“Nobody's free until everybody's free”
-Fannie Lou Hamer
Rural Vermont acknowledges that systemic racism, settler colonialism, and white supremacy are foundational and continuous aspects of the “United States” that underpin its founding documents, its continental and extra-continental expansion over time, and its current social, political, agricultural, and economic systems and culture. Systemic racism and white supremacy are not necessarily defined by individual explicit acts of racism and white nationalism; they are defined by individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and entire cultures explicitly, implicitly, and systematically discriminating against those who identify as people of color, and privilege people who identify as “white”.
We are in solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives and share the grief for the lives of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner, Treyvon Martin, Fred Hampton, and so many more. Our hearts break in the midst of ongoing uprisings around the country and globe in response to deeply entrenched white supremacy, economic inequity, racism, political suppression, and police brutality and militarization. We also see this monumental moment of change as hope for a future in which we treat one another with dignity and respect, in which resources are equitably distributed, in which youth have equal opportunity and support, in which we can all move safely through the world without fear of sanctioned violence and oppression, in which farming, food sovereignty, and access to land, resources, and skills are available to all. If we are to achieve justice, equity, healing, and transformation our mandate is to prioritize the needs of, and direct agency to, those most marginalized and disproportionately discriminated against as we collectively dismantle white supremacy and pursue equity for all. It is also to recognize that the struggle for black lives is a struggle of mutual liberation - that we are all bound by these systems of oppression.
In saying “Black Lives Matter”, we affirm the value of black lives in particular because people in those communities have had, and continue to have, the experience of their lives not mattering as much as non-black people's lives. This affirmation does not bring into question the value of white or non-black lives - it asks for others to value black lives as much as any other human life; it asks for human rights and dignity, and it asks for solidarity and change. Supporting reparations for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities does not mean that we do not support similar processes related to other historically disadvantaged communities - but we are specifically drawing attention to BIPOC communities because they have experienced, and are experiencing, such a significant degree of systemic discrimination and violence based simply on the skin they were born into.
In calling attention to white privilege, or white supremacy, we are not judging people with fair skin – nor are we dismissing the very real challenges many people who identify as, or are identified as, white. We are pointing to how whiteness has been institutionalized as a cultural hegemon, how it otherizes people of color, how it (and the concept of “race”) is a social construct with no biological underpinning, and how it can be very challenging for white people to see. We are asking that people who identify as white work to understand and differentiate between economic privilege and inequity and racial privilege and inequity, and to see how the two intersect and are often used to divide us as opposed to unite us. The movement for Black lives and reparations is a movement in solidarity with movements for economic equity for all people, against poverty, against the war economy, and against environmental destruction.
Rural Vermont joins the call of countless BIPOC and allied organizations and communities in supporting reparations. We see that happening through just and equitable processes locally, regionally, nationally, and globally led by BIPOC and other marginalized communities to collaboratively determine what reparations will look like, how they will be distributed, to whom, etc. We stand with other local and national agricultural organizations such as NOFA-VT, the National Family Farm Coalition, the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, Family Farm Defenders and many other agricultural organizations that are committed to this work; and to take the lead from organizations like the Federation for Southern Cooperatives, the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust, the Indigenous Environmental Network and others in doing so. The process of reparations recognizes the fundamentally inequitable economic, social, political, etc. positionalities of people based on the color of their skin, the history leading to this inequity, the current roles of systemic racism, colonialism, white supremacy, and white privilege in our culture and lives. It works to bring people from these communities into positions of power and leadership to determine how to work towards repairing these disparities.
Despite the progress made in the Civil Rights Era (and throughout other periods of time prior), and the various laws which have been passed during and since then, radical inequities and violence persist, and the mechanisms by which they are enforced often transformed. The work of that era was critical, yet it was Martin Luther King Jr. who said in his speech, America’s Chief Moral Dilemma:
“It didn’t cost the nation anything to integrate lunch counters; no expenses were involved. No taxes were involved. It didn’t cost the nation anything to integrate libraries, motels and hotels. It didn’t cost the nation anything to guarantee the right to vote. Now we are dealing with issues that will cost the nation something in terms of billions of dollars and the other thing that we must see is that we are now dealing with issues that will demand a radical redistribution of economic and political power."
A history of violence, dispossession, and dislocation has led to the agricultural system we see today, where USDA reports 98% of landowners in the US identify as “white”, and in which we have to work to protect our community members and farmers of color from arrest, police and ICE brutality, and deportation funded by our own tax dollars. In a country built on the back of stolen land, genocide, and enslavement of African Americans; in a society in which BIPOC communities' essential rights and safety are fundamentally and systemically compromised, we must not only work towards a just transition to agriculture which is socially and economically fair and equitable - but a culture in its entirety. We encourage you to spend some time with the resources we’ve included below, particularly the ones created by the BIPOC community, to better orient and educate on the long history of oppression imposed on communities of color. As we continue to face this reality and work as a predominantly white-led and constituted organization, we are painfully aware that we must do more, and we must be more bold, uncompromising, and genuine in this work.
Our staff and board are continually determining how to effectively devote our resources in order to realize our commitment to being an anti-racist organization, to being part of this liberation movement not as an ally but as an accomplice, and to achieving the equity and justice we need for any of us to be truly free. We invest in this work with deep humility and an openness for learning how we can do better. We are currently working with a local BIPOC organization to embed an anti-racist policy into Rural Vermont’s bylaws. We are prioritizing ongoing racial justice education and training for staff and board. We are actively following BIPOC leadership as we advocate for racial equity in proposed legislation and for a funded, statewide working group to address reparations and land loss. Equity and justice in our food system has been Rural Vermont’s purview for the past 35 years, and has been blatantly denied to the BIPOC community in deep and systemic ways for generations.
We are committed to righting these wrongs as we remain steadfast in our dedication to do the work that has defined Rural Vermont for decades: to cultivate equity, access, and opportunity in the farm and food sector. Working to increase our food sovereignty includes reducing market barriers to increase accessibility for small scale producers and those experiencing economic hardship, including marginalized and disproportionately discriminated against communities. We recognize the deep and intricate complexities of this work and that we have much to learn. We commit to digging in, to a lifetime of education and deconstruction and regrowth, to owning our mistakes when we make them. As famed Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hamer once said, “Nobody’s free until everyone’s free.” We are in this for the long haul.
Some of our current work on racial justice includes:
We have been in close coalition with the racial justice and criminal justice reform organization Justice for All (as well as NOFA-VT, Vermont Growers Association, and Trace VT) in advocating against the proposed Tax and Regulate bill, S.54, and in support of a racially, economically, and agriculturally equitable and just taxation and regulation system for cannabis in VT. Although we were unsuccessful in preventing the passage of the bill, we remain in close coalition and are committed to making significant improvements to the bill to address racial inequities and other shortcomings next legislative session.
The "Vermont Coronavirus Economic Stimulus Equity Program" is the result of advocacy led by Migrant Justice and farmworker leaders since the start of the pandemic, and amplified by Rural Vermont, NOFA-VT, and other partner organizations to create equity for immigrant families in Vermont who were denied federal COVID stimulus payments due to their status.
We acknowledge that no human being is illegal, and that migration is a human right. We work in this struggle alongside, and taking direction from, Migrant Justice on local, regional, and national issues and policy. We have presented Migrant Justice with our annual Jack Starr Award (2017), protested alongside them in support of Milk with Dignity and against the continued detention of migrant farmworkers and its members, joined them and other local organizers in meeting with Sen. Sanders’ staff and asking him for more support in disrupting and ending cross-border checkpoints, worked with them to oppose the recent year round H2A expansion, and more.
We are members of the Farm to Plate Network, and are working to use our Chair position in the Farmland Access and Stewardship Working Group to bring forward a conversation about - and a financially supported Farm to Plate Task Force, Working Group, or Cross Cutting Team directly addressing - BIPOC reparations and land loss led by BIPOC community members. We have offered this space to multiple BIPOC led organizations to present their work.
2017-2019 members of the VT Human Rights Council (prior to its dissolution), an intersectional body made up of organizations advocating for racial justice, migrant justice, differently abled peoples’ justice, agricultural justice, justice in the academic system, unions, and more.
We sent our Policy Director to Birmingham, AL, in winter 2020 as a member of the National Family Farm Coalition Board, hosted by the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, and focused on racial equity. We toured Birmingham from the perspective of the civil rights era resistance, sat in the 16th Street Baptist Church bearing witness to the history of that space, and spent time with folks at the Civil Rights Institute, learning about the history of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives, the importance of black landowners in the struggle for civil rights and liberation, enjoying food and music from a local chef and musician, and walking through the violent history documented in that place.
We are members of Via Campesina - the international agrarian peasants’ movement - and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. We are currently working to deepen our relationship with, and struggle alongside, these national and global coalitions. We advocate in relationship to the broad goals of Food Sovereignty. We have worked to advance local food democracy legislation (such as on-farm slaughter, on-farm poultry processing, raw milk, etc.), which has at times been in direct assistance to communities of color (such as the use of On-Farm Slaughter to process animals to Halaal standards which catalyzed the first on-farm slaughter legislation Rural Vermont worked on). We have also advocated against multinational trade agreements which disproportionately harm BIPOC communities such as NAFTA, GATT, and NAFTA 2.0.
Local BIPOC Groups to Learn From & Support:
Radical Imagination Projects, including the EveryTown Project
Upper Valley Farmers, Landworkers and Organizers of Color Collective
BIPOC Business Directory - The Vermont Professionals of Color Network (vtpoc.net)
The Vermont Coalition for Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools
Additional Resources and Education for Supporting Anti-Racism:
Federation of Southern Cooperatives Archives
Food Solutions New England’s Racial Equity Resources
National Young Farmers Coalition Racial Equity Toolkit
Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust’s Reparations Map (currently under revision)
Soul Fire Farm Publications, and Co-Founder, Co-Director, and Program Manager Leah Penniman’s Bibliography
Books
The History of White People ~ Nell Irvin Painter
The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 1 and 2 ~ Theodore W. Allen
The Half Has Never Been Told ~ Edward Baptist
Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England ~ Jared Hardesty
The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont ~ Harvey Amani Whitfield
Birth of a White Nation: The Invention of White People and its Relevance Today ~ Jacqueline Battalora
Homecoming, The Story of African American Farmers ~ Charlene Gilbert (2002)
Farming While Black ~ Leah Penniman (2018)
An Indigenous People’s History of the United States~ Roxann Dunbar-Ortiz (2014)
Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement ~ Monica White (2018)
* This is an evolving list of projects and resources. If there is a BIPOC-led organization or project you’d like us to include, or additional resources we could provide, please contact us.