversations from youth because they have innovative ideas.
If we are to be a sustainable, agricultural, food movement, there must be inclusion.
So that when I go out and visit a farm, I can see people who look like me.
So as I close, I want you all to think about the food movement differently.
Challenge yourself to be more proactive than reactive.
Have the mindset of change.
We cannot do this movement alone.
It takes the rural farmer, the urban farmer, and consumers.
