[30] Mumbet's Freedom Farm: Black/Brown Led Cooperative Farm

Cooperative Journal

Mumbet’s Freedom Farm is a Black and Brown-led cooperative farm located at the base of a mountain in Sheffield, Massachusetts. It is a community sanctuary for connection, creativity, education, and wellness. The name is in reverence to Elizabeth ‘Mumbet’ Freeman, who was an enslaved African nurse, midwife, and herbalist who sued for her freedom in Sheffield and won. The land is abundant with a flowing brook, natural spring, waterfalls, forest trails, and a diversity of natural life.

In this episode I speak with worker-owner DeeArah Wright about their journey from the city towards collective rural land stewardship. We talk about the power of the land to heal trauma associated with Black land history, barriers they experienced when trying to purchase land, how they got into a mutual benefit, non-extractive land agreement, food and land as a source of liberation, benefits and challenges of cooperative farming, establishing local relationships to build financial security and community, holding space on the land for art, education, and play, their plans to create an ecosystem of homesteads and sanctuaries cooperatively owned, managed by Black, Indigenous, and People Of Color.

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