Radishes

Field Work: Small Farmers, Big Stakes

Fri, 07 May 2021 19:56:57 GMT

By Laurie Stern

John and Kara Boyd farm 1400 acres on five parcels in Southern Virginia. Their farm is diverse and regenerative: They raise corn, wheat, soybeans, swine, timber and vegetables including radish, peas, asparagus and sweet corn. Kara Boyd is a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina . She grew up playing in the fields as her grandparents harvested produce.

“Being an Indigenous person here in North America, we’ve always been growing and producing our food,” she said.

John Boyd Jr. is a fourth-generation farmer. His father’s parents were straitlaced tobacco farmers along the James River and his mother’s parents were sharecroppers who sold bootleg whiskey to make ends meet. Boyd said he learned to farm from their different styles, and he also learned how to read people.

“I have a good take, based on my upbringing, of who’s telling the truth and who’s shucking and jiving,” Boyd said.

It’s a skill that has served him well. When he turned 18 in 1983, he bought his own farm from another Black farmer. He said he thought the civil rights movement had made things more equal, but he learned quickly that he was wrong. The local Farmers Home Administration agent would see Black farmers only at 9 a.m. one day a week. Everyone called them “Black Wednesdays.”

The farmers Boyd had looked up to were forced to wait their turn all day in crowded hallways where they compared notes about their treatment: being called “boy,” getting turned down for programs. At first, Boyd thought they were exaggerating. Then he showed up for his own first meeting. Boyd realized the civil rights movement had skipped Black farmers. The agent tore up his application, spat tobacco juice on his shirt.

“Just all sorts of stuff you wouldn’t think would come from someone who worked for the government,” Boyd said.

(Farm Journal)

That experience and others that followed turned Boyd from farmer to farm advocate. He began collecting stories and statistics. He lodged discrimination complaints with local and national civil rights groups, founded the National Black Farmers Association , led marches, and in 1997 was a lead plaintiff in Pigford v. Glickman . That turned out to be the largest class action settlement the U.S. government has ever had to make.

John Boyd Jr. was at the front of the line. “I was able to get my land out of federal inventory, a little piece of happy change and some sort of apology,” he said.

A 1997 governmental investigation called USDA “a stubborn bureaucracy” that had used discriminatory loan practices to “force minority and socially disadvantaged farmers off their land.”^.

Protests and litigation continued because Black farmers had not been notified they were eligible for compensation. Pigford II was finally settled in 2010.

John Boyd Jr. is still president of the NBFA today. The NBFA and its allies in Congress are largely responsible for the $5 billion debt relief for farmers of color in the 2021 American Recovery Plan. In a recent editorial , Boyd said that much more needs to happen.

“The racism that was baked into subsidy programs for decades is now a feature, not a bug,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, he and Kara have a farm to run. Covid hurt. They couldn’t sell their livestock as they’d planned. The long harsh winter meant they were late harvesting and late planting.

“We lost soybeans because we weren’t able to get them harvested,” Kara Boyd said. But she noted that as a great source of nitrogen “they’ll just go back into the soil and feed Mother Earth.”

The Boyds would like to do regenerative agriculture demonstrations at their farm, and spread the word about how no-till and cover crop practices are paying off. They’d like to put in perimeter fencing to integrate livestock with row crops. They’d like to see more farmers of color own their land, and they’re working hard to make all that happen.

Cherries inch their way up on Produce Market Guide

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:37:50 GMT

Haitian mangoes maintained their lead on The Packer’s PMG the week of May 18th. Cherries climbed from No. 7 to No. 2. Oranges are also of note, they climed from No. 8 to No. 3 on PMG. Cucumbers stayed in the top 5 on PMG, moving from No. 5 to No. 4. Take a look at all the rest of top searched commodities on Produce Market Guide.

The PMG platform connects produce buyers and sellers. Below, find the top 20 searched commodities on PMG during the week of May 18.

Retail promotions spur Santa Maria produce

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 19:00:15 GMT

Shippers say that retail sales of Santa Maria produce can be more effective by increasing the profile of the produce within the stores, highlighting its nutritional value and educating in-store pickers who fill produce orders for e-commerce grocery shoppers.

“The No. 1 thing retailers can do to promote strawberries is to showcase them in locations that increase turnover at the store level,” said Roger Privett III, sales and business development manager for Santa Maria, Calif.-based Main Street Produce .

Putting berry displays at the checkout counter will spur more retail sales, said Philip Adam, chief operating officer of Santa Maria-based Innovative Produce .

The quality of produce purchased via online grocery orders could be improved by educating delivery shoppers on what to look for when choosing which products to purchase, said Debra Garrison, manager of AgEmpowered, Santa Maria.

Health benefits

Retailers should promote the health benefits of fresh fruits and vegetables, Steve Adlesh, partner with Beachside Produce LLC , Guadalupe, Calif. Retailers can also use over-supply to put in more promotions to move excess volume, he said.

“The best thing retailers can do to market our products is showcasing their color, variety and label,” said Matt Hiltner, marketing coordinator for Babé Farms , Santa Maria. “Eating the rainbow has been on trend the last few years as consumers look to stay healthy while also making their food as Instagram-able as possible,” he said. “With Babé Farms’ colorful collection of root vegetables, retailers need only display them with roots visible in neat piles and watch as they create a rainbow in the produce department!”

Related articles:
UC Davis releases two new strawberry varieties
California strawberry marketers adjust tactics amid pandemic
These are the top issues for CA fruit growers in 2021

Trending on PMG ... loquat?

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:29:29 GMT

For the past couple of weeks a certain specialty has been topping the charts on PMG — namely, loquat ! This slightly fuzzy fruit has taken the No. 1 spot from May 6-19, followed by oranges at No. 2 (up from No. 5 the previous week), mangoes at No. 3 (up from No. 9), watermelon at No. 4 (the same as the previous week) and haitian mangoes at No. 5 (down from No. 2).

The PMG platform connects produce buyers and sellers. Below, find the top 20 searched commodities on PMG May 13-19.

Lemons rose from No. 13 the previous week to land at No. 6, and tomatoes climbed three places to No. 7. Cucumbers rose to No. 8 from No. 15 the previous week, while cherries fell to No. 9 from No. 6. Lettuce fell to No. 10 from No. 3 the week before.

Specialty manzano bananas gained a spot to wind up at No. 11, and peaches rejoined the list at No. 12. Avocados moved up one place to No. 13, and beans also made a comeback, at No. 14. Specialty Chinese cinnabar melon fell two spots to No. 15.

Radishes moved up a place, to No. 16, and navel oranges rejoined at No. 17. Bell peppers also came back, at No. 18, and specialty burro bananas rejoined at No. 19. Carrots fell two spots from the previous week to complete the top 20.

Learn more about loquat and Chinese cinnabar melon on producemarketguide.com . (P.S. Have a photo of Chinese cinnabar melon we could use on PMG? E-mail it to us at news@thepacker.com with the subject line “Chinese cinnabar melon photo.”)