Faces of the Farm Bill: Choctaw Tribal Members
Through these as-told-to conversations, Choctaw Tribal Members working in food justice in Mississippi explain how the impending Farm Bill has affected their community in the past, what they hope it will bring in the future, and what could happen if it falls short.
Tribal members sorting produce at Choctaw Fresh processing facilityPhoto courtesy of Choctaw Fresh
Interviews collected and edited by Kelsey Betz
Choctaw Tribal Members
Tomika Bell (Choctaw Fresh Produce distribution manager): As Native Americans, we live in rural areas, which means we don’t have the ability to be near any kind of grocery stores or farm stands. But Choctaw Fresh gives people the ability to utilize our mobile market, and put farms in certain areas, which means we’re able to reach those people that live in scarce areas that aren’t able to have access to eating healthy.
Nigel Gibson (Tribal Council member): Food is an essential need to life. Within our community, we have a high rate of diabetes with all ages within our tribe. What Choctaw Fresh is trying to provide is a healthier way of eating, and also educate tribe members on how they need to eat regardless if they’re diabetic or not.
Bell: We consider the land our motherland and Choctaw Fresh takes care of it by growing organic. We’re not actually disturbing our soil, which is our way of taking care of our land. I feel like the Farm Bill could help us a lot by getting a lot of our land back. We don’t have much access to a lot of good farmland.
Gibson: To be able to expand like that would not only give us opportunities food wise within the community, but it also could give us economical help within the community because when you expand, you’re able to provide more job opportunities.
We’re always looking for economical opportunities, whether it’s federal funding or revenue from your own tribal casino. Having that kind of funding for Choctaw Fresh would be tremendous.
Bell: Access to broadband is also an issue for us because without it we’re not able to reach out and do what we need to do out there. But, personally, I don’t believe that the Farm Bill will make a big impact on us other than the ability to get a better rate of payment for our workers. We hire harvesters, harvest techs, high tunnel maintenance workers, farmers, and anyone who’s operating from the distribution side. We started out paying them $8 an hour and have been able to find the funding to increase that to $12. If Farm Bill funding goes through, we will be able to increase that to $15 an hour. Good paying wages are really important for us to be able to retain labor workers and avoid high turnover. Being able to pay them more would help with food insecurity and food access because if we don’t have workers then we don’t have food.
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