Solving the climate crisis isn’t about reinventing the wheel or the latest tech scheme — it can be as simple as growing food and building community. 

Host Shilpi Chhotray chats with Leah Penniman, farmer, educator, and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, about the intersection of land, food justice, and racial equity. Leah shares how Afro-Indigenous farming practices offer solutions to the climate crisis— but also serve as a tool for personal and community healing. 

From the legacy of Black farmers in the U.S. to the ongoing exploitation of agricultural workers, this conversation reveals how land is not only the foundation of sustenance but the basis of revolution, independence, and justice.

Key Topics Covered:

• Farming as a spiritual and ecological practice that reconnects humans to the earth.
• Pitfalls of Industrial agriculture, from soil degradation, pesticide contamination, and contributions to the climate crisis 
• Afro-Indigenous farming practices that sequester carbon, restore soil, and increase resilience to extreme weather.
• Land justice and reparations: Historical land theft, racialized wealth disparities, and efforts to build Black land commons.
• The Trump Administration's impact on Black Farmers and the agri-food industry.
• How modern food systems continue to exploit the most vulnerable, including undocumented farmworkers and incarcerated individuals, whose labor produces the food we eat
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Resources

• Soul Fire Farm
• Farming While Black by Lean Penniman
• Black Earth Wisdom by Leah Penniman
• AP investigation “Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands”

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