Podcast appearances and mentions of Ashley C Smith

September 8, 2022 Our host, Vernon Oakes interviews Malik Kenyatta Yakini, Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN), and Trevor Claiborn, Sr. Co-founder of Black Soil: Our Better Nature. Vernon and his guests discuss the food sovereignty movement, and how cooperative food alliances, and the focus on Ag marketing and food distribution has impacted communities of color. Malik Kenyatta Yakini is an activist and educator who is committed to freedom and justice for African people in particular, and humanity in general. Yakini is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, which operates a seven-acre farm in Detroit and spearheaded efforts to establish the Detroit Food Policy Council. He served as a member of the Michigan Food Policy Council from 2008 - 2010. From 2011 - 2013 he served on the steering committee of Uprooting Racism Planting Justice. He is a co-founder and on the leadership team of the National Black Food and Justice Alliance. Malik has an intense interest in contributing to the development of an international food sovereignty movement that embraces Black farmers in the Americas, the Caribbean and Africa. He views the "good food revolution" as part of the larger movement for freedom, justice and equality. To that end, he has sought opportunities to educate the public. Trevor Claiborn, Co-Founder of Black Soil: Our Better Nature, is an author, musician, environmental educator, co-operative extension professional, youth program director, and public speaker. In 2017 Trevor and Ashley C. Smith co-founded Black Soil: Our Better Nature, to help reconnect Black Kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. Black Soil fosters the next generation of Kentucky Black farmers and chefs and leads efforts to address racialized disparities and barriers.  Mr. Claiborn has received awards from the Central Kentucky Diversity Consortium, by the Kentucky Association of Environmental Educators (KAEE). In August, Trevor Claiborn Sr. and Ashley C. Smith received the Grassroots Black Leadership Award from The Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative.

Representing 1.4% of the primary farm operators in the state, black farmers account for less than 600 of the more than 76,000 agricultural operations in Kentucky.In this episode of #MoneyGoals, we sit down with Ashley C. Smith, a founder of Black Soil KY. The mission of Black Soil: Our Better Nature is to reconnect black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture. Black Soil's vision is to help foster a greater market share for black farmers and producers as they provide healthy food options to a larger consumer base.By bringing together urban families with rural and urban-based black farmers/growers/producers across the state, Black Soil helps introduce opportunities in agriculture that promote self-sufficiency, encourage healthy living, and activate cooperative economics.

Trevor Claiborn and John Henry Harris discuss 1 Million Black Shovels, a Community, Home, & School Garden Groundbreaking Event Celebrating Black Farmers, Growers and Producers. Vernon and his guests discuss the importance of the reclamation of Black-owned farm land, and the significance that agriculture plays in survival and life. Trevor Claiborn, Co-Founder of Black Soil: Our Better Nature is an author, musician, environmental educator, co-operative extension professional, youth program director, and public speaker. In 2017 Trevor and Ashley C. Smith co-founded Black Soil: Our Better Nature to help reconnect Black Kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. Black Soil fosters the next generation of Kentucky Black farmers and chefs and leads efforts to address racialized disparities and barriers. John Henry Harris holds a degree in economics and is pursuing a degree in Agricultural Economics. He developed his affinity for farming while working with his grandfather on the family farm. As a way of paying homage to his grandfather, for the past 10 years he has worked with Black Soil deliver programs that help youth to appreciate agriculture, and farming.

We are ending Black History Month strong with a final edition episode featuring five visionaries who are paving paths to a better Lexington! This week's show features two committee members of the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative here at BGCF: - Christian Motley: Senior Manager of Policy and Partnerships, Strive Together - Andrea James: Community Response Strategist, Office of the Mayor, LFUCG And three honorees of the Grassroots Black Leadership Awards: - Tanya Torp: a diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility consultant & co-founder of Not The Only One In the Room & BIPOC womyn's writing group - Ashley C. Smith: co-founder of Black Soil: Our Better Nature - Elisha Mutayongwa: founder of Rafiki Center

Trevor Claiborn Sr., is a 4-H Cooperative Extension Assistant at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Kentucky. An avid Agriculturist, and co-founder of "Black Soil: Our Better Nature," throughout his career he has continuously sought ways to use lessons in agriculture to connect generations. Trevor is also an author, musician, environmental educator, youth program director, and public speaker. In 2017 Trevor and Ashley C. Smith co-founded Black Soil: Our Better Nature to help reconnect Black Kentuckians to their heritage and legacy in agriculture. Black Soil fosters the next generation of Kentucky Black farmers and chefs, and leads efforts to address racialized disparities and barriers. In 2015 while earning his B.S. in Agriculture, Food, and Environment at Kentucky State University Land Grant College, Mr. Claiborn created and developed “Farmer Brown Tha MC.” He used this platform to deliver presentations about agriculture, diversification of agricultural and STEM fields, and to deliver creative youth engagement strategies to tens of thousands of youth and families in Kentucky and across the country. This work led to the establishment of Black Soil, where he continues to use education in agriculture as a tool to connect generations. Mr. Claiborn has received awards from the Central Kentucky Diversity Consortium, the 1890’s Association of Research Directors Research Symposium, and been named as a Rising Star by the Kentucky Association of Environmental Educators (KAEE). He is also a 2018 ee360 Green Fellow, and a former member of the KAEE Board of Directors. Mr. Claiborn currently serves on the Principal advisory Board at Locust Trace Agri-science center in Lexington, KY and Governor Andy Beshear’s 2020 Agri-tech Council.

Ashley C. Smith is reconnecting African Americans in Kentucky with their legacy and contributions in agriculture. She lives in Lexington, a city where the local farmers market is held at a former slave auction block. She says conversations about race and reparations make some people angry, but it’s important to confront the truth and reexamine history. In this episode, she cooks a veggie stir fry with shrimp and Kentucky Hemp Dawgs. While we eat, she explains why these these hot dogs made with hemp taste so good. (Hint: there’s a dash of criminal justice reform mixed in.) We also talk about her childhood garden and how her grandmother Caroline inspired her outspokenness. Black Soil: Our Better Nature, co-founded by Ashley C. Smith and Trevor Claiborn, is a Lexington, Kentucky-based organization that offers farm tours, farm-to-table dinners, and workshops with the goal of reconnecting black Kentuckians to their legacy and heritage in agriculture.