So sorry to hear that pigs are bred and killed for food. For heaven's sake. They want to live just as much as we do. Do not eat animals or breed them. And we are healthier not eating animals. I am in admiration of the vegetable farming, though. The way to eat is whole food plant based.
3
Food independence is everything a person could want. Caring for the planet is everything a people could want.
5
Y'all look up Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in the county immediately adjacent to Sunflower County, mentioned in this article.
Here's a sample from Wikipedia:
"Mound Bayou traces its origin to people from the community of Davis Bend, Mississippi. The latter was started in the 1820s by the planter Joseph E. Davis (brother of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis), who intended to create a model slave community on his plantation. Davis was influenced by the utopian ideas of Robert Owen. He encouraged self-leadership in the slave community, provided a higher standard of nutrition and health and dental care, and allowed slaves to become merchants. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Davis Bend became an autonomous free community when Davis sold his property to former slave Benjamin Montgomery, who had run a store and been a prominent leader at Davis Bend." ...
Here's a sample from Wikipedia:
"Mound Bayou traces its origin to people from the community of Davis Bend, Mississippi. The latter was started in the 1820s by the planter Joseph E. Davis (brother of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis), who intended to create a model slave community on his plantation. Davis was influenced by the utopian ideas of Robert Owen. He encouraged self-leadership in the slave community, provided a higher standard of nutrition and health and dental care, and allowed slaves to become merchants. In the aftermath of the Civil War, Davis Bend became an autonomous free community when Davis sold his property to former slave Benjamin Montgomery, who had run a store and been a prominent leader at Davis Bend." ...
3
This is one of the best pieces I have ever read in the New York Times.
Thank you, and second helpings, if you please.
Thank you, and second helpings, if you please.
10
Timely information. Needs to be on the front page, dominate the Food and Opinion sections. Food and access to it is yet another means for the Privileged to subjugate those they deem less then them.
Every time I see some celebrity white chef making trendy southern foods on any/all the food shows on TV, I make it a point to tell anyone around that, "that's not white peoples food!" As all the trendy Southern foods we see now being promoted by white chefs, or Hipster's running trendy cafes, etc, in urban gentrified neighborhoods - were not eaten by the slave owners, and richer white folks - and are all some form of what the slaves and poorest of the poor concocted to survive. Slaves, and the mixed race poor of the deep south, invented these dishes from all the food-scraps leftover from their white oppressors. They scavenged the landscape to eat what no respectable white man would. Weeds, and protein sources that no white man would touch.
Various plant based dishes (collards), all the parts of the pig (head meat, knuckles, etc) and other livestock parts that were tossed on the scrap heap by whites, were turned into dishes that are now deemed iconic southern dishes - that have summarily been co-opted (stolen!) by White chefs and made to appear like the White Gentry invented them all along.
Much like black music was co-opted by whites, same goes for these traditional foods. Survival dishes that deserve more recognition as to their origins.
Every time I see some celebrity white chef making trendy southern foods on any/all the food shows on TV, I make it a point to tell anyone around that, "that's not white peoples food!" As all the trendy Southern foods we see now being promoted by white chefs, or Hipster's running trendy cafes, etc, in urban gentrified neighborhoods - were not eaten by the slave owners, and richer white folks - and are all some form of what the slaves and poorest of the poor concocted to survive. Slaves, and the mixed race poor of the deep south, invented these dishes from all the food-scraps leftover from their white oppressors. They scavenged the landscape to eat what no respectable white man would. Weeds, and protein sources that no white man would touch.
Various plant based dishes (collards), all the parts of the pig (head meat, knuckles, etc) and other livestock parts that were tossed on the scrap heap by whites, were turned into dishes that are now deemed iconic southern dishes - that have summarily been co-opted (stolen!) by White chefs and made to appear like the White Gentry invented them all along.
Much like black music was co-opted by whites, same goes for these traditional foods. Survival dishes that deserve more recognition as to their origins.
16
This article completely usurps and beguiles the story and valor of Fannie Lou Hammer and morphs it into white liberal hogwash- "farm to table" utopia nonsense. It also fails to mention that black farmers are scarcer in number than the illegal migrant workers who tend their fields. The high rates of heart disease and diabetes among African-Americas is 3x the white community. This has nothing to do with getting back to nature and tilling the soil- this is Jim Crow era politics dead set on keeping a class of people impoverished, malnourished and powerless. That's what Fannie Lou was fighting for- not some white bread- hyper liberal "Whole Foods" renaissance. That's something only white people have the time and luxury to yearn for.. This story really bothered me.
16
Thanks for this article. Fannie Lou Hamer is a true Southern heroine, who demonstrated that freedom is more than civil rights.
20
Southern cuisine owes its soul to the creative spirit of Blacks. In a time of hardship whether in slavery's years, Jim Crow times or the period of Red state blithe disregard for its very own, recipes and foods were created out of the least of nature’s bounty. it wasn't until the Civil War and its aftermath that white Southerners forced by growling stomachs sampled the wondrous fare that was right beneath their noses. No more white turnips for them 'greens' tempered with fat back was most superior. On the backs of Blacks was American capitalism begat with free labor making productivity zero in cost and profits soaring. American music would be unknown worldwide today without the seasoning lent by Blacks musicians before the founding of our very national being. And speaking of our nation, its very existence as meat upon the world table would ne'er have been that beacon on the hill so proudly alluded to without the lives and battlefield courage of Blacks affirming democratic principles while being denied it back home. Could not some aspect of the hateful racism that poisons our humanity be a knowledge of and shame for oft unacknowledged contributions of African-Americans to the bounteous feast that is America?
15
I always thought that the cause of widespread drug use in rural America was the disconnect between the farmer, rancher, etc. and the people they feed. Farming is hard, isolating work. There has to more interaction between the farmer and the people they feed. The purpose of farming should not be reduced to making money for a corporation. There has to be an element of pride attached to a lifetime spent supplying wholesome food to the people.
14
I moved from the North to the South there has been barely a lick of difference in the availability of and access to different foods. In the South as in the North, there are many different individual lifestyles and food preferences, but overall pretty much everyone just buys what they like without worrying about whether their ham makes a political statement.
7
People don't like vegetables no matter what their race.
4
Speak for yourself, Aristotle.
9
Hamer's co-op food idea needs promotion in starving African regions. It's pathetic that the World Bank, Oxfam, and other western food relief services are delivering harvested food, not seed, livestock and implements for agricultural production. Hamer's answer to starvation in southern Sudan, for example, would be to organize a program of food cultivation rather than emergency food air drops. The bags of staples dropped into starving Southern Sudanese camps, for example, is often seized by armed groups and the local government rather than distributed automatically to the starving.
18
She taught me how to make Sweet Potato Pie. It was during the summer of 1964. It was either July or August, and I forgot which Freedom House we were in at the time, however, it was obvious that she was in charge; maybe, it was in her house, or maybe not I don't recall.
There was a lot going on that summer, I was selected to go to Philadelphia, the county seat of Neshoba County: interesting time, indeed.However, I still make the Sweet Potato Pie with the same recipe. Some memories take a long time to fade
There was a lot going on that summer, I was selected to go to Philadelphia, the county seat of Neshoba County: interesting time, indeed.However, I still make the Sweet Potato Pie with the same recipe. Some memories take a long time to fade
37
SO, give us the recipe and we all can have Fannie Lou Hamer Sweet Potato Pie!
16
The Farm Service Administration started under the FDR administration provided the opportunity for the poor to farm crops for profit and at the same time produce food for survival. One of the places where these cooperatives operated was Gee's Bend Alabama, the cooperative operated from the mid 1930's until the 1940's when the loans to purchase the property was transferred from the FSA to the Farmers Home Administration. The end result was the need for operating capital transferred from the cooperative to local lenders. Many of the farmers reduced their stock of cattle, hogs and crops used for subsistence and turned that land into cotton which under the new farm bill provided higher returns and allowed the farmers purpose food cheaper than what it cost to produce.
The point I'm trying to make is that government policies reduced the desire for many of these small rural farmers to grow their own food.
If one would like to view the photos of the cooperative that existed in Gee's Bend you can view them on the Library of Congress web site. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Gees%20bend&co=fsa
The point I'm trying to make is that government policies reduced the desire for many of these small rural farmers to grow their own food.
If one would like to view the photos of the cooperative that existed in Gee's Bend you can view them on the Library of Congress web site. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Gees%20bend&co=fsa
14
These photographs are amazing - I plan to feature this link along with the article when I share it via Facebook.
This story reminds me of Pearl Buck's "The Good Earth"
As a fan of one of the least known modern American heroes, Fannie Lou Hamer, I am so glad her work is being recognized for its importance. She understood more than most what the search equality and freedom require. Great article!
I am always heartened to see a complex discussion of Fannie Lou Hamer. Fantastic work!
13
True "radicalism" would not exploit other beings. Looking to the future, we must not base food systems on slaughtering sentient animals. Plant based solutions are a must.
3
The origins of this food sharing scheme are directly to be found in the plantation system. But because it's tainted by slavery, we have to spray paint "racism" and obscenities all over it in huge letters visible from 40,000 feet because political correctness mandates this rejection. When, oh when, can we ever move forward from having to go through these token obeisances that pander to a minority's entitlement trip? On our family vacation to our Louisiana homeland I look forward to hearing on our stops how many places are singing the tiresome revisionist version of history, as if Mao's Red Guards were standing by for a struggle meeting should we disagree or even show less than enthusiastic doctrinaire support, and how many confine their observations to a factual recounting of what the system was until 1860-something...
6
Thanks for writing about Ms. Hamer. Ron Finley carries on her work in the food desert of South Central L A with his "Gangsta Gardner" movement, planting food in sidewalk strips and city owned empty lots. As he put it, "If a kid grows kale, the kid will eat kale." Of course he's been hauled into court, what true revolutionary isn't?, but he persists, and that's a beautiful thing.
20
Have wonder why State & city run public schools don't prioritize food health, agricultural, and cooking. It should be at the center of schooling so young people learn how food impacts a community' social, political, & economic well being. The industrialized food systems with its fast foods & supermarket boxed & junk foods have & are wrecking havoc upon our nation. So much talk about the need for "healthcare" and not much about preventive care which requires food knowledge at multiple levels. Guess we wouldn't want to disturb the status quo and the magnificence of common core knowledge being offered. How about common sense knowledge sprinkled with a bit of humanity over profits & control? On a positive note there is a building by movement going on that seeks to empower & educate people. Organic & anti GMO efforts are making strides !
4
If you want a very informative read on the South, read Paul Theroux's book "The Deep South". In addition to food deserts, there are bank deserts and doctor deserts. You'll be surprised to learn that the Clinton Foundation has not spent a dime in the deep South nor has Mr. Clinton visited his home state, as Mr. Clinton prefers to be photographed with dignitaries, preferably from foreign countries. Ditto for bill Gates re acknowledging the problems in the deep South.
11
Nothing could be more misleading than to try and tie regional food preferences to politics. The article's reference, "During the Obama administration, agricultural activists trekked south to map food deserts ...", may only be the other side of the coin of the leftist Northerners still bent since 1865 on the breaking of the agricultural backbone of South -- its cultivation of tobacco.
One reads that the Spanish love of the flesh and ham of the Iberian "black pig" is an affirmation of the rule of Christianity over Islam and Judaism. Neither the US Northern nor Southern regional cuisine has fortunately come to dominate the nation that succumbed to becoming the eaters of hamburgers with ketchup and tasteless tomatoes.
One reads that the Spanish love of the flesh and ham of the Iberian "black pig" is an affirmation of the rule of Christianity over Islam and Judaism. Neither the US Northern nor Southern regional cuisine has fortunately come to dominate the nation that succumbed to becoming the eaters of hamburgers with ketchup and tasteless tomatoes.
4
" tasteless tomatoes."
You have to plant some Better Boys. When they ripen get a fresh loaf of white bread, mayonnaise and some salt and enjoy. So simple and yet so tasty.
They can keep those tasteless marbles that are gassed to redden them.
You have to plant some Better Boys. When they ripen get a fresh loaf of white bread, mayonnaise and some salt and enjoy. So simple and yet so tasty.
They can keep those tasteless marbles that are gassed to redden them.
8
Brilliant writing JT.
9
I have gained a lot of weight since I moved to Charlotte North Carolina about 13 years ago. Punchline: I moved from Columbus Ohio.
3
Kim,
I came back South 39 years ago ( I grew up in S. Florida and Brooklyn) and I haven't regretted a day. Most people would never guess that I grew up on red gravy on spaghetti for nearly every meal so much have I attached myself to greens or pole beans with fatback, grits (with the black flakes) with red eye gravy made from frying a ham steak and mixing in some coffee for flavor. I break for BBQ anytime I pass a stand near lunch time. Scratch biscuits with a Smithfield ham slice or sausage gravy and real fried chicken fried in a big cast iron skillet. I'm lucky in that I don't have high cholesterol.
Don't get me wrong. I still like the ethnic Italian and German food I grew up on and eat it sometimes but southern food just seems like honest food.
I came back South 39 years ago ( I grew up in S. Florida and Brooklyn) and I haven't regretted a day. Most people would never guess that I grew up on red gravy on spaghetti for nearly every meal so much have I attached myself to greens or pole beans with fatback, grits (with the black flakes) with red eye gravy made from frying a ham steak and mixing in some coffee for flavor. I break for BBQ anytime I pass a stand near lunch time. Scratch biscuits with a Smithfield ham slice or sausage gravy and real fried chicken fried in a big cast iron skillet. I'm lucky in that I don't have high cholesterol.
Don't get me wrong. I still like the ethnic Italian and German food I grew up on and eat it sometimes but southern food just seems like honest food.
7
Hi NYHug-- I just responded to your Crossword comment in another article. As for this article-- Honest food? My Response: Honestly Fattening! I've gained around 80 pounds! This is not a good Marketing Promotion for the Cityburb of Charlotte and the State of North Carolina.
1
I'm so very happy to read this acknowledgment of Fannie Lou Hamer and the good work she did for years before she died in the late seventies.
Fannie Lou Hamer is the most overlooked and "underrated" historic figure of the Civil Rights Movement. She was a true American Saint and her amazing life story is worthy of a grand Hollywood movie.
Fannie Lou Hamer's astonishing bravery in the face of constant death threats, beatings and sadistic intimidation from white racists inspired many others and gave them the courage and the fortitude to join her in a struggle for human dignity and freedom---one that continues today and should provide hope and encouragement to all of us.
Fannie Lou Hamer is the most overlooked and "underrated" historic figure of the Civil Rights Movement. She was a true American Saint and her amazing life story is worthy of a grand Hollywood movie.
Fannie Lou Hamer's astonishing bravery in the face of constant death threats, beatings and sadistic intimidation from white racists inspired many others and gave them the courage and the fortitude to join her in a struggle for human dignity and freedom---one that continues today and should provide hope and encouragement to all of us.
78
I hadn't known this part of Miss Hamer's history and am deeply moved and angry that we can't yet realize that food is freedom, food is medicine, and good local food is resistance to exploitation around the world.
64
I think maybe we do realize that, only too well. Or at least the folks in power do, which is why the white plantation owners were so threatened by blacks growing their own food.
2
Like so many Americans, Ms. Hamer was far ahead of her time. On the centenary of her birth, we must NEVER forget Ms. Hamer's contributions.
27
Thank you for this editorial, it's a wonderful article. It reminds us, and inspires us to combine, mind, body, soul, and legacy along with 2017 technology to achieve independence, respect, and sustainabilty.
17
Wonderful, mind-stretching article. Issue of food and social justice is huge, but never knew about so much of this. Thank you!
24
"Mrs. Hamer said that food “allows the sick one a chance for healing, the silent ones a chance to speak, the unlearned ones a chance to learn, and the dying ones a chance to live.”"
Thank you for this wonderful piece, it's a beautiful tribute to Mrs. Hamer as well as much-needed applause for food sovereignty.
Many years ago my family would drive from Alabama to Virginia every summer for the family reunion. Before freeways, we took roads through the mountains and rural areas of the south. We'd see shacks and people walking with buckets to get water. I always remember a very pregnant woman with small children in tow on the road, each carrying a water bucket. These people were invariably thin, starved looking, Not enough to eat. Now "poor" people and many others in the south are much too fat, thanks to cheap, corporate, unhealthy and unnatural food so readily available and intensely advertised everywhere.
Owning land and having food sovereignty are truly "radical"...
Thank you for this wonderful piece, it's a beautiful tribute to Mrs. Hamer as well as much-needed applause for food sovereignty.
Many years ago my family would drive from Alabama to Virginia every summer for the family reunion. Before freeways, we took roads through the mountains and rural areas of the south. We'd see shacks and people walking with buckets to get water. I always remember a very pregnant woman with small children in tow on the road, each carrying a water bucket. These people were invariably thin, starved looking, Not enough to eat. Now "poor" people and many others in the south are much too fat, thanks to cheap, corporate, unhealthy and unnatural food so readily available and intensely advertised everywhere.
Owning land and having food sovereignty are truly "radical"...
39
Corn and high fructose corn syrup.
Get me my bourbon.
Get me my bourbon.
4
Land is everything! All of my grandparents were landowners and that land is still in the family to this day. My parents and their siblings do everything in their power to maintain that land and when it passes to my generation, we will do the same.
15
When your children grow up eating good food, that's what they like. Sonny Perdue is a racist and a fool, making him a perfect fit for the Trump administration.
When you hear states rights, that's code for a lot of things but not all of us are buying it.
My family like hearty, yellow grits..and snap beans, squash, butter beans, peas and cucumbers and melons and peaches...
Sonny would have folks eating from fast food and convenience store troughs.
God help the sane and the compassionate in this country...
When you hear states rights, that's code for a lot of things but not all of us are buying it.
My family like hearty, yellow grits..and snap beans, squash, butter beans, peas and cucumbers and melons and peaches...
Sonny would have folks eating from fast food and convenience store troughs.
God help the sane and the compassionate in this country...
85
And when they develop diabetes from all the fat and sugar force fed from childhood it's a preexisting condition. Not insurable.
Let them eat fois gras!
Let them eat fois gras!
19
You are so right. If the adults are eating healthy food in a family, that is what the children will learn to prefer. My sister and I used to sneak down to the garden when we lived with my grandparents during the war and eat the tomatoes and peas right off of the vine. My favorite vegetable as a child was kale greens with cabbage a close second. I have been growing things for years and while my current home garden is mostly fruit (citrus) trees I have this spring expanded with my daughter and granddaughter to a plot in our community garden. Each morning and often in the early evening we tend that garden where we have already harvested the spinach and radishes even though we only broke ground five weeks ago. Everyone shares their excess (which seems to be Vidalia onions and potatoes of all kinds). We've sampled the first squash, jalepeno peppers, cherry tomatoes and strawberries. The lettuce is sprouting well. Before the end of the summer we will have melons, cucumbers, corn, sweet and regular potatoes, beets, bell peppers two kinds of squash, leeks, carrots, okra, herbs and sunflowers and dahlias. Planting and weeding is the best physical therapy, to say nothing of mental therapy one can have! All is takes is time, some seed packets and a 40'x 40' plot.
You miss the whole point of the article and of Ms. Hamer's achievements. Her movement was intended to eliminate dependency on external factors, such as the federal or state government or any large commercial entity. You can hate the federal government or "states rights" all you want - Trump's federal government in your case - but Ms. Hamer would tell you what a small mind you have. She would explain, it's not about asking the federal government to tell you what to eat. It's about making that determination yourself, and achieving food independence through self-sufficiency. That is true freedom, and true escape from small-minded thinking.
12
Times articles like this bring out great comments,from people with great names,referring to ex Presidents and pamphlets, Malcolm's land emphasis began with a two forebears kick out of a garden, continued with birth in a barn, and seems headed to one he'll of a wreckage.
4
Someone bring Chinese food to the south. They need better tasting food!
3
It takes an open mind to experience the depth and diversity of another region and culture.
13
If you've read anything else by John T Edge, you would know about Buford Highway.
9
OMG...corn fritters, collard greens with park chips, butter beans, okra with tomatoes and the best darn barbeque in the US....whats not tastey?
5
America's greatest First Ladies ever were Ona Judge, Sally Hemmings, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Keckley, Ida Wells, Pauli Murray, Mary Bethune, Daisy Bates, Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Katherine Johnson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Shirley Chisolm, Jo Ann Robinson, Barbara Sizemore and Michelle Obama.
Their colored black female African American souls knew their soul food gardening and eating habits through their mutual historical Southern enslaved and discriminated heritage.
Their colored black female African American souls knew their soul food gardening and eating habits through their mutual historical Southern enslaved and discriminated heritage.
50
White developers are stealing the Gullah-Geechee lands in South Carolina as we speak. Land is everything.
40
And hunting clubs the land in Alabama
What is sad & true is that so many of us with southern roots were pushed away from farming for obvious reasons.
My great grandmother had my grandmother & her siblings milk a White woman's cows before school every day when she was only 5; so that they may have some leftover milk & a nickel at the end of the week. That brought flour & added milk and butter to their meager diet. My great uncles fished & hunted while my great grandmother had rabbits, chickens & a small garden. They tried to stay out of the fields and pushed school.
My grandmother refused to do it to her kids, and moved to NYC to be a domestic her whole life. I spent summers with my great grandmother in that shotgun shack; shucking peas, picking peanuts, feeding those animals & hating every minute of it. But the credo was "if you want to eat, you better work, and better here on our little bit of land than over there for next to nothing."
I squawked often as a BX kid for pizza & ice cream but as I recall there was nothing like her buttermilk biscuits and chicken. Fruit stolen off of nearby trees were always tastier than anything brought in a store. My greatgrand was amazing at taking very little and making it delicious.
Wasn't until I was an adult I understood what was really going on - teaching this yankee how food is freedom & who gets it controls lives. My Turner family was always independent, self sustaining & shrewd. I'm proud that they taught me that but I wished Bessie showed me how to also cook.
My great grandmother had my grandmother & her siblings milk a White woman's cows before school every day when she was only 5; so that they may have some leftover milk & a nickel at the end of the week. That brought flour & added milk and butter to their meager diet. My great uncles fished & hunted while my great grandmother had rabbits, chickens & a small garden. They tried to stay out of the fields and pushed school.
My grandmother refused to do it to her kids, and moved to NYC to be a domestic her whole life. I spent summers with my great grandmother in that shotgun shack; shucking peas, picking peanuts, feeding those animals & hating every minute of it. But the credo was "if you want to eat, you better work, and better here on our little bit of land than over there for next to nothing."
I squawked often as a BX kid for pizza & ice cream but as I recall there was nothing like her buttermilk biscuits and chicken. Fruit stolen off of nearby trees were always tastier than anything brought in a store. My greatgrand was amazing at taking very little and making it delicious.
Wasn't until I was an adult I understood what was really going on - teaching this yankee how food is freedom & who gets it controls lives. My Turner family was always independent, self sustaining & shrewd. I'm proud that they taught me that but I wished Bessie showed me how to also cook.
90
Edge glorifies an unrealistic dream whose time has passed in the US. Hamer’s essential food sovereignty idea of people has mutated from grow your own to the current concept of people taking charge of their food choices, their health and their welfare. This evolution of the concept is very important and forward thinking. Many people do not realize the freedoms they give up when they become dependent on meager handouts from the feds. Hamer likely would be fed up with the fed's food security focus. An almost $100B annual budget of fed food programs (e.g SNAP, WIC, Child Nutrition) feeds 50M Americans. SNAP participants have more adverse diets and higher cardiovascular disease and diabetes than similar low income SNAP nonparticipants. These programs need revision to promote Hamer's modern food sovereignty of taking personal control of your diet in our bloated and toxic food environment.
10
This was a very moving story. I believe in the power of permaculture to change society and alleviate many social ills and injustices. It means a lot to hear about others that not only came to this conclusion, but had the ability to act on it. There may be hope for us yet.
10
I admire the thrust and theme of Mr. Edge's column. There is another facet to Southern eating here in the Piedmont of SC. The words "Meat and three" gets to the idea. The traditional local restaurant and diner here typically advertise "meat and three". It's ok, but never memorable. It's lunch time for workmen and they can get pork, or chicken, or beef with 3 soggy, over cooked vegetables that usually come out of a can. Sometimes the meat is famous, as in a place in Walhalla where all kinds of people go for fried chicken. Think hot grease and salt. That is Southern.
6
Fledgling efforts in the South Bronx, among them Tanya Fields' Libertad Urban Farm, Stephen Ritz's Green Bronx Machine and Finca del Sur community garden can learn and take heart and inspiration from this splendid account of one of our country's great heroines.
10
What an amazing, profound story! Fannie Lou Hamer is an unsung hero of the Civil Rights era,(for the most part.) But I had no idea of this part of her life.
28
I remember well that day in December, 1959. First day of school, 8th grade, for this transplanted Yankee into Sarasota, Florida. Lunchtime! I was behind Lew, the designated Bad Boy for our grade. I'm looking ahead in the line and I see a steam tray filled with some white glop with butter liquid on top. No idea. Lew suddenly exclaims, "Mmm Mmm grits!" (Flash forward to the famous grit scene of "My Cousin Vinnie.) Since I lie almost everything, sure, I took some. Delicious!
The irony of demanding whole grain grits - presuming Mr. Purdue is correct, which his party lies, lies, lies - they cannot be hominy grits, the traditional kind. Without the lye process of nixtamalization, the niacin within cannot be used by our bodies. The cause of pellagra. In fact, while whole grains do typically have a lot more minerals and vitamins than "white" grains, most of those benefits have no way of being used!
Been wondering what to have for breakfast with my eggs. This article steered me the right way. Fried eggs, sausage, grits with butter and lot's of Louisiana style hot sauce over all. Not very hot, but mighty flavorful.
The irony of demanding whole grain grits - presuming Mr. Purdue is correct, which his party lies, lies, lies - they cannot be hominy grits, the traditional kind. Without the lye process of nixtamalization, the niacin within cannot be used by our bodies. The cause of pellagra. In fact, while whole grains do typically have a lot more minerals and vitamins than "white" grains, most of those benefits have no way of being used!
Been wondering what to have for breakfast with my eggs. This article steered me the right way. Fried eggs, sausage, grits with butter and lot's of Louisiana style hot sauce over all. Not very hot, but mighty flavorful.
11
Fannie Lou Hammer, a true hero, and leader. Thanks for this article.
13
Aunt Bessie of Lake Waccamaw NC on food "I call a woman a good cook who can take what the land gives and make something tasty." "In my early childhood the only things my folks bought was coffee, tea, baking soda. All else was what they grew."
15
Fannie Lou Hamer was a force of nature. Anyone who has seen her tour-de-force emotional speech at the 1964 Democratic National Convention knows this.
Ms. Hamer cut her teeth as a voting rights activist in the deep Jim Crow South, and she was one not to back down.
Fighting against segregation and racial inequality in a seemingly unending struggle, she famously said: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."
But she never gave up, or gave in.
A truly great woman.
Ms. Hamer cut her teeth as a voting rights activist in the deep Jim Crow South, and she was one not to back down.
Fighting against segregation and racial inequality in a seemingly unending struggle, she famously said: "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."
But she never gave up, or gave in.
A truly great woman.
40
I support my local CSA because I value locally grown real food. In my suburban area, I see the steady march of subdivisions and strip malls as disheartening. I vote with my dollars because I cannot live off the trimmings from yet another nail salon. We cannot rely on Big Ag to produce the food we want and need for health--their idea of a tomato is something capable of being shipped across country yet still being inedible.
I also support Tom Colicchio's Food Policy Action because not everyone has access to local food and there's the pity. Shame on you, Secretary Purdue.
I also support Tom Colicchio's Food Policy Action because not everyone has access to local food and there's the pity. Shame on you, Secretary Purdue.
46
Well, may I suggest that you go out and purchase 80 acres for about half a million in VA, then invest in a small $40k tractor, then fencing, tool storage, a barn, tractor attachments, fuel, insurance, small tools, stakes, seeds, fertilizer, greenhouse, and maybe some hoop houses and see if you can make a go at it.
8
A subsistence garden can be grown with seeds which are relatively inexpensive, a shovel, a rake and some elbow grease. Potatoes and be grown in shredded newspaper or sawdust in a garbage can with holes cut in it for drainage. And I know many people who supplement their income with a small backyard garden. My daughter raised a dozen hens in her backyard, feeding them the left over unsalable produce the local grocery was happy to give her and she sold the eggs to her fellow hospital workers. At night they lived in the shed she built from scrap lumber against her backyard fence. My other daughter housed her chickens in a large dog house in a chainlink pen. The eggs are weeks fresher than anything you get in a store. On my quarter acre yard here I have over a dozen citrus trees and gave away hundreds of grapefruit, oranges and lemons this past winter. And it looks like I'll have an even bigger crop this year despite the hurricane! Other than some fertilizer and occasional pruning the work level is basically zilch. All were both as small trees so were not expensive.
6
Douglas,
I can sell you about 1.5 acres I own in Mathews (chicken coop is in place) so you can put a little garden plot. There's a dock out back on a creek leading to the Chesapeake so you can catch your own fish and salt pack them for winter after you've finished canning those veggies.
I can sell you about 1.5 acres I own in Mathews (chicken coop is in place) so you can put a little garden plot. There's a dock out back on a creek leading to the Chesapeake so you can catch your own fish and salt pack them for winter after you've finished canning those veggies.
1
Bless Mrs. Hamer for her selflessness and devotion. I hope many, many people take note and then look at the horrible damage being done by Trump and his thoughtless lackey Sonny Purdue.
Nearly everything that is and has been good in America has been severely damaged by our terrible president and his disastrous cabinet choices. The Republican Congress has also turned against Americans by supporting our thug-in-chief.
It sickens me!
Nearly everything that is and has been good in America has been severely damaged by our terrible president and his disastrous cabinet choices. The Republican Congress has also turned against Americans by supporting our thug-in-chief.
It sickens me!
30
All that. In just 100 days? He's amazing, isn't he?
Thank you for sharing this powerful story. I learned things I didn't know about Ms. Hamer and her push for food and financial independence for her community. It is a call to all Americans today. We need to relocalize and broaden our food supply. Mass monocultures of corn, soy and wheat depend on fossil fuels for pesticide inputs and transportation. The impending climate crisis will require that we propagate and save seeds of a much greater variety of nutritious foods, some of which may do better in our dryer, warmer, more erratic futures. Supporting local farmers on smaller, more sustainable farms will provide jobs and build community in an increasingly hostile world.
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This is a beautiful piece on how food can bring about social justice. The Southern Foodways Alliance is an amazing group doing so much good work. There is so much that local food producers from all over America can learn from them. That said, what makes Mrs. Hamer's model so hard, is also what is central. Co-operation. In order to run a co-operative, people have to get along and work together. We as a nation can't seem to do that any more.
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Lovely comment about the SFA. I disagree, however that 'We as a nation can't seem to do that." I question the addition of the words 'any more' since in the years of our (great, complicated) republic, we never have gotten along and worked together beyond the wonderful (or destructive) works of like-minded people within each state or part of the country. Hence, our last election results!
2
Why doesn't social justice include the lives of all sentient beings. True social justice will not exploit animals for humans' sake when healthier alternatives are available.
2
Excellent piece.
10
Is there anything that isn't the responsibility of the Federal government anymore? People are fat because they like salty, fatty fast food. Here's a clue . . . If you're fat, don't eat it. It's your own fault.
There are plenty of places to buy vegetables in the south, especially in places like Atlanta. There's no reason a trip to the market should resemble a cattle drive.
There are plenty of places to buy vegetables in the south, especially in places like Atlanta. There's no reason a trip to the market should resemble a cattle drive.
5
You may have missed the part of the article about food deserts. These are areas where fresh produce is not available because there are no grocery stores. As a resident of South Carolina, I can tell you that these areas do exist outside of the more populous and wealthier areas. Strangely, there are still plenty of fast food joints in these areas, so people go for what is most convenient. A bad choice, but an understandable one, particularly for those with compressed schedules due to work.
8
There's always an Ingles or Piggly Wiggly within 15 miles.
Fannie Lou Hamer may easily be described as the Mahatma Gandhi of the American South. It is a shame that neither was able to complete their tasks to save their people.
12
Is the author recommending subsistence farming as the path out of poverty? As a former farm worker, I can hardly think of worse advice. Does he seriously think we can grow and harvest our own food for less than we pay at the grocery store? Self-sufficiency is the road to, not out of, poverty. That's why we have markets.
8
Seems like a good way to start down the road to self sufficiency and independence. Unclear that it was aimed that way or a way to form and organization to own and operate, more long way to communal ownership and ties that one of greater independence and inter dependence. One thing to build a big institutional ownership/management with links to customers/families that to empower ownership and then interdependence and trading among families and communities.
2
Articles like this are why I subscribe to the NYTimes.
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Likewise for me!
3
Mrs. Hamer and Malcolm X were absolutely right: “land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.” My Mormon ancestors found that out in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, which is why they crossed the Great Plains seeking refuge on the other side of the Rockies, in the Great Basin, which was perhaps the least desirable land in the country.
Where they most went wrong was in stealing the land from the natives who lived on the land, and lived off of it. This was the equivalent of the wrongs they suffered in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, perpetrated with the same indifference to the rights of a minority that they had been met with.
So I am not amazed to find myself living in a food desert. Utah cannot feed itself, and what grows now on what was our best agricultural land is apartment complexes, row-houses, strip malls and massive markets like Wal-Mart, Costco and Sam's Club. Sadly enough, that story is being repeated all over the West, and now in the Great Plains and the Prairie states. We feed ourselves on monocultures, with none of the independence Mrs Hamer prized, promoted, yearned after.
It is as if we were seeking out karma in a fit of self-punishment.
Where they most went wrong was in stealing the land from the natives who lived on the land, and lived off of it. This was the equivalent of the wrongs they suffered in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, perpetrated with the same indifference to the rights of a minority that they had been met with.
So I am not amazed to find myself living in a food desert. Utah cannot feed itself, and what grows now on what was our best agricultural land is apartment complexes, row-houses, strip malls and massive markets like Wal-Mart, Costco and Sam's Club. Sadly enough, that story is being repeated all over the West, and now in the Great Plains and the Prairie states. We feed ourselves on monocultures, with none of the independence Mrs Hamer prized, promoted, yearned after.
It is as if we were seeking out karma in a fit of self-punishment.
24
Wow, what a surprising article, on several levels! An important activist with the moral standing and creativity to begin the community and pig bank. The article shows from an unusual POV about how we Americans allow corporate strategies over those of self and community sufficiency slowly sneak in. Fascinating! (ok, and my major was business and my minor in economics. )
8
The hidden radicalism of the south is like the free radicals of chemistry. Like anti oxidants they balance health and prevent skin cancer.
4
Isn't Southern Cooking the diet that killed Elvis?
1
Fannie Lou Hamer, one of the most powerful figures of the Civil Rights movement, was the embodiment of courage, strength, and tenacity as she, like many African Americans living in apartheid America, carved out an existence in the face of vicious white terror. “Making a way out of no way” is what they did.
One only wonders how many “Freedom Farms” might there have been had the racist President Andrew Johnson not withdrew Sherman’s Special Order No.15 which provided for modest land provisions to the millions of landless, penniless, newly emancipated enslaved people.
While Johnson raged against the distribution of land to emancipated Blacks, land soaked with their blood, sweat, and tears, and which they had toiled on for centuries, he had no problem with the passage of the Homestead Act.
The Act authorized the distribution of hundreds of thousands of free acres of land wrested or browbeaten from Native Americans to the newly arrived European peasants that provided them with an economic floor and wealth that was passed down for generations.
Fannie Lou Hamer, like her ancestors surely did know the value of land. So too did those who made it extremely difficult for Blacks to come into possession of land and own it.
One only wonders how many “Freedom Farms” might there have been had the racist President Andrew Johnson not withdrew Sherman’s Special Order No.15 which provided for modest land provisions to the millions of landless, penniless, newly emancipated enslaved people.
While Johnson raged against the distribution of land to emancipated Blacks, land soaked with their blood, sweat, and tears, and which they had toiled on for centuries, he had no problem with the passage of the Homestead Act.
The Act authorized the distribution of hundreds of thousands of free acres of land wrested or browbeaten from Native Americans to the newly arrived European peasants that provided them with an economic floor and wealth that was passed down for generations.
Fannie Lou Hamer, like her ancestors surely did know the value of land. So too did those who made it extremely difficult for Blacks to come into possession of land and own it.
40
This is a terrific article. It's interesting to think about the legacy of the Populist movement, with its ethic of farmer self-sufficiency, and how that legacy shaped future events in the 20th century. The co-op mentioned in this article bears the hallmark of a long, proud, and frequently forgotten tradition. This story should inspire the economically marginalized everywhere.
19
My paternal family migrated from Mississippi to Chicago in 1937. One of the first things my grandparents acquired after moving north was a farm in Kankakee County Illinois. I realize now (we still own the land) that they were on to more than they realized. Globally, food is a weapon. This article is a manifesto to anyone interested the politics of food. Thanks to John Edge for this piece.
23
Thank you for bringing this history to light.
5
Wonderful story. In my city, some people decided to plant some potatoes on a lot left empty for years by speculators. Our councillor, a rich kid deep in the pockets of developers, had the cops on them so fast that I don't think they got the seeds in. We need different approaches to how we approach and manage land.
15
Thank you for writing this article. I found the tie-in between the civil rights movement of the 1960's and Ms. Hamer's efforts to help African American families achieve food security by ownership of the means of food production to be most interesting.
24
Thank you for reminding Americans of the important workof Fannie Lou Hamer. For decades, she and her legacy have been a beacon of hope for progressive southerners of all races.
25
This splendid article just gave me one more reason to deeply admire Ms. Hamer, a true role model of fearlessness and a champion of profound common decency. It also reminds me of another enjoyable NYT piece about the immense creativity and ingenuity of making due with what's available that the artistry of southern soul food encompasses.
The 2015 article presented a first cookbook by Dora Charles who spent 22 years giving her best to Paula Dean for a pitiful salary and less recognition. Yet Ms. Charles took the high road and served up her recipes with love, much like Fannie Lou offered empowerment through food independence. Food is nourishment for the body and the soul and is a powerful form of cultural expression and preservation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/dining/paula-deen-chef-dora-charles.html
The 2015 article presented a first cookbook by Dora Charles who spent 22 years giving her best to Paula Dean for a pitiful salary and less recognition. Yet Ms. Charles took the high road and served up her recipes with love, much like Fannie Lou offered empowerment through food independence. Food is nourishment for the body and the soul and is a powerful form of cultural expression and preservation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/dining/paula-deen-chef-dora-charles.html
10
The author rightly said that Hamer claimed that people had to have control over what they growed.
For many decades, millions of Southerners, white and black, had little control over what they could grow and sufferred from malnutrition, in particular a vitamin B deficiency, known as Pelagra, which led to the deterioration of the nervous system.
Very simply, poor blacks and whites who farmed were tenant farmers, America's version of medieval serfs. The owners of the plantation insisted that they grow things like cotton, which generated a lot of income. They weren't allowed to use the land to grow crops they could eat. The plantation owner generally gave the tennat famers miserable food which consisted of ESSENTIALLY THREE THINGS: LARD, BEANS AND CORNMEAL (The cornmeal was processed and lacked B vitamins).
The poor souls, among other things, lacked the aforesaid B vitamins and got Pelagra. Southern doctors opined that they had this disease because they were inherently inferior.
A Jewish doctor from New York told America what shouid have been apparent to everyone: These people were starving, that's why they had pellagra. Of course, the doctor was hounded and attacked by white Southern racists for being Jewish.
For many decades, millions of Southerners, white and black, had little control over what they could grow and sufferred from malnutrition, in particular a vitamin B deficiency, known as Pelagra, which led to the deterioration of the nervous system.
Very simply, poor blacks and whites who farmed were tenant farmers, America's version of medieval serfs. The owners of the plantation insisted that they grow things like cotton, which generated a lot of income. They weren't allowed to use the land to grow crops they could eat. The plantation owner generally gave the tennat famers miserable food which consisted of ESSENTIALLY THREE THINGS: LARD, BEANS AND CORNMEAL (The cornmeal was processed and lacked B vitamins).
The poor souls, among other things, lacked the aforesaid B vitamins and got Pelagra. Southern doctors opined that they had this disease because they were inherently inferior.
A Jewish doctor from New York told America what shouid have been apparent to everyone: These people were starving, that's why they had pellagra. Of course, the doctor was hounded and attacked by white Southern racists for being Jewish.
35
No, pellagra is not due to over processing or starvation. Get your facts right.
If corn is processed MORE by nixtalmization, the soaking of it in lye, the niacin becomes bioavailable. This is how the indigenous, corn/maize eating cultures avoided pellagra. They used wood ash for the lye. When corn is ground and then consumed directly, the niacin is unavailable. That's what the Southerners ate too much of.
If corn is processed MORE by nixtalmization, the soaking of it in lye, the niacin becomes bioavailable. This is how the indigenous, corn/maize eating cultures avoided pellagra. They used wood ash for the lye. When corn is ground and then consumed directly, the niacin is unavailable. That's what the Southerners ate too much of.
8
Having decent meals, people can think enough and insist what they believe. It was reasonable for Hamer to introduce the system of Freedom Farm. The system could bring the stable lives to farmers. We can share the spirit of this system even today.
6
I learned so much from this article. Thanks, Mr. Edge. I'll have to check out your book!
11
Paine, T. Agrarian Justice. Philadelphia: R. Folwell, 1797.
The full text is available at https://www.ssa.gov/history/tpaine3.html
The full text is available at https://www.ssa.gov/history/tpaine3.html
4
5barris, thank you for sharing this.
1
I am happy to see this article. I am working on references in black literature to the land and actions that have caused Blacks to become alienated from it and from much that black people find pleasurable. Black pleasures have been consistently demonized (e.g., their music and dance!) and subsequently adopted by whites with tiny changes to make it appear to be something else. Good food like collard greens were disparaged for instance; then international crowds came up to Harlem to eat them at the famous soul food restaurant, Silvia's--etc. I celebrate Blacks returning to the South and reclaiming land that they cultivated as slaves, but later fled for fear of lynching and financial and other discriminatory practices. It is time to return and reclaim the healthy way of life in the Southland.
19
Yes! I'm sending this to my high school students who are just finishing Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God after reading Ellison's Invisible Man. Both texts wrestle with just this issue. You are doing important research.
11
I would like to learn more about the references you are identifying. I am interested in holding our essence inspired culture as a resource for creating new cultural expressions and practices based on our strengths and love, not the pain and constraints of our oppression.
"Healthy way of life in the Southland?"
Did you vote to "Make America Great Again?"
Both pure hallucinogenic mythologies.
Did you vote to "Make America Great Again?"
Both pure hallucinogenic mythologies.
3
The problem is that industrial scale farming destroyed the profit margin scheme needed by the small family farm. This idea of having poor people grow peas and tomatoes is bogus because of the expenses associated with crop chemistry (fertilizer/pesticide).
However, China now teaches that aquaculture is the new medium of farming with good profits. In fact, fish protein now exceeds beef as the preferred means of nutrition in America. Small scale aquaculture from China exports 50% of the fish consumed by American families.
However, China now teaches that aquaculture is the new medium of farming with good profits. In fact, fish protein now exceeds beef as the preferred means of nutrition in America. Small scale aquaculture from China exports 50% of the fish consumed by American families.
5
Great. You eat Chinese fish. Good luck with that.
7
Certainly new methods, techniques, and technologies should be applied, the concept is absolutely on point; now let's apply 2017 solutions that combine mind, body, soul and technology.
Sorry Ryan but 1/2 the fish in America are imported from Asia. If you're buying and eating fish you're certainly a China customer. Avoiding fish protein is decidedly unhealthy and the point to the comment was that small aquaculture efforts are economically superior to peas and corn.
4
Great story I had not heard. What she was doing is in some ways similar to a CSA.
The CSA- long a staple in other parts of America is now making inroads in the Delta South. I am a member of a local CSA sourced in the small farms in a 100 mile circle around Memphis. Any President or Congress that wants to improve the economics and nutrition in America should do everything possible to encourage small scale localized agriculture and Community Supported Agriculture. Eating local is good for your health, good for your community and good for Mother Earth- it also tastes better than most anything you buy in a grocery store.
No matter where you live there is probably a CSA near you. Local Harvest is a great place to learn Bout the movement and has a database so you can find healthy locally grown food. Here is the link;
https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
The CSA- long a staple in other parts of America is now making inroads in the Delta South. I am a member of a local CSA sourced in the small farms in a 100 mile circle around Memphis. Any President or Congress that wants to improve the economics and nutrition in America should do everything possible to encourage small scale localized agriculture and Community Supported Agriculture. Eating local is good for your health, good for your community and good for Mother Earth- it also tastes better than most anything you buy in a grocery store.
No matter where you live there is probably a CSA near you. Local Harvest is a great place to learn Bout the movement and has a database so you can find healthy locally grown food. Here is the link;
https://www.localharvest.org/csa/
60