People often joke: Are there Black people in Iowa? But Black farmers? Fewer still.
Just ask Todd Western III, whose family has owned Western Family Farms since 1864, including a farm in New Sharon and another near Waterloo. The family’s story began with enslaved ancestors in Virginia who purchased their freedom, navigated the Underground Railroad and forged new lives as farmers in Iowa.
Generations later, Western gathered more than 115 Black farmers from Iowa, border states and from around the country for the first Iowa Farmers of Color Conference held last December in Des Moines. He’s holding quarterly meetings and events with fellow farmers and gearing up for the next conference in November.
🎧Dana James, the host of The Inside Black Iowa podcast, picks up the story of the Westerns after Todd Western Sr. died in 2008, and Barbara, opera singer and matriarch, led the family’s efforts to make the business more efficient and profitable.
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Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander's Emerging Voices: Emerging Voices, Kalona
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Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
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Kali White VanBaale: 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
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