Page 4 - Duron Chavis News Today

White Americans own 98% of U.S. farmland, advocates say - now rural and urban growers of color are trying to get a fairer share

Season two of "Black Space Matters" features Black-led green spaces.

"It’s important to me to paint people who look like the communities they are in," Austin “Auz” Miles says.

Throughout the city, nonprofit and volunteer groups are regrowing the urban forest.

Ohio is the sixth-largest state with beginning farmers, and new funding is available to help those just entering the business to survive the challenges spurred by the pandemic. The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Associations Beginning Farmer Program is taking applications for Pandemic Relief Microgrants ranging from $500 to $5,000. Program coordinator Robin Hackett explained the unpredictability and supply chain disruptions of the past two years have been especially tough for early career farm...

GREENE, Iowa -- The proposed Build Back Better bill is getting attention for a host of funding possibilities, including one area flying under the radar: sustainable agriculture. Programs to reimburse farmers for adopting environmentally friendly practices could see benefits. The Biden administrations proposed public spending package includes $13 billion for the Working Lands Program, which provide financial and technical assistance to help farmers reach their conservation goals. ...

RICHMOND, Va. -- In central Virginia, permanent access to land is one of the biggest barriers to farming. A new land-trust model aims to secure both rural farmlands for affordable housing and agricultural practice for new farmers, while also acquiring land in urban centers to foster economic growth. ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Succession is an inevitable process for Ohio farmers, and it can also be an opportunity to re-imagine the land. Vicki Harder-Thorne is steward to 80 acres in Ottawa County, farmed for nearly a century. Her grandfather felt modern agricultural practices did not account for the wildlife that depended on land used for farming, and so her mother eventually returned the land to wildlife through the Conservation Reserve Program. ...

In Richmond, you can see how climate change inequity plays out most dramatically in the urban heat island map that was generated with community science observations of air temperature during a heat wave in July 2017.

Across the country, neighborhoods that were formerly redlined are 5-20 degrees hotter than neighborhoods that were not. Now, both the city of Richmond, VA and community members are trying to remedy this disparity with more parks and gardens.