This article is part of our Food systems expert series. Here we explore sustainable agriculture and food systems and share interviews and intel from aligned innovators and visionaries.
Passing through Tuskegee, AL
Passing through Tuskegee on a recent trip through the South, I reflected on the significance of this location to regenerative agriculture and to small farmers in America.
Tuskegee University — the second historically black college in the US — not only was the birthplace of many advancements in modern agriculture but also was key in championing regenerative agriculture practices, thanks to the groundwork of George Washington Carver and extended by further visionaries such as Dr. Booker T. Whatley.
Dr. Whatley was an Alabamian and American treasure I would’ve loved to have met.
He was a black agricultural scientist. A conservationist. A small farms champion who went the extra mile to think carefully about how to empower the small farmer and facilitate prosperity.
He was an unsung hero of community-supported agriculture.
A few details on his story are below. I highly recommend you read the Mother Earth news interview from 1982 and check out his “ten commandments”. They’re both delightful and exemplify his jovial nature.
From growing up with 11 siblings on a small family farm in Anniston, AL, to operating a hydroponic farm in Japan during the Korean War to feed American troops, to earning a Ph.D. in horticulture from Rutgers – Dr. Whatley ultimately decided to take up the mantle to expand agricultural science both within and for the Black community.
After earning his doctorate, Dr. Whatley went to Tuskegee University to teach and perform research. He was given wide latitude in his focus and teaching plans and made adjustments as he saw fit.
Through his research on honeybees, for example, he learned there was only one black apiculturist in America at the time. So naturally, he decided to start an apiculture program at Tuskegee. That’s just how he rolled.
His research expanded to include small fruits and more.
Dr. Whatley’s core passion was to educate and empower small farmers to become self-sufficient pillars of the community.
Dr. Whatley viewed the small farm as vital to the community. His vision was to build and strengthen community ties to the farm (hello, farm-to-table).
He saw farms as providing nourishment, education, and joy to families. And even more important than this direct experience for the consumer and learning “where food comes from” — Dr. Whatley saw the potential to provide a good living to the farmers themselves.
This was his driving motivation: to help farmers farm “smaller and better” and not merely to survive but to thrive.
Overlooked and unsupported by the US government, poor small farmers had no way to compete with subsidized commercial farms.
So Dr. Whatley urged small farmers to focus on high-value crops for the area — like collards, turnips, specialty blueberries & blackberries, and honey — and to eschew commodity (Big Agriculture) crops like cotton, corn, soybeans, and cattle.
And while many agricultural scientists remained focused on crops and tools for farming, Dr. Whatley took it further and provided practical advice and steps including marketing and business strategy to help farmers experience success.
With an emphasis on community support, Dr. Whatley insisted that small farms should be built and planned around “clientele membership clubs” which would be the lifeblood of the farm.
Community members would pay an annual fee and be able to visit the farm for fun and pick their own produce. This “pick your own” or “U-pick” practice helped farmers keep labor costs for harvest low, while the membership model provided reliable revenue plus insights into demand and capacity planning.
By the time CSAs took hold in the Northeastern US in the mid-1980s, Dr. Booker T. Whatley had long been championing community-supported farms in rural Alabama as a way for small, poor, black farmers to gain self-sufficiency.
He further urged farmers to diversify crops for year-round production and income. Regenerative practices such as crop rotation and companion planting were advised.
By 1988, Dr. Whatley published a manual to help spread his ideas for helping to make sustainable and profitable small farms. The manual, “How to Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres”, was based on his experience and farm research at Tuskegee. It features best-practice business activities and details on the nuts and bolts of farming methods, crops, labor, strategies & marketing needed to be successful.
Dr. Whatley stressed smart labor and marketing as two crucial keys to success.
The manual includes a playful – yet strict – “10 Commandments” with instructions like “Shun middlemen and middlewomen like the plague, for they are a curse upon thee.” and “Produce only what the clients demand—and nothing else!”
I’d note this manual is not for the faint of heart or light of labor(!)… the requirements are intense, and several years are required to gradually build up to full production capacity. Nonetheless, countless passionate, hard-working farmers have put it into practice.
Dr. Whatley remained a passionate advocate to the end of his full life of 89 years. He passed away in 2005 in Montgomery, AL.
Cover Photo Credit: Mother Earth News
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