Seeds, Soil Amendments, Bed Prep, Buying the Right Materials with Bonnetta Adeeb and Nate Kleinman

Global Village Farms and Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance will help you plan for this coming growing season with a mix of concrete tips for soil amendments and buying the right materials, to broader issues related to seeds and climate resilient farming. Centering the experiences of BIPOC farmers and cultural heritage preservation through seed farming, both Global Village and Ujamaa are connected to cooperative structures (Ujamaa, the Fourth Principle of Kwanzaa means 'Cooperative Economics’) Bonnetta Adeeb is founder & President of STEAM ONWARD, Inc, a non-profit 501(c3) organization in Southern Maryland, as well as the projects: Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and Ujamaa Seeds. UCFA is a collective of emergent and seasoned growers who cultivate heirloom seeds and grow culturally relevant plants for food, healing, and textiles. Ujamaa recognizes the need for increased diversity in farming and the seed industry, and the need to provide more opportunities and support for growers from historically oppressed and marginalized communities. To this end the UCFA is working to bridge the gap between prospective growers and seed companies. In addition, she works with the Cooperative Gardens Commission to distribute free heirloom seeds to communities in need serving 300 seed hubs nationally. January 12 saw the launch of a new Black Indigenous led project: Ujamaa Seeds, an online store cultivating and distributing culturally important seeds to increase diversity in the seed industry. Nate Kleinman, Co-Founder of Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance (UCFA) and Co-Founder/Co-Director of Experimental Farm Network (EFN). A native Philadelphian, Nate graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2004. Prior to becoming a farmer, he mainly worked in politics and organizing. He currently serves on the executive board of the Philadelphia Orchard Project and the Northeast Organic Farming Association of NJ (NOFA-NJ), and on the administrative team of UCFA. He co-founded EFN in 2013 to create a platform for facilitating collaboration in plant breeding and other agricultural research with the ultimate aim of developing new crops and growing systems for climate change mitigation. Recorded on January 14, 2023 Learn more at www.nofamass.org