Conference plants seed about future of sustainable farming
If you have only an acre of land and think farming would be a good use for it, the numbers one, three, 69, 209 and 43,560 will become your guide to all things.
An acre of land equals 43,560 square feet, or 209 x 209 feet, explained Joe Tutt, a central Texas-based farmer and rancher who keynoted the Indiana Black Loam Conference at the Calumet Township Multipurpose Center in Gary Saturday. If you space your rows three feet apart with plants planted a foot apart, you will get 69 rows of product.
If you sell your product for, say, $3, that acre of land could yield $23,000, Tutt said.
Those numbers are also important, Tutt said, when it comes to estate planning, or in the case of farmers, “succession planning,” where the land is put into a trust for future generations to keep farming it. Many attorneys say they handle trusts, but farmers should go directly to boutique firms to handle all the nuances of adding land, he said.
Farmers — especially those in urban areas — typically don’t have a place to learn all the nuances of turning their farms into a business, Tutt said, which is why they should avail themselves to all farm services, insurance programs and conservationist lists they can find. That’s why the Loam Conference came to Gary, said Robin Shannon, who owns Shannon Farm and Homestead LLC in Gary.
“We want to educate urban farmers on where to go for resources,” she said. “(Black farmers) typically don’t have access to resources that would help us grow, and even though (agencies) say they want to help, it’s not readily available. We wanted to get all the info in one spot so farmers can ask the questions, get the literature and find the contact person.”
Robin Shannon, who used to be an adoption case manager for Indiana Department of Child Services; and her husband, Nate, a former biomedical engineer, started their farm as a 600-foot garden full of collard greens, she said.
“They’re a staple in our community, but they’re expensive and chemical-laden,” she said. “We grow between June and December and make them affordable.”
Denise and John Jamerson, with whom the Shannons partnered to bring the loam conference to Gary, said the mission goes deeper for them than just matching resources. For them, it’s about inspiring Black people to come back to the land and help themselves.
“There’s an importance in understanding food,” John Jamerson said. “There’s been such a lack of access to good food in urban areas that we’ve become ‘hungry.’ We miss out on nutrition because we’re eating flavored cardboard from the convenience store.
“Here, we can help people. We’re a seed that gets dropped in the ground.”
Aside from planting techniques, such as 21st Century Charter School at Gary teacher and farmer Damon Bazziel teaching the more than 75 attendees the art of hydroponic growing, there were breakout sessions on mental health and farming as well as farming success stories, like Faith Farms, run by Progressive Community Church in Gary. Its pastor, Curtis Whittaker, told the crowd he knew nothing about growing food, but God told him to do it, anyway.
The church went from three raised bins to a full co-op with chickens and goats, he said.
“We can’t have enough growers,” Whittaker said. “Our legacy is the land. I don’t have to compete with you, and if you need soil, compost or wood, we have it, and we just want to see you be successful.”
Sedrick Green III, a 15-year-old from Merrillville, came to the conference with his mother.
The two of them started a garden with two benches and a raised bed recently, but it was more of a lark to him than anything.
After Loam, he has much bigger ideas.
“Today w a s a n eye-opener,” Sedrick said. “I want to grow a garden that is very highly sustainable so I can decide whether I want to turn it into a farm.”