A young Black entrepreneur’s tireless work to combat food insecurity is paying off. At age seven, Te’Lario Watkins II launched his business, Tiger Mushroom Farms in central Ohio, according to its website. “The idea of Tiger Mushroom Farms began after I planted cat grass and basil seeds at my 1st Cub Scout meeting,” Watkins wrote. “I enjoyed watering MY plants and was eager to see their growth each day.” He continued, “I began to wonder what else could I grow in Ohio in the wintertime. I remember reading a book about mushrooms. I told my parents and asked them about growing mushrooms. My parents bought me a mushroom kit…and the rest is history.” Nearly nine years after launching Tiger Mushroom Farms and selling his mushrooms at local farmers markets in Columbus, OH, the 16-year-old also has his own nonprofit, according to ABC News. The Garden Club Project’s mission is to eliminate food deserts and motivate children to make healthier food choices. ABC News reports that Watkins has...

Attention Houston, TX: A new Black-owned grocery store is in town!

Smithfield Food is on a mission to support Black and minority farmers! The company just welcomed its first family farmers to join its new contract grower program created to support Black and minority farmers as it works to diversify its hog supply chain, per news shared in a press release. Smithfield is leading the charge through a new documentary from the lens of the Martin family, contract hog farmers for the Wayne County, North Carolina-based company. The project will address long withstanding barriers like access to capital and cost of capital for Black and minority farmers and is a part of the $15 million Unity & Action commitment made by Smithfield to level the playing field in food manufacturing, agriculture and education. “Our position as a leading food company and hog producer in America is accompanied by tremendous responsibility to our many stakeholders, including our people and communities,” said Shane Smith , president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Foods in...

Crop Swap LA™ hasn’t stopped yet when it comes to its mission of ending food insecurity. The company has announced that it will receive $4 million from The California Budget Act of 2021. The selection is a major move for Crop Swap LA™ as it continues to work to eradicate food insecurity and create hyper-local access to organically grown food through the use of sustainable agriculture practices. “Our team and supporters are thrilled to see this commitment of confidence, funds, and opportunity to the urgent need to grow nutrient-rich food directly within our communities,” continued Crop Swap LA Founder, Jamiah E. Hargins in the statement. “The funds will enable Crop Swap LA to continue its mission, widen its impact, and deepen its resolve. The people of California who contributed through these funds can feel satisfied knowing that our team is committed to redefining the spirit and intention of community-sourced food production. Senator Kamlager has made a direct investment in the...

You may have heard of inflation, but what about ‘shrinkflation’? If it’s not one thing it’s another. This time it’s a phenomenon called ‘shrinkflation’ where consumers pay the same price for less when it comes to buying goods. According to CBS News , this is not a new trick, this practice plays a role during periods of rising inflation or economic downturns. One of the results of the COVID-19 pandemic placed cost pressures on a number of industries along with their products thanks to various reasons which include difficulty in hiring workers, trucking shortages, and price increases for raw materials. “If you are a manufacturer or retailer, you have a couple of choices — you can keep prices the same, which means you have lower margins. Second, you can run fewer promotions, and that definitely happened in the last year,” said Anne-Marie Roerink, the founder of market research firm 210 Analytics. “And the third measure is to keep prices the same but have a little less in the box.”...

John Deere is doubling down on its commitment to uplifting Black farmers. In the midst of the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd last summer, the leading tractor equipment company created a coalition on a mission to improve the livelihood of Black farmers. Legislations, Education, Advocacy, and Production (LEAP) was created to put action behind the company’s commitment to supporting Black farmers and now it’s advancing its mission in a partnership with the National Growers Council and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF). Together, they will partner with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund to help eliminated barriers created by Heirs Property. “I am extremely excited about John Deere’s history and ongoing support of the Federation’s work in this regard,” shared Dania Davy, Director of Land Retention and Advocacy at the Federation in an exclusive interview with AfroTech. “For over 50 years, the Federation has worked to...

When Shellie-Ann Kerns left her home in Jamaica to join her husband in Washington State, she wasn’t sure what to expect. They moved to his family farm in Gray’s Harbor and she immediately began imagining ways to make the land productive. Family Roots “Farming for me, it’s in my blood on my mother’s side, and from her great grandmother, all the way down. My father’s family is also agricultural,” she said. “It’s something that I understand how it works. Something that I’ve just always been passionate about. When I came here, it was winter. And I needed to plant something. I did some research and I saw that, ‘hey, you can plant garlic in the middle of winter.’” Her first batch of garlic did so well that Kerns continued to plant garlic every winter. Now she’s taking her farming up a notch and making it a community affair. For her, farming is about supporting her community on a basic level. Decolonizing The Food System “What’s really driving me is the ability to feed the community,”...

Hemp may be a super plant but access to the crop for Black farmers is still an everyday struggle. “Farming is still very much white-male dominated,” said Clarenda “Farmer Cee” Stanley of Green Heffa Farms in an email interview with AfroTech. There aren’t a lot of women in the farming space, let alone Black women, specifically when it comes to medicinal plants so people like Farmer Cee understand firsthand the obstacles Black people face when it comes to not only growing but seeing a profit from the hemp plant. So, what exactly is hemp? “Hemp is Cannabis sativa, the same plant that THC rich cannabis aka “weed” [comes from],” shared Farmer Cee. “They have different chemotypes for the most part although there are some hemp cultivars that are higher in THC as well. In addition to being the consummate medicinal plant, it has tremendous industrial applications from biofuel to plastics to fiber.” Industrial applications that Joseph Fordyce Jr. aims to take advantage of through his company,...