Michael Carter, Jr. is an agricultural innovator and educator in Unionville, Virginia. He has dedicated his career to advancing sustainable farming practices and promoting African heritage in agriculture. Michael’s international experiences, including work in Ghana, Israel, and Kenya, have shaped his holistic approach to farming. He works on his family’s farm, Carter Farms, and founded Africulture, a nonprofit organization that teaches the principles, plants, and practices of African-descended agriculture while fostering cultural and racial identity.
On this episode of Nature Revisited, Carter presents an eclectic brew of history, culture, African-centered perspectives, and African American farm realities. He recalls inspiring stories of African innovators as well as sobering facts tracking the severe decline in the number of Black farmers in the United States over the last century. Drawing on the lifecycle of a plant as a metaphor for both individual growth and the larger story of African American farming, Carter evokes the relationship between soil health (metaphorically, society and community) and plant health (i.e., the ability of Black farmers and families to thrive). When the civil rights gains and progress toward economic parity for Black Americans of the past fifty years may be slipping away, Carter envisions a better future through several foundational principles of Africulture.
