“When you lose these farmers, you don't get them back. You can't get the land back. You can't get the historical training, the skill set training of passing our generational skill set and training to the next generation of farmers. And farming is a skill set.”
Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg (by Food Tank) · Alternative Proteins · October 2026
Boyd, who has led the National Black Farmers Association for 43 years, says he has never seen so many pending farm foreclosures at once. He learned to farm from his father and grandfather, and argues you can't just throw seeds out and become a farmer.
Transcript
…there. First thing for us to do is pack up and get out of there and try to make some amends so we can get some stuff flowing through there. But his arrogance and his ego would never let him do that to say that he lost in a particular region of the country that he wasn't prepared to fight, to fight.
…crises that we're seeing is showing how dependent agriculture is on fossil fuels and imported fertilizers. Is there, you know, what are you thinking in terms of long-term strategy to help farmers become less dependent on things, you know, that we have to import or that, you know, are so expensive?
…policies that one man put in place? His tariffs, his war in Iran, can I've never seen this many farm foreclosures, pending farm foreclosures at one time in my 43-year career here at the National Black Farmers Association. So people say there's no difference. Black farmers are doing bad to Ozan. Yeah, we sure were. But we were not losing this many farmers at one time, generational farmers. And when you lose these farmers, you don't get them back. You can't get the land back. You can't get the historical training, the skill set training of passing our generational skill set and training to the next generation of farmers. And farming is a skill set. I was taught to train by my daddy, John Boyd, Senior, who taught me how to farm and my grandfather, Thomas Boyd, and my mother's grandfather on my mother's side, Lee Robinson, who was a sharecrapper. So I was surrounded by agriculture and I learned early on how to farm. So you can't just go out there and say, you're going to throw some seeds out there and be a farmer. It takes time and…
Yeah, farming is the most knowledge-intensive,
hardest occupation known to man, people.
Absolutely. Farmers have always been the smartest people I've ever met. John, you know, this is a crisis. Your dad and your grandfather and other members of your family, this is worse than the 1980s farm crisis, right?
More from Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg (by Food Tank)
