Farmers Of Color Growing Roots While Advocating For Food Justice
ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) – It's a voice that you may not hear often when it comes to farming: those of inclusive, diverse farming groups. Farmers like Jason Auguste are striving to create equity for Colorado farmlands.
"We have about 60 beds growing with diversified vegetables," said Auguste, as he gave CBS4's Mekialaya White a tour of his two-acre Arvada facility. It's one of three he owns.
"Everything from tomatoes to okra. We even grew some sweet potatoes out here in Colorado, which were excellent," he added. "We're a BIPOC-led, womxn-led organization out here on the Front Range really focusing on farmer advocacy and food justice work."
He's the farm director and creative director of marketing and media for Frontline Farms. As a Black man, he says representation is everything.
"We had millions of acres less than 100 years ago of Black farmers doing this work, where today it's less than one percent."
The latest U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics survey reflects that data. Last year, .7% percent of farmers were Black, 4.3% were Hispanic, and 25% were women.
Auguste says Frontline Farms saw a need for food-based advocacy in Denver back in 2018, hence why it was created. The organization also works to give back to the community. One-fourth or more of the produce grown on all Frontline farms is donated back to social service organizations through Healing Foods.
"We have our different partners and we support them and they support us and we support our overall communities. We just wanted to bring back the stewardship of the earth, and we have a trifold way that we do our work. We attack food access, food justice, and food sovereignty," said Auguste.
He hopes to inspire the next generation of diverse farmers and is working hard to do so.
"Before we regenerate the land we have to regenerate ourselves as people," he said.
You can get fresh food, and there are volunteer opportunities every day at Frontline Farms: https://www.frontlinefarming.org/
