Sylvanaqua Farms

While the bar at our sister restaurant South and Central makes pretty incredible drinks, you can't get a Panga Drop Shot. However! We happen to have a special bar menu that comes from their kitchen, so all is right in the Dairy Market 😮‍💨 Speaking of South and Central, don't miss out on their Cinco de Mayo party!!! We hear they're roasting a whole Sylvanaqua Farms pig for tacos 🤤 and will have that bangin' bachata dance party💃

Fantastic thoughts on the deeper ramifications of efficiency and labor analysis for food producing farms. When experts like Sylvanaqua Farms speak we should all listen and learn from their generously shared wisdom.

Wow! THANK YOU, Sylvanaqua Farms for your generous donation to the Free Fridge and Pantry!!! We are extremely grateful for your support, and for your contribution to the community. 🥩♥️🌱

Thanks for engaging in the conversation yesterday about the future of small farms. We 100% believe small family scale farms are the future. A few folks brought up the article that highlights the collective power of farming by Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua Farms Here is the article if you would like to read further - https://heated.medium.com/small-family-farms-arent-the-answer-742b6684857e We appreciate having thoughtful and respectful conversations to hear peoples perspectives to move our food system towards a local, diversified and interconnected agricultural future built by family farms where ecosystems and communities thrive 🌈

From the most technical of standpoints, regeneration can be defined as a process of renewal or restoration of a body, bodily part, or biological/living system, such as Mother Earth herself. But regeneration is so much more than that. Regeneration means to reinvigorate, revitalize and recover our environment, our communities, our economy and our relationships to one another. Regeneration is the fundamental shift from the exploitative and the degenerating to the “truly sustainable” and the regenerating. As Wizipan Garriott mentions in his Seven Generations keynote at Session 3 of the 2020/21 Regenerative Earth Summit, regeneration means to “come back stronger and more resilient than before”. He reminds us that Indigenous peoples are the best living example of what it means to be regenerative. In fact, ‘regenerative agriculture’ is not a new idea but a new term for age-old Indigenous land management practices. Regenerative Agriculture is just Indigenous practices informed by the most modern technology. In the following months, we will be introducing and exploring a key term or topic relevant to the regenerative community the second Thursday of the month with the help from leaders in this space. When appropriate, we will also introduce any connections to Indigenous ideologies or happenings to further ground and credit these terms to their origins. If you happen to miss a post, all of our posts in this series can be found in an IG highlights folder for easy access. This post was inspired and informed by Sylvanaqua Farms, Wizipan Garriott, ect. through direct and indirect lessons, conversations & perception/un-learning/framing. #regenerativeagriculture #sustainableagriculture #smallscalefarming #groworganic #lovetheearth #foodsovereignty #soilhealth #circularfashion #circulareconomy #slowfashion #regenerativefashion #knowwhomadeit #ecosystem #regenerativebrands #organicbrands #nongmo #regenerativerising

Interesting interview in The Guardian with Chris Newman, founder of Virginia-based Sylvanaqua Farms, on why feeding people needs to be at the heart of sustainable farming.

“Our goal on our farm is to responsibly produce as much food as we possibly can and just get it into as many mouths as possible, making sure that what we produce isn’t just accessible to the upper crust. To meet that goal, Sylvanaqua has pledged to donate half its harvest to food aid organizations throughout the Chesapeake region, as part of a mutual aid program focused on people who ordinarily can’t afford high-quality meat and produce. Newman, who is Black and an enrolled member of the Choptico Band of Piscataway Indians, spoke with the Guardian about racism in the farm-to-table movement, how indigenous practices influence the way he farms and why, ultimately, feeding people needs to be at the heart of sustainable farming." - Chris Newman of Sylvanaqua Farms in The Guardian article, "How is it sustainable if only 1% can afford your food?’: the man on a quest to change farming" https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/sylvanaqua-farms-sustainable-food-affordable

“Our goal on our farm is to responsibly produce as much food as we possibly can and just get it into as many mouths as possible, making sure that what we produce isn’t just accessible to the upper crust...We are actively trying to figure out how to connect the dots between what we do here and the people who’ve been left behind by the farm-to-table movement. Without that mass participation, then all we’re really doing is creating castles in the sky.” - Chris Newman, Co-Founder of Sylvanaqua Farms Retired engineer and technologist Chris Newman is a farmer, enrolled member of the Choptico Band of Piscataway Indians and an outspoken evangelist of ecological, economic, and social sustainability in food. He’s garnered both criticism and praise for 1. advocating for a moderate, pragmatic approach to sustainable food systems that recognizes the complementary roles of both ecological farming and technological innovation; 2. frank discussions of the intersection of race and agriculture; and 3. blunt, unsparing criticism of the “clean food” movement’s often-elitist values and aversion to self-reflection. As a black and Indigenous man in America, he pulls focus onto the Indigenous ethics, values, and knowledge that the (often unacknowledged) modern regenerative agriculture permaculture movement was built on. As well as the decolonized worldview necessary to ensure the sustainable stewardship of natural resources. As said in his 2021 Regenerative Earth Summit - Session 4 Keynote, “The modern regenerative agriculture movement is adopting the tools and techniques of indigenous land management without adopting the world view.” Click on the link below to read the Guardian’s interview with Chris Newman in the article “‘How is it sustainable if only 1% can afford your food?’: the man on a quest to change farming”. 📷: Sylvanaqua Farms https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/25/sylvanaqua-farms-sustainable-food-affordable #regenerativeagriculture #sustainableagriculture #smallscalefarming #groworganic #lovetheearth #foodsovereignty #soilhealth #circulareconomy #ecosystem #regenerativebrands #organicbrands #nongmo #regenerativerising #sylvanaquafarms

Everyone should be able to eat higher welfare and sustainable food. At Sylvanaqua Farms Chris and Annie don't just farm with nature and animal welfare in mind, they donate half of their produce to food aid organisations.

“And finally, what I hope will be my legacy is what I call ‘people-centered food policy’ - thinking about food in terms of how it promotes personal empowerment, how it overcomes loneliness, how it brings people together, and how it makes a celebration of joy a part of everyday life. People-centered food policy needs to become as powerful as farm-to-table and nutrition models of food.” ~ Wayne Roberts, Corporate Knights Community-based regenerative agriculture is the key to people-centered food policy. The current food system brushes many minority communities off to the sidelines in favor of the powerful and privileged. Community-based agriculture is a way for those communities (BIPOC, Indigenous, and Latinx folx here in America) to use the food system as a tool of resistance, resilience, and advocacy that can create structural change while also serving as a platform for communities to work cooperatively to reclaim their health, economic opportunity, and food sovereignty. This form of activism is what grassroots movements are all about. A group of people who are not represented in our current systems stepping into their power, creating the conditions for sustained change that can be maintained and expanded upon in future generations - all while making the world a healthier, more equitable, more resilient place because of their courage, strength and action. This post is inspired by the good work that Dreaming Out Loud, Inc., Black Yield Institute, Sylvanaqua Farms and many more food organizations are doing to create a healthy & equitable food system. 📷: Dreaming Out Loud #regenerativeagriculture #sustainableagriculture #smallscalefarming #groworganic #lovetheearth #foodsovereignty #soilhealth #medicinalplants #circulareconomy #ecosystem #regenerativerising #blackfoodsovereignty #equity #foodjustice #community

Check out this new piece published by Executive Director Mary Beth Collins and PhD Candidate Allison Hellenbrand -- on different organizational structures within the Mission-Based Food Production Movement. This piece came together after various organizations approached the CommNS about how to structure their farming, food-making, and other enterprises. The paper lays out key considerations for structures ranging from LLC to nonprofit to cooperative to land trust and more, and cites real-world, inspiring examples from the field which use the different structures. We hope this piece may be useful to those who wish to making positive change through mission-based food system efforts. Planting Justice Menikanaehkem - Community Rebuilders Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming Alice's Garden Urban Farm Detroit Black Community Food Security Network Walnut Way Women's Environmental Institute Mentoring Positives The Farmory Green Bay Chrysalis Pops Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust American Farmland Trust The Kingston Land Trust Black Family Land Trust Marin Agricultural Land Trust Maine Farmland Trust Vermont Land Trust Rock Steady Farm & Flowers Shared Ground Farmers' Cooperative SLO Farmers Co-op Seward Community Co-op Sankofa Farms LLC Full Circle Community Farm Winter Green Farm Sylvanaqua Farms Tandem Restaurant Plum Organics Revolution Foods Hilary's Finnriver Green City Growers Soul Fire Farm Cooperative Coffees The Federation of Southern Cooperatives Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT Ohe∙láku - Among the Cornstalks https://commnsknowledge.wisc.edu/2021/07/28/learn-about-the-mission-based-food-production-movement/