When people were hunter-gatherers and the world's population was about 100,000 humans in total?

Some sort of brigading going on here, lots of comments with almost identical wording.

buying specifically from black people is problematic, why?

The problem isn't that buying from black people is a problem, the problem is that it's trying to be a selling argument, and that's just stupid. Are the vegetables of a black farmer better than of a white farmer? Do queer farmers make better cheese than straight farmers? I somehow doubt it. In the end, it's a matter of skill and you can have that regardless of your sexuality or skin color.

I'm seriously wondering how you ever expect something like "inclusion" to happen when you're the ones that keep treating the groups you're trying to include differently.

It's a nation founded on racism and the back of race based slavery. That shit doesn't disappear overnight, unfortunately.

No one said fuck you lol

Yeah, that's not what's happening.

But keep playing the victim.

The fact that it's cheaper for you and they get paid more than the middle man would pay should be enough for you.

It’s cool, but buying produce from your neighbors is also cool.

Um... My neighbors are black you fucking prick.

Because they still get shut out of opportunities based solely on their skin color, names, and application photos. So they work together to create their own opportunities and are rightfully proud of that. America can stop worrying about race when we finally end racism.

It's because America is obsessed with race, and has systematically attempted to demolish black economic power from the foundation of the society, that people may choose to shop this way.

I would prefer knowing my money is going to people who have been systematically disadvantaged for this nation's entire history.

I suppose your post could imply other minorities could be included but the way I read your comment gives off big WLM energy.

Edit: spelling

Sure, it can seem on the surface like wanting to support people of a particular race is in itself a kind of racism, or at least a situation that emphasizes unfair distinctions.

Unfortunately, race does still matter in America, even if we personally disagree with it or want to ignore it. The health and economic research data make it very clear that people of color in America, especially black people, experience harder lives in almost every category. This is due to both recurring experiences of present-day prejudice and discrimination, as well the inter-generational impacts of wealth inequality and psychological trauma.

You might already know about this, but redlining is one example of the way that patterns of discrimination can creates a systemic effect, which, in turn, can impact the physical and financial effects on a family across time. These kinds of systemic effects can then make it harder for current generations of these families to recover and live safe lives today though, we personally might celebrate that the policy doesn't exist anymore, and even though we personally might say that we don't support people acting like that anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redlining

No one really has to do anything, but some people might choose to support groups of people or organizations who they think might have experienced similar kinds of hardships in their families, and might be glad to have a way to try to do something different with their money than give it to another multinational corporation every time.

I still love how everyone acts like America is the only racist country on the planet.

This is like, 50% the value of pissing off people in power.

the democrats have built their entire brand around performative racial justice where everything they do is designed to appeal to different groups. Its super toxic and while I am vehemently anti-racist this tokenization of policy is counter productive and the reason why a lot of people reject the democrats as "racist"

Because uh... Orange man hates black people or something...

https://www.localharvest.org

You could try researching CSAs in your area. There are a few near me that sell farm shares with weekly pickup of seasonal veggies during harvest season. I'm in northern California, and our rate is under $20 per week after we split it with another couple. We usually receive more veggies than we would buy during a weekly grocery store trip, plus our farm let's everyone pick fresh bouquets each pickup as a nice bonus.

Farm co-ops I think focus on local farms.

Depending on your location, try heading to your local "ethnic" neighborhood produce shops and price check those.

But probably not a difficult fix. Websites can be updated.

Cmd-F or Ctrl-F to search for cities. It's imperfect, but I found seven hits for my city instantly. I could search neighboring cities and towns the same way.

at least you have something my state doesn't even have anything lmao, it goes to a boilerplate page that gives little info

It's more expensive indeed, but I've found the quality is much better.

yeah unfortunately small or independent farmers simply can't ever compete with factory farms.

We (the US) have farmers markets in a lot of places. They can have very specific times that I always forget about. Around here in the northern climate, the farmer markets stop during the winter or move indoors and shift to selling more jarred and canned goods. My neighborhood has a coop, but it's more expensive than the grocery store and with a worse selection. We have options here, but they require more thoughtfulness.

My guess is it costs a lot more to ship small parcels of food rather than to transport food in bulk to one big store where everyone shops for it.

I would guess it would mildly annoy people in power, but TBH this isn't a way to save money. If it really was, it would be common practice already.

Bidets are a cheaper, well known, better way to clean your asshole after taking a shit, yet the common practice of Americans is still to choose to smear their own shit around their asshole with dry disposable paper cloths.

The flaw in your argument is that you think people, Americans at that, wouldn't ignorantly continue to pay more for the convenience of not having to think where to buy their produce, because they can get it from the local Walmart 15 minutes away, instead of saving $20+ and driving 2 more minutes.

Americans are notoriously lazy and stupid, as evidenced this past November.

Can't speak to the cost, just found my local place and their FB link is offline.

a way to save money. If it really was, it would be common practice already.

I cannot overstate how dumb Americans are about shopping. The local Publix (expensive) just put the Winn Dixie (medium prices) out of business, because the Publix is newer and prettier.

Meanwhile, there are 8 other groceries that are cheaper than either. Even the Aldi isn't busy.

Been in a few big box stores lately, prices stunned me. "People pay for this shit?!" Dude on here posted his fish tank purchase. Spent loads buying: little rocks, sticks, big rocks. I just decorated a terrarium for nearly free.

I buy almost nothing new, hell, I find a lot of my stuff. We had to get a new washer and fridge last year, paid $400 for both off FB Marketplace, nicest I've ever had in life, minimum $2,200 at the hardware store. Not going to listen to Americans whine about high prices when they're complicit.

Apologies, you triggered my Rant Card.

I'd pay more just to cut out corps.

My buddy's sister is a cheese monger. 10/10

Yeah, this isn't being maintained. All the ones near me are dead websites.

Just Google "CSA <your city>"

UK here but in my experience farmers markets cost vastly more. Shame because if a farmer just asked for cash and I can fill a sack of potatoes myself for less cost than a supermarket I would go for it. I don't need a fancy hipster shop front.

I had to drop Imperfect Food as well from the same problems. It was just more expensive than I needed. I haven't found a replacement yet unfortunately. We are now just buying food as needed. I have been interested in a CSA but haven't done it yet

Timely!

I imagine for the same reason Iowa and Nebraska are on the same page. https://blackfarmersindex.com/reg-7-iowa-and-nebraska

Wisconsin and Nebraska have such a small list that they'd be a waste of a page, I guess.

There is a service to buy directly from white farmers. There's a bunch of them, including just going to the grocery store.

Because on their eyes black people can't be racist. They haven't seen the great example of Israel.

Because, on average, black people are more economically disadvantaged than white people.

Choosing to explicitly buy from black farmers will, on average, tend to support those with the least financial means out of the general population of farmers, whereas choosing to explicitly buy from white farmers will, on average, tend to support those who are already more financially advantaged.

One side is directly choosing to help those most likely to be economically disadvantaged, the other would be explicitly ignoring those with the least means in order to help those who already have the most, thus the situations are not quite comparable.

I personally would prefer an index that directly assessed farmers based on overall wealth to determine who you should buy from, but because that's extraordinarily difficult to constantly update & maintain, verify, etc, it can just be easier to divide among racial lines since that still tends to produce a grouping that is relatively similar.

This is a remedial question, but that doesn't make it a bad question. It is a hard problem to solve, and calling an advantage based on race somehow not racist does sound paradoxical at first glance. It's important to be able to entertain the explanation without outright assuming you're being attacked by a bunch of obtuse racists.

Hopefully we agree that:

• black americans are at a statistically significant socioeconomic disadvantage compared to white americans, both historically and to this day, and
• this is a direct result of a history of systematic disadvantages specifically targeting them based on their race

Let's pretend the second bullet point has been solved, that systemic racism is over and done, and we've established a perfectly equal union. Even if that's the case, we are left with the first bullet point as an ongoing problem. The challenge is now, how do you undo the very apparent damage that our history of racism caused, without specifically giving advantages to that group based on their race? And the short answer to a very complex question is: you can't.

So the US government instituted "Affirmative Action" the goal of which was to deliberately give a targeted advantage to people who have had a history of targeted disadvantages in this country. This catches you up to roughly the 1960s.

But in the last 40 years or so, we continue to see lower class areas of the US disproportionately filled with black americans, and we also see widening wealth inequality affecting virtually everyone. So naturally we also see an increase of non-black people asking the same question as you: "I'm having a hard time too, why are they getting an advantage based on their race? That's racism!"

The solution was to tax the rich, reduce wealth inequality, and continue to normalize disproportionate demographics. Instead, the wealthy used populism to hijack the republican party, and convince white americans that the minorities recieving these benefits were their enemy. And after 40ish years of pushing this narrative, they succeeded.

With the republican takeover of the federal govt, we can be virtually assured that any ongoing attempts to normalize these unfair demographics will be abandoned, at least at the federal level.

But it's still a problem, just now one for the people and the states to solve. If you want to support black-owned farmers in an attempt to help pull historically disadvantaged groups out of poverty, you can. If not, that's fine, just at least please vote for legislation that intends to reduce wealth inequality. (Note that history has exactly two ways of reducing wealth inequality: high taxes on the rich, or war. The question isn't whether wealth will get redistributed, it's how).

Tl; dr Yeah, it's an advantage based on race to solve a problem caused by a history of disadvantages based on race.

Lol. Lmao.

Well why do you think it is? Genuinely curious

+1 for this, it isn't that hard to do a little scrolling and if you really need it, use in-page searching and choose a city or town within your state.

Here in Germany we have similar projects, but it seems the producers/farmers often have absolutely no idea how to anticipate or meet the demand of their customers.

Like, I'm very aware that farming is a seasonal business, you can't really grow much salad during the German winter without a greenhouse. Perfectly fine. What is not fine is dumping basically your entire salad harvest for that season in a 4 week window onto paying customers.

You'll get 8 salad heads per week for a month or two, almost inevitably throwing or giving most of it away, and then you'll get 5 kilos of some roots for the next 3 months.

Black farmers in the US have a particular history, what with chattel slavery and independent black farmers in particular being targeted for hostile takeovers and anti-competitive behavior from racists running big AG conglomerates in ways that other ethnic and cultural groups in the US have not faced.

We must stay divided or we might notice that we’re losing the class war.

Owning a farm is not in any way the same as being farmhands.

www.squarespace.com

There ya go, you can make a site for each of those. Use promo code ImATroll for 0% off.

Do you think there might be a reason their skin color is relevant under the Trump administration?

Edit: Interestingly, your post history shows that you are very interested in skin color yourself.

I think you are conflating where the “importance” has come from. A person can recognize that skin color does not matter. They can also recognize that the system they live in places a huge importance on skin color through endemic systems that have been in place for decades. How do you counteract an unbalanced system? By sticking your fingers in your ears and going “it doesn’t matter” or by seeking out those who are trying to make a change?

Unfortunately, for some folks it’s never enough. Why only black folks? Why not disabled folks? Why not indigenous folks? Etc. But you have to start somewhere - and many people aren’t even trying. My point is that projects like this are a start. They’re not going to solve every issue but they’re trying to make a difference and I think that’s neat.

It's not about their skin color to me. It's more about a likeliness that they're not a Republican. Yes, I know, there are black Republicans, but it's less likely.

There is greater demonstration of community among non white people. As such, theres a built in hook not just for saying hello to a stranger, but for coming together to organize something like this. I think that’s more likely where it’s coming from than what you’re thinking.

Either way, I’d like a better veggie source for the things we don’t grow ourselves.

5 day old account and you're posting like crazy all over the place.

Now where have I seen that type of behaviour before...

Anti-white nationalists? Or anti-MAGAts?

Just spitballin here...

We do: "Republicans"