Creating a Black Farmer Commons in Transferring Land Ownership

Research Description  

Corbin Hill Food Project recognizes the necessity of research but rejects standard research methodologies due to its historical manipulation and abuse of Black and brown communities. 

Our data collection and evaluation policies and practices center our values: from extraction towards self-determination and sovereignty. We believe data should serve the needs of the community and contribute toward collective goals and future funding opportunities to continue the work. CHFP maintains a strong entrepreneurial approach including collection of real time data that informs and helps to iterate processes along the way. The methods and methodology outlined in this project attempts to uphold said values, and thus are subject to adapt as the project progresses. 

Study Population(s) with rationale for selection.

The study populations of this project include an ecosystem of organizations with the collective goal of supporting Black farmers and Black food actors connected to the ecosystem’s collective networks. They will be involved in the development, implementation, and analysis for this project. Project cooperators and facilitators from the ecosystem organizations will facilitate the development, implementation, and analysis of data. This project will leverage the collective knowledge and diverse perspectives of research facilitators that come from a variety of professional backgrounds and roles, including organizational Directors, Coordinators, Managers, and Associates who come from business, agricultural, anthropological, and health backgrounds with extensive experience working in community with Black food actors.

We will recruit three Black farmers involved in the programming offered by each organization. Recruitment will leverage personal and professional relationships to ensure strong relational foundations throughout the project. Black farmers within the ecosystem’s pipeline are taking part in the ecosystem work, serving as the most valuable resource of information to the functionality, benefits, assets, and/or issues within the ecosystem. 

Methods: Experimental design, methods and instruments to be used.

Facilitators will use a mixed-methods approach, conducting interviews, organizing focus groups, collecting surveys which will include asset/abundance maps, which will draw from both Black Farmers engaged in ecosystem programming. This project uses a Community Based Participatory framework, which analyzes social, structural, and physical environmental inequities through active involvement of community members, organizational representatives, and researchers in all aspects of the research process (Citation). The advantages of CBPR are that it allows for the innovative adaptation of existing resources, explores local knowledge and perceptions, empowers community members by considering them agents who can investigate their own situations, the community input makes the project credible, enhancing its usefulness by aligning it with what the community perceives as social and health goals, and it helps dismantle the lack of trust communities may exhibit in relation to research (Citation)

Data Collection: Data to be collected and collection protocols.

Qualitative Methodology

Given this project’s mixed-methods approach, facilitators will use both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools: interviews and focus groups. They will conduct 3, 20 minute, 1-1 semi-structured interviews with participating farmers over the course of a 10 month period. Interviews will be conducted with a sample of Black farmers and ecosystem members. Semi-structured interviews will allow for flexibility while maintaining an established interview guide prior to the meeting. Research facilitators will draft all Interview guides and then get feedback and final approval by both ecosystem members and participating farmers.  Questions will contain relevant themes that will be determined by the cooperators as a group. Interviews allow for a large amount of data to be collected in a relatively short time frame, and given that facilitators will also be the interview administrators, it aids in creating a non-threatening environment for participants to speak freely.

Facilitators will also conduct four, 90 minute, Semi-structured, facilitated focus groups, two with ecosystem organization’s members and two with recruited Black farmers, over a 10 month period. Focus groups allow for candid discussions within community, where trust and shared experiences are a part of the foundations of a secure environment. Focus group questions will contain relevant themes that will be determined by the cooperators as a group, which can inform the iterative process, and may lead to re-conducting the focus groups with the same participants. Research facilitators will also draft all focus group question guides and then get feedback and final approval by both ecosystem members and participating farmers. Focus group questions may help identify shared community valves, barriers to achieving success not already known by ecosystem members, organizational and governing structures around food justice and land ownership, production planning; non-traditional financial structures and the nature of a regenerative farm. Focus groups and interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed for qualitative analysis.

Quantitative Methodology

As the interviews and focus groups will provide substantial, anecdotal data to be transcribed and analyzed, facilitators will develop an adjoining cross-sectional survey for the ecosystem members. Surveys are intended to provide a general overview of the ecosystem programs, including their participant demographics, organizational assets and needs, and outcome/impact measures over the tenure of each participating ecosystem organization. Surveys length and number of questions will be determined with the recruited ecosystem participants using a consensus decision making process for transparency and consent. Surveys will contain closed questions and will be analyzed using traditional statistical methods.

Jan 25th Update:

• Please refer to the attached SARE Work Plan_2023_BFE_CHFP.  This spreadsheet indicates all intended project objectives, tasks, and responsibilities among collaborators.