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Leah Penniman

is a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years. She currently serves as the founding co-executive director and farm director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black- and Brown-led project that works toward food and land justice. Her books are (2018), and (2023). Learn more about Penniman鈥檚 work at .

Articles By This Author

Opinion | Health & Happiness

Murmurations: Embracing Black Earth Wisdom

Leah Penniman encourages us to recognize Earth as teacher, text, and kin.

Leah Penniman | Apr 24, 2023

Issues

Meditations on Enough

5 meditations on what 鈥渆nough鈥� means, from food to rest to diversity.

Leah Penniman, Tricia Hersey, Cat Brooks, Glenn E. Singleton, Andrea Haynes Johnson, Anne-Laure Le Cunff | Aug 10, 2021

Issues

The Gift of Ecological Humility

These Afro-Indigenous practices challenge ideas of human supremacy.

Leah Penniman | Feb 16, 2021

Environment

Black Farmers Embrace Practices of Climate Resiliency

They are using heritage farming practices to undo some of the damage brought on by decades of intense tillage by early European settlers.

Leah Penniman | Dec 18, 2019

Members of the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust.

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A New Generation of Black Farmers Is Returning to the Land

They are working to repair harm inflicted over the past 400 years, with an eye toward reparations.

Leah Penniman | Nov 19, 2019

Issues

By Reconnecting With Soil, We Heal the Planet and Ourselves

Enslavement and sharecropping cannot erase thousands of years of Black people鈥檚 sacred relationship with the land.

Leah Penniman | Feb 14, 2019

Democracy

4 Not-So-Easy Ways to Dismantle Racism in the Food System

Our food system is built on stolen land and exploited labor. Here鈥檚 what we can do to fix it.

Leah Penniman | Apr 27, 2017

Democracy

After a Century In Decline, Black Farmers Are Back And On the Rise

These Black farmers don鈥檛 stop at healthy food. They鈥檙e healing trauma, instilling collective values, and changing the way their communities think about the land.

Leah Penniman | May 5, 2016

Democracy

The USDA Is Putting $34.3 Million Into Local Food Projects. Will It Be Enough?

Those in the food justice movement question whether the agency鈥檚 recent efforts are a superficial attempt to appear supportive of local food and minority farmers.

Leah Penniman | Nov 13, 2015

Environment

Radical Farmers Use Fresh Food to Fight Racial Injustice and the New Jim Crow

If we are to create a society that values black life, we cannot ignore the role of food and land.

Leah Penniman | Sep 5, 2015

Local maize varieties. Photo by Jonah Vitale-Wolff.

Environment

Four Ways Mexico鈥檚 Indigenous Farmers Are Practicing the Agriculture of the Future

How can we get the most out of our farmland without harming the planet? I traveled to rural Mexico to learn from indigenous farmers.

Leah Penniman | Aug 11, 2015

Farm work at Soul Fire Farm. Photo by Capers Rumph.

Environment

Tractors, Ritual Baths, and Dismantling Racism: Welcome to Black and Latino Farmers Immersion

The program brings together training in topics such as soil chemistry and farm planning with a deep analysis of how racism has divorced people of color from the land.

Leah Penniman | Aug 15, 2014

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Leah Penniman

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