From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Food Sovereignty
[Music]
my love for agriculture
started in kindergarten my teacher miss
smith
asked me what i wanted to be when i grew
up and truthfully
i’ve been watching way too much buffy
the vampire slayer
that i even knew the dance intro so
i obviously told her i wanted to become
a vampire slayer
frantically she called my mom and
advised me to choose something else
so i did what any other normal horse
girl would do become
an equine veterinarian i had never gone
horseback riding but
i knew i wanted to work with large
animals and i begged my mom
to take me horseback riding for months
until she finally
said yes that’s when i knew i needed to
study
you see for some odd reason i thought
they were going to quiz me on the
anatomy of the horse and the attack that
would be needed to ride the horse
i studied up until the very last minute
when my mom yelled for me to get into
the car
i felt alive and free while riding the
horse
not only did i feel free because of the
interaction with this magical creature
but also because it was an outlet for my
childhood self
to get away from being bullied i had
recently gone from a diverse school to a
predominantly rich white school
kids would make fun of me for my hair my
skin color
the dresses my mom had sewn for me and
many other things
but this led me to want to change my
appearance so i could feel
accepted so every night i’d say a prayer
to god
please let me have blue eyes and
straight hair when i wake up
i would skip afternoon swim practice so
i wouldn’t get a tan
i wore my hair up in a tight bun from
second grade
to eighth grade so i wouldn’t have to
hear the comments about how my hair
is ugly and messy i felt alone
my dad was working two hours away and my
mom was a sweet french lady
whom i didn’t think would understand
american racism
it wasn’t until a beautiful and bright
girl kennedy
who walked into my fifth grade class and
became my best friend
you see kenny didn’t care about my hair
or my skin color
or my clothes or anything she just
wanted to crack jokes help people
and play soccer we were made best
friends
all throughout middle school too but
things started to shift in eighth grade
she had to go get surgery for a brain
tumor and although i was 13
i didn’t understand the weight of the
situation
thankfully her surgery went well and all
of her best friends and i were able
to play with her in the hospital gym
afterwards
everything was relatively okay until the
cancer came back stronger than before
she had stage four terminal brain cancer
having to overhear from the adult say
that your best friend
is only expected to live four months
from now places a chokehold on all of
your future aspirations
in april we reached out to drake
kennedy’s favorite artist at the time
asking him to come and visit kennedy and
on his only day off
he came and visited kennedy and all of
her friends and family
gradually the brain cancer took over her
normal motor functions
but i would visit hold her hand talk to
her
and read her some of her favorite books
i felt an immense amount of guilt
for not being a better friend throughout
elementary and middle school
i wanted to be seen and accepted so i
believed i needed
to change to fit the mold everyone had
for me
that i needed materialistic items to be
cool and popular
that i needed to be someone else than
who i truly was
to be accepted this led me to not being
the best supportive friend at the time
i was so caught up trying to impress
people who didn’t even accept the
authentic me
filled with guilt sadness and anger
the only thing that brought me some type
of solace
was being in nature gardening or
interacting with animals
i no longer cared what people thought
about my hair
what clothes i owned or what people
thought of me
i just wanted to crack one more joke
with my best friend
just one last time
i knew that wherever i went i’d have to
bring my true self
so we all create an image of contentment
and a path to achieve it as this gives
us a sense of purpose
with the contentment that nature brought
me i learned more about food security
nutrition and sustainability i grew food
in my backyard with my parents and
learned how racial inequities
played within our food system with that
i grew a sense of purpose and made it my
life’s journey
to alleviate food insecurity when i was
a freshman on campus
i vividly remember my intro to animal
science course where we took a trip down
to the governor bill and vera daniel
farm
i remember seeing so much potential as
to what we could do
and how the students could take part i
remember writing up different
projects and how we could achieve them
how we get the funding and what an
impact this would make
to support not only the university but
also the citizens of the cities nearby
us
i pitched my idea to professors
administrators and peers
and while everyone loved the idea they
just said
i hope you’re able to make this come
true dumbfounded i’m like
well could you potentially help me out
and without a
veil i would always hit the wall with
the words oh sorry i’m too busy
or just wait until we have somebody who
can help you out i couldn’t stand those
answers
and i didn’t want to give up so i go
back to the drawing board
ran a bit to my friends and eventually
asked my dad for advice
he would always say no just means not
yet
or you’re not asking the right person
so i shared my message with anyone who
would listen in hopes that someone would
see the value in creating a student-led
garden
that would allow for students to get
connected with their food and allow the
communities around us to not be food
insecure
the closest store that has affordable
fresh and nutrient dense food was 20
miles away from campus
yet we had approximately 800 acres of
farmland
it wasn’t until dr james a wilson jr
my mentor professor and motivator
listened to my story and instead of
saying i wish you well
shocked me with you’re the person i’ve
been waiting for
within a year we received a fifteen
thousand dollar foundational grant for
the student garden to get
started not only that but the vision
would include the collaboration of the
college of agriculture
and the college of business to
eventually start a farmers market
everything felt like it was finally
coming together
but other people had different plans for
this vision
instead of this being about the impact
that it would make for the wellness of
the university and the surrounding
cities
it became a game of who would get the
most recognition the project’s primary
focus was
no longer about how we can help those
around us eat healthy
it was it became about profit and glory
similarly to other creatives ideas can
get hijacked
but in moments when inspired outcomes
don’t work out as you had envisioned
you can either persist with what you
believe is right or you can freeze
rest and work at it in another light in
another angle
i chose the latter and dr wilson gave me
the validation to rest
pivot and keep pushing on
he always encouraged me to do more and
be more with the opportunities that the
university
and the world provided as he always said
to his students
don’t be typical in 2019
i applied to three different programs
that would allow me to further my dream
of becoming a farmer and a medical
doctor
who helped build up black and indigenous
communities through their food systems
i attended the summer institute for
emerging managers and leaders
at the university of california to learn
more about business and build
relationships with people who are
already passionate about that field
i was able to participate in a case
study present our ideas to boos allen
hamilton representatives
and secured funding for an mba next
i was off to switzerland and croatia to
study food security and nutrition
through the school of international
training
while there i was able to choose a
research topic that interested me
i decided i would talk about racism and
agriculture but
the major issues that i faced were one i
had
absolutely no one to interview in
switzerland
about american racism and agriculture
two
the people that were talking about this
topic were not getting the recognition
that they deserved
thus it was not easily searchable and
three
after emailing and cold calling major
agriculture companies and non-profits
i they all said something similar to i
don’t know if any racial issue that
exists in agriculture
or i simply wouldn’t get a response i
was bummed
but i did have one person get back to me
and say that i could interview them
miss lindsley lunsford from tuskegee
university and i were able to discuss
the atrocities that have been put up
against black people
native americans and latinx people
i had found that 97 percent of the arab
agriculture land in the united states
was owned by white people in 1910
14 of u.s farmers were black and
collectively owned
16 million acres by 1997
fewer than 20 000 farmers were black and
collectively owned
two million acres that’s a drastic
change from 1 million
farmers to less than 20 000 farmers
since the 1920s there’s been a steady
decline in the number of black
individuals who will operate
farms in the united states if african
american farmers had left agriculture at
the same rate
as white farmers since the 1920s there
would still be
300 000 black farmers left
as pete daniels stated in his book
dispossession
natives are two to four times more
likely to be food insecure
largely as a result of living in
locations where food supplies are scarce
in 2011 the racial makeup of farmworkers
were 28.6 percent white 3.4 percent
block
and 65.3 percent hispanic
farm workers are excluded from federal
overtime requirements
and they used to be excluded from
federal minimum wage requirements
with all of these statistics how could i
not want to create change
my work in racism and agriculture didn’t
halt there
but days after my adventure in
switzerland i traveled to china
to participate in the ching fellowship
where students from china
and students from the united states
interacted to help build relationships
between these two countries
it wasn’t until i was in china where i
realized i had signed up for the wrong
part of the program
i signed up for the technology part of
the program instead of the same
sustainability part of the program
so even though i accidentally marked x
on the wrong box
i have now been able to further mesh the
idea of agriculture and big data
together
embrace collaboration within yourself
using the knowledge
and passion that you are most
comfortable with and intertwine that
with something that you have very little
knowledge about
by participating in all three of these
experiences i’ve been able to remain
resilient
adapt the challenges that are in front
of me and add more to the peer review
community
prairie view a m university the name has
changed several times
from alta vista agriculture and
mechanical college for the colored youth
to prairieview state normal and
industrial college
even though change is inevitable the
three values on the preview and cigna
remain true for success as a student
today
research teaching and service
through research you’ll be able to see
what you enjoy
what piques your interest what you don’t
enjoy doing
always be willing to place yourself in
front of opportunities regardless of the
outcome
by conducting research i have met
lifelong friends
traveled to three different countries
and
found my passion even though we come to
college to be taught by others
there are plenty of time where the role
switches
where the student is now the teacher
those around you
may not have the same resources
opportunities or experiences as you
when this happens be sure to share an
internship opportunity
a scholarship or even introduce them to
someone who can help them further
achieve their goals
i learned that from kennedy the essence
of compassion
actually gave me the courage to stop
trying to be like someone else
now i advocate for others to strive for
their best and support them when they
fall
so this is your reminder wherever you go
make sure to bring you with you
service comes in many forms and dr
wilson was
a service to others by truly listening
and uplifting his students you could
find students running
in and out of his office just needing to
vent and he would give his undivided
attention
to make sure that they were taken care
of find a mentor that supports
you and be sure to give back to the
communities that are around you
by volunteering with non-profits you can
help others and build relationships with
other bridge builders
i was able to do this through
agriculture future of america
where they provide students with the
opportunity to interact with industry
professionals
and the farmlink project a group of
students
working nationwide to combat food
insecurity amid the ongoing pandemic
by bringing food from farms with surplus
crop
to those in need the farmland project
was started in april 2020
when a group of university students
couldn’t stand the idea of billions of
pounds of food
going to waste every year
and millions of people going hungry
every day
they risked the idea of starting a
non-profit to change that
and now the farmland project has
delivered over 24 million pounds of food
to families in need so tell your idea to
others
work on it fail at it and learn from it
when you’re passionate about a topic it
can be incredibly hard to keep it to
yourself
from talking to everyone else about it i
kept telling people about my vision
for student garden until finally someone
said yes
two years later you don’t have to have
everything figured out
you just have to bet on yourself and go
as dr wilson always said
don’t be typical
in july of 2014 kennedy passed away
and while i lost my best friend she
taught me how to be a better advocate
for myself
and for those who need support i now
aspire to create a farm
that helps build up black and indigenous
communities
with the injustices that go on within
the agriculture field i know that i’ll
be able to shine some of kennedy’s light
onto the work that i’m i will be doing
so
i leave you with this we all go to work
to get rich but what are you truly
enriching