Rooted in Legacy: Black Farmers, Bronx Gardens, and the Future of Urban Agriculture

​This roundtable will honor Black History Month by uplifting the legacy of Black farmers and agricultural innovators, while focusing on the urgent need to strengthen urban agriculture in the Bronx. The session will explore how local gardens and community farms nourish neighborhoods, support health equity, and create meaningful green job pathways in food justice, land stewardship, and environmental health.

​Throughout history, Black farmers have cultivated not only land but movements—preserving cultural knowledge, building resilience, and sustaining communities in the face of systemic exclusion. Today, that legacy continues in the Bronx through the work of local growers, garden stewards, and food justice advocates who are reclaiming land as a source of healing, opportunity, and nourishment.

​This Black History Month, we invite community gardeners, educators, food justice organizations, youth programs, and workforce partners to join us for a conversation on how the Bronx Green Jobs Center can support the next generation of green workers in agriculture and local food systems. Together, we will explore how growing food in our communities is not just a labor of love or cultural resistance, it is a health intervention. Food is medicine, and expanding access to fresh, locally grown produce is key to addressing chronic illness, improving mental well-being, and building healthier, more resilient neighborhoods.

​Participants will discuss ways to invest in land-based careers, expand growing spaces, and integrate urban farming into youth employment pipelines, reentry initiatives, cooperative enterprise, and climate adaptation strategies. The conversation will center the Bronx’s long tradition of community gardening and highlight the power of urban agriculture to connect food, justice, health, and economic opportunity.