Black Agriculture - Black Agriculture Summit 2012

Kind of Blue ~ Jazz and Healing Yoga
Allison Boyd, Registered Dietitian, Certified Yoga Instructor

406 14th Street, Downtown Oakland

~ Dinner Party at Farmer Brown ~ Hotel Metropolis

In 1930, Black Ag producers owne 19 million acres, today close to 3 million acres

According to 1997 Census of Agriculture, nearly 70% of Black Ag producers did not participate in United States Department of Agriculture programs.

The Endangered Black Farmers Act of 2012 may provide services and technical assistance essential to mitigate past challenges to effectively compete in a global agriculture industry.

Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the White House Office of

Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of joining First Lady Michelle Obama as she launched the newest effort within the Let’s Move! initiative, Let’s Move Faith and Communities.

Let’s Move! is the First Lady’s initiative to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation. We launched this special effort in a conference call with over 4,500 people, including faith-based and community leaders representing more than 50 organizations that have already committed to Let’s Move Faith and Communities.At the launch, the First Lady emphasized the critical role that faith-based and neighborhood leaders play in ending childhood obesity in their communities.

The First Lady pointed out that these groups know “how to empower folks…how to inspire them to take charge of their lives and make positive changes for themselves and their families.” She also recognized that many faith and community organizations have been leading the way, whether through innovative health ministries or summer nutrition programs.

Let’s Move Faith and Communities is designed to support local efforts and highlight accomplishments in communities across the country. We want to work with community leaders, learn from what you’re doing in neighborhoods and help us all learn from each other through this effort.

Toward that end, we have created the Let’s Move Toolkit for Faith-based and Neighborhood Organizations. It provides creative ideas and helpful tips for congregations and communities that want to promote healthy eating and fitness, and respond to hunger.

The Toolkit also provides practical steps and resources for groups that want to take up the four challenges that I shared on today’s call. Over the next year, we invite you to consider joining Let’s Move Faith and Communities as we challenge ourselves to:

Walk a total of three million miles

Complete 500,000 President’s Active Lifestyle Awards (PALAs) or establish new exercise programs at congregations or organizations
Host 10,000 community gardens or farmers markets at congregations or community organizations
Host 1,000 new summer feeding program sites at congregations or neighborhood organizations.

Many of the leaders who met with the First Lady on Tuesday committed to these challenges on the call, with specific goals for their own networks and communities. Here are highlights of their commitments:

Bishop Angel Nuñez, Senior Vice President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference

exercise/health/wellness ministry among 30,000 Hispanic Evangelical churches over the next 20 months.

Host 120 Summer Feeding Programs at our churches
Denise Hunter, First Lady of First AME Church of Los Angeles and President of FAME, the First AME of Los Angeles Assistance Corporation
Walk 100,000 miles through our church walking clubs
Garner 5,000 Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards.

Angel Gutierrez, VP Community Development and Outreach, the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago; also representing Catholic Charities USA

Increase by 50% the number of summer feeding programs from 155 to 233.

Encourage PALA participation for thousands of adults, teens, kids and staff.
Catholic Charities USA will encourage its 170 member agencies to support the expansion of the summer lunch program and other initiatives that ensure children have access to healthy and nutritious foods.

Patricia Cipora Harte, “Cippi”, Vice President, Program Services, Jewish Community Center Association of North America

Aim to have 1/3 of our 350 affiliates participating in the next three years and at least 50 of them hosting community gardens, farmers markets, community supported agriculture programs or regular fresh food collections.

Elder Ted Wilson, President of the General Conference, Seventh Day Adventist Church

Promote balanced vegetarian meals for children and young people in our schools and summer Vacation Bible Schools, walking programs for young people, and possible use of periodic local produce markets on church properties.

Utilize our Adventist News Network to alert church members and the public to these initiatives.

Doug Swanson, National Coordinator, Professional and Volunteer Development, 4-H National Headquarters

Develop 2,600 school gardens in 2011 that will yield over 650,000 pounds of fresh produce, which will be provided to local families in need.

One million young people get involved in community gardening.
100,000 young people achieve the PALA.

Rabia Akram, President, American Muslim Health Professionals

Walk 10,000 miles or participate in 10 exercise programs.

Achieve 20 Presidential Active Lifestyle Awards.

Barbara Baylor, Minister for Health Care Justice, United Church of Christ

Walk a total of 1.5 million miles by engaging 10% of UCC churches, including 2,000 individuals and families to walk 15 miles a week through November 30, 2011.

These commitments only represent a sample of the work of organizations and leaders joining Let’s Move Faith and Communities, but it already represents more than 2.5 million miles walked!

Join us! If you and your community partners decide to step up to any of these challenges, please email us at partnerships@hhs.gov or collaborate@usda.gov to let us know about your goals and ideas for putting Let’s Move! into action. Together, through Let’s Move Faith and Communities, we can move our nation closer to ending childhood obesity within a generation.

Joshua DuBois serves as Special Assistant to the President and Executive Director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Oakland, CA – The U.S. Senate recently voted in favor of major financial reform changes and the proposed law now moves forward to a conference committee process with the U.S. House of Representatives. Rule making and the regulations process are way down the road and we celebrate the journey to arrive at this historic access to global markets.

Excessive financial speculation in the commodity futures markets continue to create wide swings in the marketplace. During early 2008 Farm Bill conversations as part of the USDA/Community Based Organizations Solutions Team there was a brief exposure to the Bank of International Settlements in the heated battle seeking equity and accountability from the New Orleans Financial Office of the USDA, in the wake of Katrina.

"The financial crisis has shown the need for central banks to have a broad financial stability mandate, which will require them to take into account financial considerations when devising monetary policy," according to Jaime Caruana, General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements, from a European vantage point monitoring closely the U.S. Senate action.

Today, many are beginning to listen closely and wanting to help to frame the proper questions toward participating in a fluid open process to understand “hidden structures” that impact the entire the world.

Transparency is the goal and hope for all agriculture producers.

Financial markets control the final price of commodities in the previously unregulated over-the-counter (OTC) market. Public exchanges should be able to document and share how transactions clear daily. Currently, OTC trades are exempt from regulatory oversight by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The California Chapter of the National Black Farmers and Agriculturalist Association joined the process through the Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition and Derivatives Reform Alliance to work toward closing regulatory loopholes and excessive speculation in a multi trillion daily "Private Casino" with the belief that access to global market capital would be a natural outcome.

The "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" H.R. 4173 will begin to make market functions in an open and transparent action, instead of like a casino. Today, primarily five big financial firms know what is or is not happening at the top of the financial marketplace, "food chain."

Excessive speculation and lack of regulation join forces to cause the collapse global financial markets with a healthy dose of greed and probably some level of probable criminal activity, time will tell.

U.S. Black Farmers have begun to expand and build capacity to access the broader U.S. Agriculture market while leading expansion of mutually beneficial global trade and commerce projects. Past cultural exchanges with global partners now include extended family members throughout Africa, Caribbean, Asia, Europe, Central and South America.

New rules and requirements for publicly traded and regulated exchanges will allow greater accuracy in trade analysis that will facilitate broader market access and competition.

Financial reform will fuel expanding the documentation of new commodity movements creating increased competition and market volume. New exotic ethnic specialty crop commodities that provide better health outcomes will supply the demand to reduce health care costs.

The lack of access to basic fresh fruits and vegetables throughout many ethnic communities in America and abroad in tandem with poor nutritional content of institutional food purchases will provide an explosive emerging market for modern Black agriculture producers.

Continuing to building a collaborative relationships with Wall Street firms, the new USDA leadership, and global counterparts is a new approach to "Restore Agriculture as the Foundation of Black Culture."

The past global food crisis caused by extreme volatility in the financial markets offers an opportunity to have a broader conversation of how Black Farmers in America can utilize our unique experience to provide solutions that bring international partners together, people are listening today.

Our U.S. Congress, through the conference committee process, may reconcile and pass legislation that President Barack Obama will be able to sign a bill, Juneteenth 2010 will take a miracle.

Black Ag producers once 14% of all U.S. Ag producers, today we have been reduced to around 1% of all U.S. Ag producers.

Financial reform and access to global capital will facilitate our prophetic comeback from the brink of Endangered Species status," according to Michael Harris, Project Director, Black Agriculture Summit, July 15-16, 2010, Oakland, California.

Documenting implementation of the "Juneteenth", Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 will quantify progress at the restructured USDA under the Obama Administration led by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack.

The Obama Administration is beginning to provide new opportunities throughout all aspects of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 2010 USDA is budgeted at @ 150 billion inclusive of Recovery Funds, Discretionary Spending and Mandatory Spending.

After Memorial Day Weekend 2010 a reconciliation process of the "Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act" should begin to provide strong new regulations of the "American Casino" a multi-trillion dollar daily construct, yes, trillion ~ $1,000,000,000,000.00.

The proposed entire 2011 United States Government Budget is 3.69 trillion, for comparison.

Together we will move collectively to expand knowledge and participation in our broader U.S. economy to attract global capital, imagination and innovation, probably the greatest commodity of our U.S. Democracy.

Washington, DC ~ Memorial Day Weekend 2010 communities all across this great nation will pause and celebrate the lasting contribution of our Military Service members. Our Federal Holiday was originally created to memorialize those who paid the ultimate sacrifice during the United States Civil War.

Today we are becoming more inclusive by honoring all who serve and especially respectful of the women, children and extended families members who support our service member at home and abroad.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln created the Department of Agriculture as part of a war strategy preparing for revolutionary change within our U.S. Agriculture industry, inclusive of the Homestead Acts. During the long preparations leading up to issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863, other efforts to disrupt the Confederate Army use of enslaved support personell sought to reward and encourage the journey toward freedom to those enslaved in the Confederate States.

Those enslaved human beings in the loyal states of the Union remained in bondage until after the passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as an early measure during Reconstruction after the Civil War ended.

Imagine U.S. Government "subsidy payments" compensated District of Columbia land owners who would no longer enjoy "a lifetime utility of free labor," through legal enslavement of human beings. We can find no mention of direct compensation for the centuries of "free labor" while many U.S. land owners enjoy billions of dollars of annual government payments as part of competitive strategy within our U.S. Agriculture Industry.

U.S. Agriculture Labor remains outside the scope of U.S. Labor Laws thus those who harvest our nation's crops will not receive a pensionable career status or basic human dignity afforded to the labor provided to our U.S. Agriculture Industry.

Ongoing historical amnesia, systemic institutional racism and silent capitulation from adversely impacted populations remains a salient fundamental foundation to official U.S. Agriculture Public Policy outside the scope of official "Farm Bill" converstions that occure every 4 years.

In 1920, Black Agriculture producers were about 14% of the United States Agriculture industry. Today, Black Agriculture producers represent about 1% of the United States Agriculture industry, many believe we are in need of endangered species status.

The USDA through various levels of State and Local administration facilitates a separate and very unequal governance structure through 1862, 1890, 1994 land grant tools that mandate distribution of vast quantifiable disparity of U.S. Government resources, programs and service delivery that mandates the amazing disparity in farm operator income levels.

The Obama Administration, utilizing the direct Executive authority provided by our U.S. Government, is making positive infrastructure change throughout "America's Last Plantation" building upon the efforts of the final years of the Bush Administration.

U.S. Secretary Tom Vilsack is directing an amazingly difficult challenge to restructure and retool a Department with over 100,000 employees, multiple agencies with an annual budget of over 100 billion dollars that directly impacts every U.S. citizen and resident while indirectly impacting the entire world.

Few want to recall that our United States collective journey toward freedom began with the death of Crispus Attucks at the original Tea Party, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts.

Most modern day Tea Party supporters will never acknowledge that a former enslaved Black Farmer and Agriculturalists was the first recorded casuality in America's War of Independence, protesting against the British Government tax, on a Chinese agriculture commodity imported and financed by British merchants bankers.

Today, an unregulated commodity marketplace continues to reak havoc inflicting economic damage on a global scale, while Texas Tea, from British Petroleum maritime Vessels are once again attacking the Port of New Orleans, in a man made disaster of epic proportions.

Throughout U.S. History Black families have acquired and then lost millions upon millions of acres of land. Modern Black land ownership demands a higher standard of excellence and quality of life embracing cultural instincts, values and beliefs, creating naturally good stewards of the land, this way of life is under fierce and continual attack.

The Black Agriculture Summit 2010 invites innovative U.S. Agriculture leaders, community elders, students, educators and government officials to gather together to continue a USDA/Community Based Organization Partnership toward implementation of a transparent and accountable process to produce a National Black Agriculture Action Agenda to "Restore Agriculture as the Foundation of Black Culture."

Our host venue is the Marriott Oakland City Center, 1001 Broadway, Oakland, California, July 15-18, 2010, in partnership with the Hand to Hand Marketing Black Expo, guidance of Dr. Annette Shelton, Expo Director & Special Projects Manager.

"The Black Agriculture Summit 2010 will create the space to encourage an inter generational laboratory and marketplace of ideas," according to Michael Harris, Co-Chair, Black Agriculture Summit Planning Team, "we are building a national action agenda that eliminates U.S. Agriculture Policy illiteracy and expands equity participation throughout the broader U.S. Agriculture Industry."

During our Summit, first plenary session we will highlight the ongoing commitment from the Obama Administration to support both U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sabelius and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack efforts to expand transparency and accountablility to quantify equity and equal opportunity to address epedemic leveles of diet related disease throughout all socio-economic levels in the Black Communities nationwide.

Our Black Agriculture Summit Gala Reception will invite leadership from the White House, U.S. Congress, US State Department, U.S. Department of Agriculture and other U.S. agencies along with our California Governor's Office, State Legislature, California Department of Food and Agriculture, with National and International dignitaries to celebrate the historic contribution of the Honorable William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr., African Cuban, Danish Jewish, "Founding Father of California" first Black Diplomat in U.S. History, serving as U.S. Vice ~ Consul for California, at the Port of San Francisco.

We must expand efforts to "Restore Agriculture as the Foundation of Black Culture" if we want to positively impact our drain on the U.S. Gross Domestic Product, eliminate diet related disease destroying Black Families nationwide and restore our historic high culture work ethic, surpassing global standards of excellence.

Our Summit outcome, a National Black Agriculture Action Agenda will provide a cooperative model and nationwide framework toward a new paradigm of shared responsibility.

Together, we will continue the construction of a National Black Agriculture Action Agenda that engages community elders, students, educators and government officials by embracing First Lady's Michelle Obama "Let's Move" campaign to raise a healthier generation. Together we will building upon the growing partnerships of Healthy Solutions Group, in Washington D.C., Alabama, North Carolina, New York, and now California.

Black Agriculture Summit participants will discuss a wide range of issues impacting a broad view of Black Agriculture in the 21st Century including Wall Street Reform, Consumer Protection, Organic Produce Distribution, International Trade and Commerce, Green Technology, our Save Black Farmers Campaign, and our "Faith to Farm Initiative."

National Day of Prayer

Noon, Thursday, May 2, 2013

13th and K Street

Sacramento Convention Center Courtyard

Interfaith Community Prayer to Restore

"Sojourner"

by Elizabeth Catlett Mora

Black Agriculture Summit 2012

Black Agriculture Summit 2010 ~ July 15-18, 2010
Marriott Oakland City Center ~ Black Expo Weekend

Black Farmers Prepare For Access
to Global Capital Markets