Modern Sharecropping and Organic Farming in the African-American Community

Former president George Washington once said, “Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man,” (George Washington Quote). Since Washington’s presidency, countless advancements and developments within the agricultural industry have allowed the United States to grow, develop, and become one of the most prosperous countries in the entire world. Nevertheless, this prosperity is also marked by several key historical events, such as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, which have caused the core values and traditions that this great nation was built on to slowly disappear. Today, the majority of Americans have no knowledge, understanding, or appreciation for the agricultural industry, causing them to take for granted the basic necessities they rely on each day. This disconnection has created a gap between producers and consumers, which is known as

According to Lehner (2017), the McKinsey Global Institute estimates that obesity alone costs the United States $660 billion each year, while the National Academies calculate that cardiovascular disease and diabetes cost another $545 billion per year. Secondly, when you use nitrogen fertilizer on industrial cornfields, the nitrogen from animal manure washes off farms and then pollutes the water we drink which ultimately damages the waterways and produce poisonous algal flowers. Lastly, you can’t talk about the hidden cost of food without discussing the laborers. Currently, in the United States, there is a guest worker program that dates back to World War II that enable to farms to recruit people in other countries for temporary or seasonal agricultural work if they can show a domestic labor scarcity. These workers face safety, health and housing issues. As well as being underpaid. For example, a farmer promises to give one worker 33 cents for each berry bush pruned but the worker actually only receives 23 cents per bush. This worker cannot combat the issue, but only hope for immigration reform and gaining a social security so he or she can have the freedom to apply for

America’s vast food supply has increased. Foods that were once hard to come by can be found in almost all the grocery stores across the nation. In the article “What’s Eating America”, by Michael Pollan, who is a professor of journalism, explains how the bounty of food came about. He writes about the creation of synthetic fertilizer and how it was used to fertilize crops and essentially make all the foods today. He writes about the harmful effects that are occurring as a result of the chemically made fertilizer. In another article called written by Katherine Spriggs, a student from Stanford University, she writes about the benefits of buying local versus becoming dependent on the import of food. She feels that buying from local farms

Between the late 1800s and mid-1900s, to help procure land, supplies, and workers, farmers turned to sharecropping. In mostly all instances of sharecropping the croppers would get a percentage of the crops they worked while the rest would go to the landowner. In most situations the croppers got a smaller percentage than the landowners. In this certain contract between a landowner and the Grimes family in North Carolina, there were some unfair condition. One of the unfair conditions was the results of not feeding his team. The cropper was required to feed his team every day in the morning, noon, and night, and if he didn’t he must pay the landowner five cents. The workers were also required to repair the fence if it was blown over or broken

The problem with food production in America is the mistreatment of livestock, the overproduction of corn in America, and the amount of corn feeded to the animals ; these issues affect consumers’ health because of the amount of diabetes has been increasing over years. Michael Pollan in "When a Crop Becomes King” he explains that the government pays for corn to be grown a lot more then it should be ,David Barboza in the article “If You Pitch it , They will Eat It” the way companies just want to get into kids mind by tricking them into telling their parents to buy them unhealthy food just for the toy it comes with, In “Pleasures of Eating,” Wendell Berry most of the people just rather be eating out then making food. There is uncertainty about the way food is produce because we cannot control people on what they

After the civil war ended in 1865, the north declared the slaves to be free in the South. This took effect on December 18, 1865. The only thing was, slaves did not know how to read or write. This cased a decreases in the economy of the South. The white southerners took advantage to this and started sharecropping. Sharecropping is when the landowners proved the land, tools, home, and supplies. The African Americans had to work on the land though. African Americans had to pay almost like a rent, but a fine to live there. If the crops did not grow one year you got behind and had to work longer on the land. Also the place where you bought the seed were most likely owned by our landowner. The landowner would do this to keep you in debt, so you are

In the post-Bellum South, the Economic situation, that followed emancipation and the loss of Labor, forced the South to find a suitable replacement for slavery. This also meant enacting laws designed to keep former slaves tied to the land. The economic system which replaced slavery was sharecropping. But to keep the former slaves tied to the land laws, such as the black codes which ensured a steady streamer of workers to harvest the crops, and vagrancy laws which were designed to punish vagrants by making them harvest crop for a plantation owner, were passed.

Through the era of reconstruction, the United States experienced a series of ups and downs within a political and social stance. After the Civil War, the goal of the U.S. was to integrate former slaves into the population. President Lincoln wanted to complete that goal but he was soon assassinated so President Johnson took over. Johnson had a completely different idea about reconstruction. He believed that the South didn’t have the right to succeed in the first place. Johnson then established new all white governments and many schools were produced to help educate whites and blacks. When black people thought about freedom, owning land was how they believed freedom was. Land was supposed to be divided to former slaves for them to own, but Johnson returned that land to its original owners. This created sharecropping. Sharecropping first started out as white farmers having blacks working for them to tend to their crops and they would take home a share of the crops. As more white farmers grew poor, they also participated in the sharecropping business. The republicans were not very happy

In 1860 there were only 15 slave quarters compared to the 26 homes of former slaves in 1881. I noticed that the slave quarters in 1860 are different sizes. Five are very small and the other ten look the same size. In 1881, all former slave homes look the same size except for Gus Barrow’s home which looks slightly smaller. The Master’s house, service and farm buildings, and gin house is all located along the road in 1860. In 1881, the school house, church, five of the former slave homes, and the Master’s home is all located along the road.

America throughout the late 1800’s was extremely separated. A large majority of the United States was segregated due to the vast majority of different races, especially the African American race. During this time, African Americans were newly freed from slavery. A large amount of the white men was extremely unhappy with the changes taking place and a large amount took it upon themselves to treat the African Americans as unequal as possible. The blacks were left with nearly nothing. Eventually, an idea called sharecropping was developed.

Many areas in the United States contain an abundance of neighborhoods that function with little to no healthy food sources nearby because of the large number of people in poverty. With the fleeing number of locally owned grocery stores and convenient fast food restaurants sprouting in urban and rural areas, residents do not have an adequate quantity of fruits and vegetables readily available. The City of Baltimore defines a food desert as “an area where the distance to a supermarket is more than one quarter of a mile; the median household income is at or below 185 percent of the Federal Poverty Level; over 30 percent of households have no vehicle available; and the average Healthy Food Availability Index score [convenience stores, corner stores, and supermarkets] is low” (Food Deserts). Baltimore City today “ranks second among similarly sized cities for the number of low-income people living in food insecure areas” (Freishtat, 2014). Leaving eight percent of white Baltimoreans living in food deserts compared to the 35 percent of black Baltimoreans, and 30 percent of children living in food deserts in Baltimore alone (Buczynski, 2015).

This Sharecropping is in southern economy is more like disarray because of knowing this slavery is it a devastation of the civil wars. As knowing between of white landowners they are attempting into Larose on this labor of force this freedmen black seeking on their own independences of autonomy. That why there would so many slaves has this feed to the governments to giving to them of amount of their land. If there such a thing if they able to work and or so see if they able keeping working during the slavery ears. This a number of freed men are 40 see if they able abandoned land over the army because all they want know if they would get this land for this slavery on labor of resulted of sharecropping. This black family is rent a small plots

It’s no secret, Americans love their processed, energy-rich foods. And undeniably, this love affair has led to an obesity epidemic. In spite of the evidence against processed food, however, there are some who believe the problem may hold the key to the solution. David Freedman, author of “How Junk Food Could End Obesity,” criticizes Michael Pollan for his argument in support of unprocessed, local foods due its impracticality. Freedman’s criticism is based on the idea that “It makes a lot more sense to look for small, beneficial changes in food than it does to hold out for big changes in what people eat that have no realistic chance of happening” (Freedman Sec. 1). He contends that processed foods already play a big part in our diets, so instead of trying to expand the wholesome food business, we should try to make processed foods healthier. Freedman’s argument, however, overlooks many negative effects of processed foods and conventional farming. Michael Pollan’s wholesome food movements takes into account not only the obesity problem, but also the quality of the environment and the rights of farmers. Although Pollan’s solution to obesity may not seem the most efficient or time effective, the trades offs it provides in terms of environmental sustainability and the well-being of farmers outweigh the loss of efficiency.

Growing up on a small family wheat farm in southwestern Oklahoma, I have experienced the harsh conditions of farming firsthand. The job that used to employ the largest amount of people in the United States has lost the support and the respect of the American people. The Jeffersonian Ideal of a nation of farmers has been tossed aside to be replaced by a nation of white-collar workers. The family farm is under attack and it is not being protected. The family farm can help the United States economically by creating jobs in a time when many cannot afford the food in the stores. The family farm can help prevent the degradation of the environment by creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the people producing the food and nature. The family farm is the answer to many of the tough questions facing the United States today, but these small farms are going bankrupt all too often. The government’s policy on farming is the largest factor in what farms succeed, but simple economics, large corporations, and society as a whole influence the decline in family farms; small changes in these areas will help break up the huge corporate farms, keeping the small family farm afloat.

More and more health-conscious individuals are scrutinizing the source of the food their family consumes. However, even the most conscientious consumer is not fully aware of the exhaustive efforts and struggle to get a juicy, ripe strawberry or that plump tomato in the middle of winter, even in Florida. These foods are harvested and picked mostly by seasonal and migrant farm workers. Migrant workers hail, in large part, from Mexico and the Caribbean, and their families often travel with them. Migrant farm workers must endure challenging conditions so that Americans can have the beautiful selection of berries, tomatoes, and other fresh foods often found at places like a farmer’s market or a traditional super market. Seasonal and