Black-owned farms in Oregon are advancing food sovereignty and making it fun 

Malcolm X famously argued that “revolution is about land” in his 1963 speech “Message to the Grass Roots.” Today’s No Kings protests are notably whiter and older than the racial justice protests of 2020. Many politicians are distancing themselves from the rhetoric and policy proposals championed by the Black Lives Matter movement. In 2026, Black farms have become one of the primary places to find revolutionary energy that centers Black people. 

The change in the tone of the political discourse coincides with statistics across the board showing that Black communities have been disproportionately negatively impacted under the second Trump Administration. For example, Black Oregonians experienced unemployment at rates twice as high as their white counterparts (8.8% compared to 4.4%) in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

In the face of systemic inequity and worsening poverty statistics that disproportionately affect Black Oregonians, Black farms are on the frontlines of feeding and empowering Black communities.

For Malcolm Hoover, co-founder of Black Futures Farm, Black self empowerment is at the forefront of his work.   

“The not-so-secret mission of Black Futures Farm is to teach Black people how to be as self-sufficient as possible,” Hoover said. 

We feed us

One in 6 people and 1 in 5 children face food insecurity in Oregon and southwest Washington, according to the Oregon Food Bank. That statistic gets even more grim when the focus turns to Black and Latine families, who are twice as likely to experience poverty as white families, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy. 

Black-owned farms are stepping up to play a crucial role, by supplying fresh food and promoting the concept of food sovereignty, and also by creating welcoming community spaces. This dynamic is perhaps most evident during summer, when education activities, arts and community building events are most active.

“We have a good time,” said Juli Ray Joy, founder of Black Joy Farm in Salem and the advocacy organization Black Joy Oregon. “We’re usually playing some type of 2000s or 1990s R&B. We hang out.” 

Black Joy Farm launched in 2024. While there are a number of community gardens in Salem, Joy said none were dedicated to supporting Black queer community. She wanted to create a space where people could feel safe and comfortable while learning about agriculture.

Even though her family in North Carolina owned a farm, Joy had very little experience with agriculture before starting the project in Salem. She says being in the early stages of her own farming journey has helped her understand how to make the experience even more accessible for community members. In 2025, Black Joy Farm produced 3,000 pounds of food and helped feed 245 families.      

The farm was also born from the shift in goals of the larger political movement Joy and her community were involved in.

“We had been doing Black Joy for about two-and-a-half years at that point, and we were done asking,” Joy said. “We were done begging, and we were done doing the stuff with the city. How can we transition from this protest group and this advocacy group to a group that really gathers our community and also provides what our community needs on our own, without having to ask for it?”

Community events, especially during the summer season, offer entry points to the work being done on these farms. Projects like Black Joy Farm bring a sense of intentionality to these community events, with organizers proactively caring for the needs of attendees.

In addition to volunteer farming opportunities, the farm hosts movie nights and wellness workshops. Organizers provide attendees with different colored buttons so those who are attending for healing and want to be left alone can be respected while others who are there to be more social can be easily identified.

Intentionality is a common theme during summer activities on Black-owned farms. Black Futures Farm, located in Southeast Portland, hosts Black Sundays, a weekly gathering for Black community members to hang out, tour the farm and get fresh free produce. They also collaborate with nonprofits and artists to host workshops (recent workshops included paper making and fungi cultivation), movie nights and creative gatherings. 

Meanwhile, Sauvie Island-based Happiness Family Farms is a regular at local farmers markets and conducts training for community members to get an in-depth experience with agriculture. This 1-2 month long experience serves students, ages 18-30, and covers all aspects of the farm business. Topics include growing, harvesting and washing food, as well as soil health, supply chains in food systems and reading barcodes.

“It’s always been really cool to just walk everybody through that whole process,” said Japhety Ngabireyimana, executive director of Happiness Family Farms. 

Fueling sovereignty

Each of these farms, as well as others in their networks, promote the concept of food sovereignty, which is “the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.” That’s according to La Via Campesina, which represents the International Peasants Movement. Growing up in East Palo Alto, California, Malcolm Hoover was raised around community gardens and a culture of exchanging food.

“We all had gardens,” Hoover said. “We all fed each other.”

Hoover and Mirabai Collins founded Black Futures Farm in 2019, originally as part of the We Grow PDX project, a local community initiative to support aspiring Black farmers. Starting as a small plot, Black Futures Farm now occupies 1.15 acres in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood and offers 17 fruit trees, along with vegetables, flowers and herbs — both edible and medicinal.

Hoover says the number one priority of the farm is to increase Black people’s presence in agriculture and land stewardship. The farm provides job and volunteer opportunities to practice farming. And as part of the Black Food Sovereignty Coalition, Hoover connects community members with educational resources and opportunities at other farms.

“We don’t raise animals at Black Futures, but we’re connected to a really broad network of other Black agriculturalists and growers and farmers,” says Hoover. “So if somebody wanted to learn how to herd goats, we could certainly connect them to the people that could teach them those things.”

Black Futures Farm is currently holding a monthly tour of local Black-owned farms. Hoover and others will take attendees to Revolution of the Heart Farm on Aug. 22, Lucien Donation Farm on Sep. 19 and Feed’em Freedom Farm on Oct. 10. In July, the group visited Happiness Family Farm. 

“I think the farming community has, in terms of just a business industry here in Oregon, has been one of the most connected and supportive communities that I’ve seen,” Ngabireyimana said. “I think people go above and beyond to be able to make sure you have equipment, showcase certain things, or help you put together events and stuff like that. Black Futures Farm, we’ve been working with them for many years and we always loved them. They have always supported us and we both learn from each other.”

Community-supported

Founded in 2016 by Ngabireyimana’s parents, Prosper Hezumuryano and Rosata Niyonzima, Happiness Family Farm is located on Sauvie Island. As Burundian immigrants, the family also uses food as a vehicle for sharing their culture.

The farm works with other nonprofits to provide food boxes and additional access to healthy foods for low-income community members.

“We always say, ‘From our family to yours,’ because we really have a lot of intentionality in terms of the way we are growing our produce and how we want to be able to show up in our community,” Ngabireyimana said. “Our biggest thing is always trying to see how we can bridge this gap of eating healthy and having access to healthy food as well.”

Community-supported agriculture, or CSA, is a fundamental part of operations for Black Futures Farm, Black Joy Farm and Happiness Family Farms. CSA refers to consumers buying directly from local farmers up front, usually in the form of seasonal shares.

Ngabireyimana said the most direct way people or organizations can support the work of his family’s farm is by buying CSA boxes.

Food and politics

Under H.R. 1 — the Trump Administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — over 68,000 Oregonians lost their food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And for those who still have them, SNAP benefits are now subject to work requirements. Those requirements can be satisfied by community service. 

All of the farms interviewed for this story offer volunteer opportunities.  Volunteering on Black-owned farms with a focus on food sovereignty creates opportunities to serve the community while attacking some of the root problems behind hunger.

“We certainly give produce, but we also teach people how to grow their own produce,” Hoover said. “It’s a revolutionary act — culturally revolutionary and psychologically revolutionary — for Black people to eat food that is produced by Black people that they can see (growing and preparing it).”

This article appears in August 19, 2026.