A few of many crops growing at the Black Futures Farm in Southeast Portland. The farm, led by Black and African-identified people, grows food, builds community, and promotes Black food sovereignty.
Courtesy of Malcolm Shabazz Hoover
The pandemic has drastically changed business for Oregon farmers. For farmers who sell to food service distributors, like Reed Anderson of Anderson Sheep Company in Brownsville, business is down. Anderson said sales are about 60% of what they were last year, partly because lamb is a specialty meat that most people purchase at restaurants. But for Laura Masterson, founder of 47th Avenue Farm in Portland, sales have picked up. Masterson has seen increased interest in her community supported agriculture business as more people buy food to prepare at home. We hear from Anderson and Masterson about how things are going, and how the pandemic could change their companies in the long term.
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