The Makings of a Closed-Loop Food System for Black AgriCULTURE”
Our Mission:
The Heirloom Collective is a Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to securing land tenure, strengthening regional food systems, and advancing community health.
We empower landowners, farmers, and ranchers—especially in marginalized communities—through resources, education, and advocacy to sustain generational land ownership and build resilient agricultural enterprises with increased market access and secure food systems.
Purpose:
The Heirloom Collective exists to prevent land loss, support small-scale agricultural producers, and promote sustainable food systems.
We achieve this by:
Land Tenure & Preservation: Providing legal, financial, and technical support to protect agricultural legacies across urban and rural landscapes.
Regional Food System Prosperity: Enhancing market access and promoting sustainable soil & water conservation in agriculture (crop & livestock) production systems in urban and rural landscapes.
Community Health & Education: Hosting programs that support food sovereignty, environmental stewardship, healthy food initiatives in support of climate-smart initiatives and specialty crops, and economic prosperity, including urban and rural housing.
Challenges We Aim to Address
Land Tenure for Black Farmers = Economic Access for Black Farmers
Land Loss Land Loss
Land loss due to unclear title is one of the largest contributors to the racial wealth gap in agriculture.
Heir property reform is critical to restoring eligibility for USDA programs and ensuring intergenerational land retention
Land Tenure & Succession Land Tenure & Succession
Recommendation: A Farm Bill amendment to allocate dedicated funding for programs that support land tenure stabilization and heir property resolution among socially disadvantaged and limited-resource producers.
Rationale: Land loss due to unclear title is one of the largest contributors to the racial wealth gap in agriculture. Heir property reform is critical to restoring eligibility for USDA programs and ensuring intergenerational land retention increases opportunities to establish generational & economic sustenance. Policy Mechanism:
Expand support under the The Bureau for Land Justice and Agricultural Continuity (BLJAC) and make funding available for nonprofit land trusts and cooperatives that provide direct heir-property mediation & resolution, legal assistance, title clearing, tenure & succession planning, preservation & restoration services.
Include technical assistance funding under Title V (Credit) and Title XII (Miscellaneous) of the next Farm Bill for legal and professional technical service rates.
Include 2501 Program funding to establish technical agriculture support specialist training, which prepares the next generation of intentional USDA agency technical staff. College undergraduates will have a hands-on position in this role, giving them unmatched experience. Increase and expand legal studies programs at HBCU & Hispanic serving institutions.
Discrimination and Institutional Bias (Market Supply)
Fresh Food Access for Black Communities = (Community Consumer Demand) Sustainable Solutions to Historic Barriers Sustainable Solutions to Historic Barriers
By supporting Black farmers’ market access, we strengthen local supply chains that feed our anscestral & underserved communities. When Black farmers can sell locally, Black communities can eat locally.
Recommendation: Develop sustainable regional food systems that integrate small-scale and marginalized producers into value chains through investment in aggregation, processing, and marketing infrastructure.
Rationale: Many “unseen” producers represent a significant opportunity for domestic food resilience and local economic growth.
Establish
a Regional Food Equity Initiative
Provide matching funds for cooperatives, minority producer networks, and local food hubs to enhance participation in USDA food purchasing and commodity programs.
Food System Access for Black Farmers Community Health Equity =
Cultural Equity
&
through Land Tenure Cultural Equity
& Integrity
Integrity through Land Tenure
Cultural Foods Are Health Foods
Many heritage crops such as leafy greens, legumes, yams, and herbs are naturally nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, and high in fiber. Restoring their presence in community diets helps combat chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular illness prevalent in Black and rural populations
Cultural Food Pathways = Community Identity
Reviving these crops and cuisines strengthens community pride and reinforces cultural identity, bridging generations and reconnecting people to their land and traditions
Recognizing Ethnic Foods as Specialty Crops.
USDA’s definition of specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, herbs, and horticultural plants) should explicitly recognize and support culturally specific foods that have been historically underrepresented in federal funding and research.
Economic and Market Potential
Growing demand for culturally relevant and locally produced foods offers strong market opportunities. Specialty crop expansion through local food hubs and cooperatives can generate income while promoting better nutrition.
Local Partnerships Are Critical
The most successful efforts are community-driven and locally led These partnerships ensure that local food initiatives are both culturally competent and sustainable.
“Addressing health disparities is impossible without repairing the land, the economy, and the systems that have long excluded Black producers from feeding their own communities.”
I. Disconnection Through Land Loss and Economic Displacement
Each lost acre meant:
The loss of generational food knowledge and seed heritage; The erosion of community-based food economies; The silencing of ancestral farming traditions that once formed local food & regional trade systems.
II. The Diaspora Effect: Cultural and Nutritional Displacement
This disconnection from land mirrored a broader diaspora of identity — a forced migration away from foodways that tied health, autonomy, and community.
In short, the loss of land triggered a loss of health and a rupture in cultural continuity.
III. Reconnecting to Cultural Food Pathways: Hope and Healing
Rebuilding access to land and cultural food systems today means reclaiming both health and identity, food sovereignty and cultural reclamation.
For many Black farmers and urban growers, returning to these crops reconnects them to:
Ancestral knowledge preserving seed diversity and traditional cultivation methods;
Economic empowerment — tapping into specialty crop and heritage food markets; Health equity bringing nutrient-dense, familiar foods back to underserved communities.
Our work at the Community Local Level
Soil Sisters FM
Backyard Gardening
Soil Health Principles
Wild Crafted Medicinal Herbs
Homemade ORGANIC Inputs
Natural Seed Starting
Garden Install & Consultations
Community & School Gardens
Farm & Ranch Livestock Services
Livestock Selection & Transport
Marketing
Meat processing & sales
1933 Allotment Act
Pigford I & II
Pigford I & II
2023 Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) 2023 Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP)
2023 Local Food Purchase Assistance Program (LFPA) 2023 Discrimination Financial Assistance Program (DFAP) 1933 Allotment Act
Current Portfolio of Programs
ATG STARS
Texas Grazing Network
The Heirloom Marketplace
Growing Equity Partnership
Sisters of the Soil *workshop series
The Beginning Farmers Coalition
Bailey Military Institute
“If the land feeds us, then those who work the land must lead us. ”
“If the land feeds us, then those who work the land must lead us.”
Rural Development & Innovative Funding Solutions
Strategies available to members of The Heirloom Collective through our ‘strategic partnership’ with seasoned solution developers.
Current Portfolio of Projects
On a revenue generating platform
Closed loop participation
Consortium powered
Revenue pooling + asset stacking Your paragraph text
F & C Haymond - Mrs. H’s Retreat
E.Steans Family Trust
The Harris Family Estate
Harvest-Tyme-Food-Ministries
BGR Meat Processing Plant
Selma Dallas County Projects
U.S. - Zambia Collaboration
With each workshop and hands-on demonstration, more people see our vision and believe in what is happening — a future where land, culture, and community thrive together.
Like our food supply, we cannot depend solely on government funding, though we use it wisely when available.
The work of lifting up Black farmers and land stewards should not fall on their shoulders alone. Through this collective effort, we are raising funds to sustain community workshops, field demonstrations, and local partnerships that educate, empower, and reconnect people to the land.
Your support helps us keep this vital work growing preserving heritage, cultivating equity, and planting the seeds of a just food system for generations to come.
producers.
Institutional & Municipal Support
Please work with us to shape policy, pilot programs, or fund initiatives that support land access and preservation efforts.
Media & Promotional Collaborations
Help amplify underrepresented stories of land stewardship, culture, and agricultural excellence.
