Karen Washington

Karen Washington is a political activist and community organizer fighting for food justice.

Washington, co-founding member of Black Urban Growers, speaking at the 10th Annual Black Urban Growers Conference, in Atlanta, Georgia, October 15, 2022

Biography

Washington grew up in New York City, attended Hunter College and received her master's degree in occupational biomechanics and ergonomics from New York University in 1981.[1] In 1985, she moved from Harlem to the Bronx with her two children.[2] Washington studied organic gardening at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at UC Santa Cruz in 2006.[1][2]

In 1988, after years of tending a garden in her backyard, Karen Washington helped found the Garden of Happiness in the Bronx.[3] A decade later this garden teamed up with other community gardens in New York City to launch a farmers market. In the late 1990s Mayor Giuliani attempted to sell many community garden properties at auctions. Using various tactics such as protests, civil disobedience, and diplomatic negotiations, Washington and other community activists succeeded in saving the plots for continued use as community gardens. Washington returned to New York after completing the training program at UC Santa Cruz and founded Farm School NYC and Black Urban Growers.[1]

In 2014, Washington began an apprenticeship at Roxbury Farm in Kinderhook, New York.[2] After her apprenticeship, she "retired" to co-found Rise and Root Farm in Chester, New York.[4]

In 2018, rather than using the term "food desert," she coined the intersectional term "food apartheid" to bring attention to social inequalities and injustices in the entire food system.[5][6]

Organizations

Farm School NYC

Farm School NYC provides agricultural training and educational opportunities for New York City residents. Through grassroots social justice and a community based approach this organization hopes to "inspire positive local action around food access and social, economic, and racial justice issues."[7]

Black Urban Growers

They first began in 2009 with community events focused around food. In 2010 Black Urban Growers put on the first annual Black Farmers and Urban Growers Conference with over 500 participants. Their mission is "to engage people of African descent in critical food and farm-related issues that directly impact our health, communities, and economic security."[8]

Rise and Root Farm

Co-founder of a sustainable farm in Orange County, New York that is cooperatively-run and women-led.[9]

Recognition

In 2012, she was named in Ebony's "Power 100" of influential African-Americans, and in 2014 she received the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award.[2]

References
  1. Harris, Mindy (November 2012). "The Queen of Urban Growing: Karen Washington". NOFA Mass.
  2. Shaw, Dan (19 September 2014). "Urban Farming's Grande Dame: Karen Washington". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  3. Schless-Meier, Adrien (20 August 2014). "Faces and Visions of the Food Movement: Karen Washington, 'Queen of Urban Gardening'". Civil Eats. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  4. "Karen Washington". Rise & Root Farm. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  5. Brones, Anna (2018-05-07). "Karen Washington: It's Not a Food Desert, It's Food Apartheid". Guernica. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  6. Win, Thin Lei (2020-07-30). "Black urban farmers in the U.S. sow seeds to end 'food apartheid'". Reuters. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
  7. "Home". Farm School NYC. Retrieved 20 April 2017.
  8. Brones, Anna (2018-05-15). "Food apartheid: the root of the problem with America's groceries". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
  9. "How One Woman Turned a Passion for Farming Into Her Life's Work". Shape. Retrieved 2020-10-19.
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