Connecting Youth to Tradition, Land, and Food Sovereignty through Cooperative Sorghum Syrup Production

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: sorghum (sweet)
• Miscellaneous: syrup

Practices

• Sustainable Communities: employment opportunities, food access and security, food sovereignty, partnerships, urban agriculture

A multi-generational group of farmers, young people, and their families will collaborate to plant, tend, harvest, and process sweet sorghum into syrup. This project will teach kids cooperative work, food sovereignty, organic agriculture. Monthly workdays will be held throughout the season, culminating in a two day "Syrup Camp" where participants harvest, cook, and bottle syrup. In additional to hands-on learning. each workday will include a sustainable agriculture lesson. We hope to produce enough syrup to supply each family involved, and establish a successful youth-led cooperative venture that continues a long-time Ozarks tradition.

1. Teach young people how to grow and process sorghum using environmentally sustainable methods including integrated pest management, soil testing, composting, organic gardening practices, and appropriate technology.

2. Strengthen community bonds and food sovereignty by passing the tradition of local, cooperative syrup-making to the next generation.

3. Produce syrup for at least 10 local households, providing an economically feasible alternative to highly refined sugars produced far away and with a long and ongoing history of questionable labor and environmental practices.

4. Document and share the project through local media, social media, and 2 public presentations.