(upbeat music) - [Announcer] In the shadow of California's state capital surrounded by the big city, a half acre, urban farm appears in the middle of a food desert and it's growing not only produce, but big ideas.
Nelson Hawkins is the owner of We Grow Farms in the city of West Sacramento.
Since 2018, this farm sitting across from an elementary school adjacent to low income housing has become an important part of the community.
It's providing low cost, fresh produce to neighbors at their Friday fruit stand and offering jobs to nearby residents.
- Our vision was really to build an ecological farm in an urban area where people are not as connected or exposed to how food is grown and show it as a model of, like, what can be done, but also provide access to food and healthy, nutrient dense, wholesome fruits and vegetables, especially to communities that are financially vulnerable and struggle with access to food.
- [Announcer] But in 2022, Nelson Hawkins got word that this land is slated for construction, so We Grow Farms was given notice to find a new place to grow their crops.
In a state where land is expensive and hard to come by, many would be discouraged by this news, but Nelson Hawkins, one of a small number of black farmers, was motivated to fight for greater access to land.
- This is not just an experience that I have personally.
This is what many other farmers have and are dealing with.
- [Announcer] Hawkins says, black farmers made up about 14% of total agricultural land ownership in the early 1900s.
Then came decades of oppression, trauma, and unequal access to financial help.
Today, black farmers make up less than 2% of the country's farming population.
This reality, along with the news that the land he's leased since 2018 was no longer his to farm on, pushed Hawkins to take action.
- One, it motivated me to really go through the hurdles of the advocacy phase, but it also gave us the opportunity to be able to serve the next generation, and give them a leg up, and really level the planting field, as I like to say.
- [Announcer] Nelson Hawkins, along with Keith Hudson and another young farmer, Nathaniel Brown, from Brown Sugar Farm, created the Ujamaa Farmer Collective.
- The Ujamaa Farmer Collective is a non-profit organization that's main goal is to help young, BIPOC farmers secure land tenure.
- [Announcer] "Ujamaa" means extended family in the Swahili language, which in a sense is what this collective is trying to create.
- The vision that we're building is an opportunity for us to collectively own land, collectively share resources, and that allows farmers that are underserved or just starting out that can't afford land and can't afford equipment, to be able to share that cost and really help each other.
- It's really important to see other people like you doing what you want to do.
- [Announcer] Nathaniel Brown grew up with a grandmother who inspired him to grow crops.
And he quickly fell in love with farming, looking for unique ways to grow clean food.
He knew he wanted to work in agriculture, but not coming from a farming family or having the land, knowledge, and tools handed down, he wasn't sure how.
- It took until I saw another person that looked like me, knowing that I didn't have to grow up in it to be a part of agriculture.
- [Announcer] That's part of the reason why Ujamaa Farmer Collective became a passion for him.
- Because we don't have those families that we can lean on, we are kind of creating our own agricultural family to the next generation.
- [Announcer] At the same time, they're hoping to heal old wounds and increase the number of black farmers by providing them with knowledge to run their own farming operations.
- So, once we connect with the land, you can take a seed wherever you go, and as long as you know how to grow, how to take care of it, it empowers you.
You have the ability to produce, feed yourself, feed your family, feed your community.
- [Announcer] In 2023, the Ujamaa Farmer Collective was awarded a one and a quarter million dollars state grant to buy land for their cooperative farm in nearby Yolo County.
In 2024, they moved on to this 22 acre parcel of land just outside of Woodland, and began building their dream, creating a place where young, black farmers can learn to grow, and leveling the planting field, as they like to say.
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