ROSHARON, Texas – College of Agriculture and Human Sciences Professor Noel Estwick, Ph.D., took CAHS students to the Fresh Life Organics farm on April 19. The group was able to see an African American-operated farm up close and hear from its managers the pros and cons of owning their own production. The trip was sponsored by the Prairie View A&M University African American Studies Program as part of the university’s efforts to highlight the contributions of African Americans to agriculture.
The Fresh Life Organics farm specializes in Aquaponics/Hydroponics, row crop farming, operations, and more, along with raising goats and chickens. Christopher DeVault, manager of the farm’s operations, has been involved in agriculture his entire life.
“My dad is a first-generational rancher,” DeVault said. “It has always been a part of me so when I became an adult, I figured why don’t I just make a living doing something I love to do that is engrained inside of me. Getting to see the agriculture process from seed to plant, from calf to cow is great.”
Fresh Life Organics has not been immune to the costly effects of climate change, a challenge they struggle to adapt to daily.
“Global warming has changed the seasons, creating even more of a challenge by figuring out how to operate within the global and seasonal changes and hitting the exact area; not operating the way things used to be, but the way things are now,” DeVault said.
African American farmers’ contributions to agriculture are rarely brought up or praised in circles outside of the community. DeVault and other members of the farm know intimately how much African Americans have had a hand in developing a thriving culture.
“Our contributions have been the fabric of America,” DeVault said. “It has been on our backs since we were slaves. It’s ingrained in all of us to have a sense of how nature works and understand the knowledge of growing and raising life.”
CAHS Senior Josue Lindsey joined the trip to the farm to get an idea of the way a real farm operates, a rare opportunity for him. Networking with DeVault and the others has given him the opportunity to envision the way he would like to run his business one day.
“We did not get a chance to visit other operations during the pandemic, so I like to grab the opportunity to see one when I can and learn how they run it daily,” Lindsey said. “One of the staff has multiple properties and I want to start my own business one day, so I learned a bit about the principles and foundations of starting one from the ground up.”
The visit also helped the students understand the challenges African American farmers face and think about how they will make a difference in the future.
“I will be working with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) once I graduate, and this is preparing me to tackle hard issues that farmers deal with,” CAHS Senior Camille Pierre said. “They were saying that they don’t receive as much aid as needed and so I want to address these kinds of challenges in the work I’ll do.”
Students within the CAHS at PVAMU can work with USDA agencies such as NRCS to gain real-world experience in the field of agriculture they are interested in. Dr. Estwick plans to bring students back to Fresh Life Organics Farm again in the near future.
Pascale Mondesir
Communication Specialist
pamondesir@pvamu.edu
