Shirley Sherrod has worked for change for black Americans in southwest Georgia in the face of extreme racism - and for opportunities for black farmers, because agriculture is the life of rural communities.

This is a US story chosen to highlight the Food Sovereignty Prize ceremony. A black farmers' daughter in the 1950's, Sherrod wanted to escape rural life, but her father's murder in 1965 redirected her to civil rights activism and then co-founding New Communities, a 6000 acre land trust modeled on a kibbutz, on which black Americans could farm and live. She describes working with the conditions black farmers faced - during those years, at the USDA, and now fostering opportunities for women farmers and creating the new site for New Communities.