Tolu Igun is an urban farmer and founder of OlaLekan Farm established in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Igun is currently a co-coordinator of ECO City Farms Beginning Farmer Training Program, and a land advocacy fellow with the National Young Farmers Coalition.
I dream often about the future of food.
These dreams are ambitious, but ultimately the benefits reaped in them are for all of us.
In my dreams, I wake up each day feeling at ease. I walk outside my home and see the food I’m going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner right in front of me. All of my neighbors are able to do the same. We have a fair chance to survive and thrive, and everybody is alright.
I have hope that one day these dreams will come true. That day, however, is not today and is likely still quite far away.
The future of food I wish for is counter to the present reality we live in so many ways.
Currently I am an urban farmer and land advocate based in Washington, DC on a mission to achieve food sovereignty alongside my local community. My introduction to urban agriculture took place in Detroit in 2013, but I did not take the leap of faith towards becoming a full time farmer until 2020.
This year, I’m starting my own farm on half an acre of land in Upper Marlboro, MD through an urban farm incubator program developed by ECO City Farms, a non-profit teaching farm. My farm will be known as OlaLekan Farm, named in honor of my maternal grandparents Olabisi and Lalekan.
Together, we as farmers and organizers are actively working to resolve some of the problems we experience in our food system now. In the hopes of building systems that support community-driven food access and land access efforts, I feel blessed to know that I am not alone in this endeavor.
Where I live today in Ward 5, the two closest places for me to buy food consistently are nearly a mile away from my residence in opposite directions.
One option is an organic grocery store near the Route 1 corridor. The produce is often fresh, but quite pricey and unattainable as a primary food source for many including myself. The other is a regional supermarket chain just outside city limits. The produce is more affordable, but often has a lower nutritional value and shelf life.
On several occasions, I’ve paid for food at grocery stores that had already spoiled. I noticed white mold on my berries and green spots on my oranges the same day I brought them home from the store.
Fresh food is no longer a guarantee from our most prevalent providers as a byproduct of increased globalization and capitalization of our food system.
Operating in systems that prioritize profit and efficiency over people’s health and wellbeing is not sustainable, yet the problems that I face are one in the same for so many others.
Accessing fresh and affordable food in the nation’s capital consistently is not an easy feat for DC area residents. According to The Capital Area Food Bank’s annual report, over 1.2 million people experienced food insecurity in the past year throughout the region, including nearly half of Prince George’s County households.
Food insecurity is systematically connected to poverty and transportation among several other factors. One’s proximity to fresh food varies vastly depending on their zip code and socioeconomic status.
Prior to owning a personal vehicle, traveling to and from the store and transporting my goods was a challenge no matter where I lived in the city. So much of my free time was spent simply obtaining food and figuring out how to prepare it as quickly as possible with the limited energy I had left.
As I struggled to feed myself, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was another way to actively secure my food. So I began researching food justice organizations in the area and found myself pursuing jobs that would ultimately address my personal problem of food insecurity as well as problems experienced by the community at large.
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, I have volunteered and worked with a number of food and farming focused organizations each combating issues of food apartheid and land access challenges in their own way.
Through my experience with organizations like Arcadia’s Mobile Market, Capital Area Food Bank and Martha’s Table to small scale production farms in the Greater Washington Area, I’ve come to know several alternatives to create new opportunities for people to access food.
My intention is to produce foods at OlaLekan Farm that are accessible and affordable, healthy and nutritious, and reflective of the current cultures and needs of the people in this region. I’ll be growing okra, peppers, carrots, ginger, squash, melons and more.
OlaLekan Farm will provide opportunities for food access and education through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), wholesale and mutual aid distributions, seedling sales, and hands-on volunteering and workshops focused on teaching others more about growing their own food.
I’m starting a farm to serve as a bridge between the urban and suburban, natural and unnatural worlds we exist in. We as a society are quite disconnected from our food system today and that’s a matter we need to resolve fast.
There is no way for me to talk to the people who produce the food I purchase when it comes from a grocery store. No direct line exists to report back to about my moldy fruit. No assurance is made that this will not happen again, because it probably will.
But imagine what it would look like to be directly connected to the food we eat every day. What if I could speak directly to the people who grow my food? Better yet, what if we could normalize the process of people in the community growing food for their neighbors? What if the norm became receiving food so fresh, it was harvested the same day we ate it?
As a Land Advocacy Fellow with the National Young Farmers Coalition (Young Farmers), I am a proud part of the next generation of young BIPOC farmers in America who need support eliminating inequities to land access and ownership to make this reality happen.
The Young Farmers One Million Acres Campaign is urgent for a number of reasons. The average age of a farmer in the United States is 57 and rising. For many of these farmers nearing retirement age, the commitment from someone else to take over and tend to their land is not always certain.
Meanwhile, there are a great deal of young and BIPOC farmers ready to step up and tend to the land without the appropriate resources or support to do so.
Seventy-eight percent of the farmers under forty years old surveyed in the most recent Young Farmers report identify as first-generation farmers, meaning that they most likely did not inherit farmland, infrastructure, or equipment from their families. Forty-one percent of all young farmers said that finding access to capital, such as money to start or grow their business, was very or extremely challenging. For BIPOC farmers, this rate was 54 percent and for all Black farmers, 59 percent.
As a child of Nigerian immigrants, I am a first generation farmer in the United States. There is no farmland in America for me to inherit through family ties.
Ultimately, the odds are stacked against me as a young BIPOC farmer in America. But my current reality reflects a broken food system I cannot bear, and I intend to move through any obstacles and create more opportunities to build a sustainable and equitable food system within my local community.
Land access is a primary reason that young farmers are leaving agriculture. Nearly half of all U.S. farmland is expected to change hands in the next two decades, yet sixty-seven percent of respondents who quit farming said that finding affordable land to buy was a barrier that was very or extremely challenging, and 54% identified that finding affordable land to lease was a barrier that was very or extremely challenging.
For the time being, I have access to land to do the work, but I still need support acquiring necessary resources to cultivate and maintain the land. Difficulty in accessing capital is also a major reason why young farmers are leaving agriculture. Fifty-seven percent of former young farmers reported that finding access to capital was a barrier that was very or extremely challenging.
For these reasons and more, I believe it is vital to support organizations like Young Farmers who are asking Congress to invest $2.5 billion over ten years in the 2023 Farm Bill to facilitate equitable access to one million acres of land for the next generation of farmers.
Now is the perfect time to reach out to your representative in Congress and recommend policy that supports farm viability for young farmers and farmers of color. We are the future farmers, feeders, teachers and community leaders of this country. We want everyone to be able to eat, but we need support and solidarity to make that happen.
That is why I advocate for policy in the forthcoming farm bill that invests in community-led projects that create secure, affordable land access opportunities resembling the urban farm incubator program I have the opportunity to be a part of now.
Investing in the farmers and land advocates of today is an investment in the future of food for everybody. You can learn more about OlaLekan Farm and support my fundraising efforts here, or email me at farmertolu@gmail.com to discuss further opportunities to collaborate and grow together.
To get involved with the One Million Acres for the Future campaign and receive action alerts, sign up here: p2a.co/land.