This International Women’s Day, Freight farms is celebrating the farmers, entrepreneurs, leaders, and disruptors who inspire us every day. These women have gone above and beyond to bring positive change to food and agriculture in communities around the world!
1. The Plant Scientist: Lexy Basquette, Farm Manager at Freight Farms
Lexy is the farm manager at the Freight Farms headquarters in Boston. Not only does Lexy conduct research with different crops and planting methods in the HQ Greenery farm, she also grows produce to supply Freight Farms’ customers. You may also recognize Lexy as the face of our Farmer Fridays on social media. She enjoys teaching others about plant science and container farming and believes creating an emotional connection to food and its origins is a key factor in preserving our food integrity for the future.
2. The Faith Farmer: Rev. Faith Fowler, Executive Director of Cass Community Social Services
Rev. Faith Fowler is not your typical spiritual leader. Coworkers have described Rev. Fowler as “a combination of CEO, COO, CFO and Mother Teresa all rolled into one,” and we think we’re inclined to agree. Since becoming pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church and the Executive Director of Cass Community Social Services in 1994, she has worked tirelessly to bring security to the often-overlooked residents of inner-city Detroit. Most famous for her Tiny Homes initiative to help at-risk populations achieve home ownership, Rev. Fowler’s non-profit also deals with issues of job, healthcare, and food inequality. This last bucket is how our paths intersected: Rev. Fowler turned to long-time community partner Ford Motors to start small-space farming to bring her community access to healthy food. The result? The Ford Freight Farm, which brings fresh greens into Cass Community’s kitchen and will eventually be sold to create a viable revenue stream for Cass’ other non-profit branches.
3. The Food Justice Farmer: Shantae Johnson, Unity Farm Manager at Mudbone Grown
Shantae and her partner Arthur started Mudbone Grown to promote intergenerational community-based farming and create a measurable and sustainable environment, social, cultural, and economic impact. To help young people in their community get introduced to farming, Shantae created the Propagation Produce for the People (PPP) Apprenticeship program for Black and justice-impacted youth. The PPP is designed to help youth from this community gain skills within the green economy through regenerative agriculture. In addition to her work fighting for food justice and advocating land stewardship, Shantae is a cultural bridge-builder, parent, healer, chef, and Oregon Board of Agriculture appointee.
Read the complete article at www.freightfarms.com.
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