Bringing Food Independence to Mississippi Delta
APRIL 28, 2007
Dorothy Grady-Scarbrough of Shelby, Mississippi, is on a mission. Just don't call it organic--yet. "I think that would scare them off. Right now, I'm just trying to get people to grow food, period," she says. Grady-Scarbrough comes from a family of cotton sharecroppers, though they always kept a big garden and orchard. This is where her memories of good fresh food comes from, and she wants more African-Americans today to have that same experience. The modern Mississippi Delta is all about cash crops such as cotton, soy and rice, and few people are self-sufficient in food.
And so she founded MEGA (Mississippians Engaging in Greener Agriculture) and runs a one-and-a-half acre demonstration garden in her back yard. She does food-growing training programs, promotes greenhouse construction and community gardens, and provides livestock at no cost, with an agreement that people provide new livestock back within five years. That's neighbours helping neighbours. "Right now, our food is grown nowhere near here," she says. "I want to change that." -ADS
