PEORIA MAGAZINE February 2023

S E E D A N D S O I L

‘FARMING WHILE BLACK’ Few African Americans till the land in central Illinois, but the state is trying to boost those numbers

BY STEVE TARTER

M inorities have made real strides in the American workplace over the past 100 years. It’s no longer uncommon to find people of color serving as policemen, teachers or doctors. But one segment of the U.S. economy still lags behindwhen it comes to diversity: agriculture. Indeed, there were 920,000 black farmers in America in 1920, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture,

million producers, according to USDA data. In Illinois, the department’s 2017 Ag Census recorded only 188 African American farmers, compared to890black producers thatwere active in the state as America entered the Roaring Twenties. In an effort to support minority farmers in Illinois, a bill signed into law last year established an Agriculture Equity Commission, which provides funding for land grants of up to 100 acres for eligible individuals. The

“When you take a look at what black farmers have gone through throughout history, when you take a look at the issue that they had around land access and even access to federal programs, youwill see that there has been a big disparity there,” said state Rep. Sonya Harper of Chicago, the bill’s primary sponsor. Demarkius Medley, 37, who lives in Galesburg with his wife and four children, is bucking the trend, hoping to succeed as an African American farmer despite growing up in the inner city with next to no experience in the field. Indeed, Medley moved to Knox County from Chicago some 20 years ago, but didn’t get the farming bug until 2011, while recovering from back surgery. Off work and wanting to stay active, he volunteered to work in a community garden before joining a Knox College trip toMilwaukee to observeWill Allen’s Growing Power program, at the time one of the nation’s most successful urban farms. The latter included an aquaponics program, which involves raising fish and plants without soil. Plants are fed the aquatic animals’ waste while the vegetables clean the water that goes back to the fish. “I thought this was amazing — setting up a farm in the middle of the ‘hood,” saidMedley, who returned to Galesburg with aspirations of setting up his own aquaponics facility. In 2017, he started a small farm with his brother. That

Demarkius Medley, owner of Greenlords Inc., at his hemp-growing operation in Galesburg (Photo by Ron Johnson)

making up 14% of the total number of people engaged in farming at that time. A century later, African Americans make up just 1.4% of the country’s 3.4

legislation also established a Farm Conservation Corps to offer training to young Illinois residents interested in agricultural careers.

8 FEBRUARY 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE