SRS RN: To be truly regenerative, we must be reparative: a BIPOC agenda for regional sustainable systems

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

Many Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) communities identify regenerative soil, water, and energy systems as the basis for intergenerational healing from slavery and colonization. In this lens, the exploitation of land is based on the exploitation of people, and the regeneration of land depends on the regeneration of people. BIPOC farmers and food system actors have formed regional urban and regional sustainability networks. These networks aim to reconnect farmers with rural land after generations of slavery, genocide, displacement, and exclusion, and are committed to feeding poor urban populations with healthy, fresh food with these efforts. While these networks have achieved a remarkable level of organizing and institution-building using a grassroots approach, they have not received either funding and/or other support types that have propelled other policy networks into higher levels of integration and organization. The activities of this planning grant will provide this support to secure these networks access to regional land for food, water, and energy innovation and give them the freedom to vision regeneration goals 25+ years into the future. Partnering with the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust (NEFOC) and Black Farmer Fund (BFF), this research team will work collaboratively with stakeholders in the NEFOC service area to co-design and build a network and framework for a Collective Impact (CI) model. Methods include building on surveys completed by NEFOC and BFF, convening focus groups, and conducting interviews within the collective impact framework to create a common agenda for the networks using a structured form of collaboration. The goal is to develop new knowledge about the factors that support sustainable regional systems, understand the ways in which BIPOC policy networks foster those systems, and determine the key assets and gaps to creating more collective power in those systems for long-term sustainability. This project invests in BIPOC sustainability policy networks advancing a reparative socio-ecological framework to advance BIPOC networks into higher levels of integration and organization, increase their capacity for land sovereignty, and support long-term strategic planning for sustainable regional systems. In addition, these BIPOC networks pose novel, integrative visions, which incorporate ecology, culture, spirituality, history, and geography. Outcomes from the research will provide opportunities to address entrenched legacies of racial injustice and trauma, while repairing BIPOC relationships with the land and restoring regional ecosystems. Strengthening BIPOC sustainability policy networks is foundational to building healthy communities while improving strategies for protecting regional ecosystems. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.