The organization Feeding American anticipates nearly 42 million individuals to experience food insecurity in 2021. Author: Alex Littlehales (WVEC) Updated: 11:48 PM EDT June 30, 2021
BIRDSNEST, Va. It gives farm-to-table a new meaning.
“I do sometimes eat it directly out of the ground without washing it!” farmer Thelonius Cook laughed.
On a sweltering May afternoon, the summer heat beats down on the Mighty Thundercloud Edible Forest, a growing sustainable farm on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Cook a Hampton native cultivates his plot of land off Route 13 using only African-American and sustainable farming techniques.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cook is one of the more than 48,000 Black farmers that own 4.7 million acres of farmland in the United States based on the 2017 Census of Agriculture. But even that only makes up 0.5 percent of the country’s total.