ALEXANDRIA, La. (WNTZ) – On 6232 Old Baton Rouge Hwy., Jubilee Justice’s Bernard Winn, helps make organic farm-to-table produce more accessible to Black communities of Central Louisiana by utilizing pop-up farmers markets.
As customers rush in, the great rainbow mounds of vegetables filling the produce stands seemed to call locals by name. While patrons sprout smiles at the newly possible home cooked recipes they’ve been eager to try; Jubilee’s farm operators began radiating an unmistakably wholesome glow about them.
According to a report backed by Duke University, after the abolishment of slavery in the south, 425,000 Black families lost nearly 15 million acres (usually at the hand of government agencies). Using empirical data from the USDA, Dr. Dania Francis of Boston-Massachusetts college calculates an acreage loss roughly equating to $326 billion during the 20th century. For these reasons and more, incorporating a familiarity with local farmland in the community’s produce experience encourages an integral healing relationship between the earth, and its people.
Winn explains, “Our mission is to teach farmers of color how to grow things… and gain profit through farming.” One of those ways is Jubilee’s Rice Project, which focuses on teaching a System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a process originating in Madagascar. Along with Jubilee’s other crop-based initiatives, this project helps ensure generational wealth and longevity for Black farmers.
Partners like Inglewood Farms and Cornell University are committed to Jubilee’s goals and growing traction. Making what Winn recognizes as socially “difficult to face,” inescapable relationship based on growth an understanding.
Winn makes it clear. Jubilee’s goal of healing is reached, one grain, one hand, and one meal at a time.
Follow for more information on initiatives by Jubilee Justice and Inglewood Farms.
