‘Soil and soul are intertwined’ at 2nd annual Iowa Farmers of Color Conference

Todd Western III, of Western Family Farms, at the Iowa Farmers of Color Conference he helped found. Photo by Black Iowa News.

“The whole goal was just to bring together farmers of color and to try to help each other,” Todd Western III, a sixth-generation Black Iowa farmer, told attendees at the 2nd annual Iowa Farmers of Color Conference in Urbandale. He’s the driving force behind the conference.

Farmers shared their feelings of pride, family legacies and the need to nurture the land and each other during the day-long conference held at Living History Farms.

From left: Hannah Scales Kettler, of Minerva’s Meadow; Todd Western III, of Western Family Farms; New Virginia Farmer Maurice White and Todd Western IV, of Freedom Farms in Minnesota, during a panel discussion. Photo by Black Iowa News.

About 130 people attended the event. Several farm-related organizations discussed grants and programs, and participants attended workshops. Keynote speaker Denise Greer Jamerson is a fifth-generation farmer from a historic Black community in Lyles Station, Indiana. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has featured her father. The family has farmed the land since 1850.

“Farming is not easy, but it’s that love,” she said. “Because as farmers, we’re not doing this for ourselves. Are we? Everything that we do is for somebody else. So you’ve got to have that love in your heart to push it, to push it on.”

Organizers and panel members discussed the conference’s origin story and the work ahead.

Iowa Farmers of Color Conference — Julia McGuire, a honeybee producer, looks at the agenda. Photo by Black Iowa News.

Todd Western IV, who operates Freedom Farms in Minnesota, described the importance of community-building.

**Denise Greer Jamerson, who gave the keynote address, is a fifth-generation farmer from a historic Black community in Lyles Station, Indiana. Photo by Black Iowa News.**

“I’ve called several people in this group — just being able to ask about a grant or a new program coming out from one of the agencies — and so that alone, that kind of knowledge, I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise,” he said. “That’s what it’s all about. Being able to lean on each other as a community.”

Maurice and Sherri White operate farms in New Virginia and another in Missouri. He didn’t know other Black farmers until meeting Western III, who initially introduced him to two others.

“Man, three Black farmers in one day — We grew 1,000 percent all of a sudden,” said White.

Hannah Scates Kettler, who operates the flower farm Minerva’s Meadow in State Center, said the conference, held on Nov. 16, fosters community and is a safe space. Planning for next year’s conference is underway. The group also plans to hold quarterly virtual meetings and another summer barbecue.

This story first appeared in the November Black Iowa Newspaper.

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