Yurok Tribe buys 40 acres for food security farm
In an effort to combat food insecurity, the Yurok Tribe recently purchased a 40-acre piece of property to begin a community farm in Klamath.
“The COVID-19 crisis illuminated a very real potential for food shortages in our rural region,” Yurok Tribal Chairman Joseph L. James Chairman said in a statement from the tribe issued Dec. 30. “We purchased this property to make the Tribe more selfsufficient during times of emergency and when things get back to normal. This property presents an ideal location to cultivate a tremendous amount of healthy, organic produce for our people. Establishing this environmentally sustainable food security farm will also strengthen our sovereignty.”
The U. S. Department of Agriculture declared the Yurok Reservation a food desert in 2017 as access to
sources of healthy sustenance was difficult to come by. When the coronavirus pandemic began, it became clear to the tribe that rural areas would receive resources last, so the tribe began to develop creative solutions.
The Yurok Agricultural Corporation acquired the 26- acre Weitchpec Nursery early on in 2020. With the addition of the 40-acre parcel in Klamath near the Margaret Keating Elementary School and the Yurok Tribe’s Head Start and
Early Head Start, the tribe now has access to 66 acres of land dedicated to organic food production.
Yurok tribal member Sammy Gensaw shifted focus from environmental activism to food sovereignty last year when he began his first garden.
“Food sovereignty is the next step and sort of revolution for us,” Gensaw said in a Dec. 24 interview with the Times-standard. “Sometimes people don’t see the connection between food sovereignty and (activism). How are you supposed to fight for your rights if you have to worry about food access in your home? People can’t do it. We need to provide for people to make an impact on our lives on a daily basis.”
Gensaw said they were able to deliver hundreds of pounds of vegetables to the community and plans to triple the size of the garden this year. He is also lending a hand to community members interested in starting their own gardens.
“We’re actually going out and clearing out more brush for property owners to start their own gardens and do a half-and-half deal,” Gensaw said. “So, they keep half for their family and we distribute half to the families that live within a fivemile radius.”
The Yurok Tribe Environmental Program’s Food
Sovereignty Division will manage the Klamath farm and will use a “holistic, regenerative method of cultivation” to grow a variety of organic vegetables. The tribe will also establish an organic orchard on the farm.
“T his year, we have taken significant steps toward radically increasing the availability of healthy foods on the reservation. With this acquisition and the purchase of the old Weitchpec nurser y, we have secured more than 65 acres of land for food production, which will complement our efforts to restore our natural food resources,” said Yurok Tribal Council’s Requa District Representative, Ryan Ray in a press statement. “For many years to come, these projects will improve the physical and mental health of our youth, families and elders.”
In the future, the tribe plans to use the farm as an outdoor classroom to teach students about land management, traditional food harvesting and fish and wildlife habitat restoration.