Join SAAFON’s Agroecology & Education Resource Coordinator, Tammy Harris, and Executive Director, Dr. M. Jahi Chappell, for an introduction to the Southeastern African American Farmers’ Organic Network (SAAFON). This webinar will discuss:
SAAFON’s work based in Afroecology and Black Agrarianism, how this manifests in our offerings, and how it flows from the history of the organization.
SAAFON’s approach and framework, which is grounded in healing, storytelling, and Black liberation rooted in land-based ways of life.
How SAAFON practices Crafting Kinship, the deliberate and slow cultivation of relationships in the legacy of our Co-Founder Cynthia Hayes.
Examples of how SAAFON activates cultural strategies, and how they invest in resourcing relationships, towards building a culture and practice of collectivism, cooperation, and mutual aid.
The webinar will conclude with a virtual meet-and-greet/Q&A session with Dr. Chappell, who joined SAAFON as Executive Director in July 2020.
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/culture-connections-farmer-organizing-the-saafon-way-tickets-139477644389.
About SAAFON
SAAFON is a regional network for Black Farmers in the Southeastern United States who are committed to culturally relevant, ancestrally guided, and ecologically sustainable agricultural-based living. The SAAFON network allows our members to connect with like-minded farmers, to build collective power in order to achieve our visions of land-based success.
SAAFON emerged in the summer of 2006 following a series of conversations between the late “MaMa” Cynthia Hayes of Rural Women and Dr. Owusu Bandele. Mrs. Hayes was invited to the workshop based upon her work with African-American farmers in McIntosh County, Georgia. This initiated a string of conversations that led to the formation of SAAFON.
With a farmer-centered, farmer-led approach rooted in our commitment to agroecological practice, SAAFON’s goal is to raise the visibility of our farmers’ practices and enterprises both nationally and internationally. Our network includes farmers from Maryland to the Virgin Islands.
About the presenters:
Dr. M. Jahi Chappell, SAAFON Executive Director
M. Jahi Chappell is an activist, researcher, organizer, son of social workers, and grandson of farmers. He has researched food sovereignty, agroecology, and farming and food security policy in the United States and Brazil, and has training in engineering, ecology, and political science. He has worked for over 18 years to build participatory, socially just, and ecologically sustainable agrifood systems that center the voices and needs of farmers and eaters rather than corporations and capital. Jahi previously served as the Executive Director of the 45-year old think tank Food First and as Senior Scientist and Director of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Agroecology, both from the University of Michigan. Jahi consulted for the Agroecology Fund, the international small farmers ‘ movement La Vía Campesina, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the World Future Council. His award-winning book, Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Beyond, was published in January 2018 by the University of California Press. Beginning to End Hunger highlights breakthroughs in radically reducing hunger and supporting small-scale farmers in southeastern Brazil, and informs readers on how activists, farmers, researchers, and eaters can learn from this example to change food systems everywhere.
Tamara “Tammy” Harris, Agroecology & Education Resource Coordinator
Tamara comes to us from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, where her duties included assisting local farmers to access all of the services and resources available through Agricultural Natural Resources (ANR), Family and Consumer Sciences(FACS), and 4-H programs. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Tammy moved to Georgia as a preteen. She spent most of her teenage years traveling weekly between metro Atlanta and the rural Georgia family farm. In 1994, Tammy attended the University of West Georgia and later Georgia Perimeter College where she studied Business Management. Tammy has been a long-time advocate for environmental conservation, traditional homesteading practices, and cultural heritage projects. In 2001, Tammy left an accounting career to travel across North America visiting various North American subcultures including the Amish, Gullah–Geechee, and Native Americans. She developed friendships with many of the residents in these communities and eventually opened a retail store that highlighted many of their arts and crafts contributions. In 2004, she published the first of three books celebrating the local history and contributions of small towns in America. In 2015, she co-founded a nonprofit historical cultural heritage museum called This Old Farmhouse, GA located in Heard County. The museum also serves as an agritourism attraction exploring the daily lives of small – scale West GA farming families during the early-mid 20th century.