Cultivating AfroEcology: Building Sustainable Futures for Black Farmers

At Black Sustainability, Inc. (BSI), we know sustainability is not only about the physical land it is about our spiritual and cultural connections along with the interwoven relationships with other living beings. This conviction shaped our 2024-2025 AfroEcology Program, which reclaims African diasporic agricultural knowledge and integrates it with contemporary sustainable practices.

AfroEcology is more than mindful farming for Black people, it is a philosophy, a practice, and a movement. It honors the ancestral methods of cultivation rooted in balance, reciprocity, and reverence for the earth, while equipping today’s growers with tools to thrive in an unpredictable climate and economy.

Understanding AfroEcology

At its essence, AfroEcology lies at the intersection of Black identity, land stewardship, and ecological justice. It elevates traditions such as seed saving, cooperative economics, and ecological balance, and synthesizes them with regenerative and climate-smart farming.

When farmers and community members describe AfroEcology, they often speak of healing, as it restores both land and community; liberation, as it reclaims agency in food systems; and connection, as it reinforces that farming is cultural, spiritual, and communal. AfroEcology is not a checklist of practices, it is a living ecosystem of knowledge and resilience.

Eco-PARADIGM: Expertise in Action

Amongst the 2,400 sustainability practitioners in the Black Sustainability Network, is Eco-PARADIGM (EP), a worker-owned cooperative founded in 2019 with a mission to build resilient food systems for Black and Indigenous communities. EP's services include consultation, agroforestry management, seasonal labor support, and farm infrastructure ranging from high tunnels to irrigation systems, rainwater catchment systems, fencing, and more. To date, Eco-PARADIGM has supported over 40 Black-owned farms across the Southeast and Midwestern US, embodying a triple-bottom-line approach oriented toward environmental restoration, community well-being, and economic sustainability.

We have partnered with Eco-PARADIGM to provide hands on and virtual training for Black farmers and aspiring growers to secure their future land and food security goals.

Join us for an AfroEcology Series this year to learn how to meet other farmers/growers, grow food, explore alternative crops beyond row cropping, farm construction + use of sustainable, hyper-local materials, eco-building, healthy food & community!

Sponsored by WCSHC