Farm to Fork: Celebrating North Carolina farmers as agents of social change
Southerners who consider themselves savvy about who grows food and how it gets to our tables have a tendency to romanticize the lives of farmers.
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Edge likens many of today’s farmers to Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi civil rights activist whose story is shared in “The Potlikker Papers.” One of Hamer’s signature empowerment programs was the Freedom Farms Cooperative in her home state. Members pooled resources and labor to grow cash crops as well as vegetables that provided vital sustenance to poor families.
“She secured her power on the farm and leveraged that power for a better and more inclusive South,” Edge says. “That’s the way I think about the power of agriculture in the South, past and present and future.”
“I can’t speak for [North Carolina farmers], but I think that this notion of claiming the land, or reclaiming it, can be a radical stand,” says Edge, who also advocates for equal access to fresh food in low-wealth communities, some of which are abandoned by chain grocery stores.
“These things matter to me,” Edge adds. “What interests me the most is the narrative that fits around people in the South, whether they be farmers or cooks or waitresses. Those narratives of Southerners who continue to reinvent this region – five generations deep or one generation. These people inspire me.”
Edge continues to examine the food of the South and the people who make it in TrueSouth, a four-episode series produced for the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Network of ESPN. He finds nothing unusual in a sports network wanting to tell the cultural story of its community through the lens of food.
“Football and basketball tell a story of the South, and food does, too,” says Edge, who hopes to return with six more episode next season.
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