“I lead by utilizing rest as a catalyst for return on investment. I believe that it is impossible to live in a society without taking moments to ourselves to understand who we are and what we want out of this life.”
Just shy of her 30th birthday, Christa Barfield sought a change of scenery. After ten years of work in healthcare, she quit her job, packed her bags, and embarked on a solo vacation, leaving the States for the first time and traveling to Martinique. This vacation turned into a career reflection, leading her to her life’s calling: agriculture.
Before Martinique, Christa had never touched soil or thought about farming, let alone as a profession. She had had no interest in agriculture, where her food came from, and the practices that went into growing healthy, safe food. During her stay, her Airbnb host happened to be a Black farmer, and inspired by their livelihood, Christa wanted to know more. Once she returned home to Philadelphia, her eyes were opened to the food disparities that plagued her community and Christa wanted to change that.
Guided by three pillars of health: environmental, social, and physical, Christa breathed life into FarmerJawn, a health care system that uses food as a catalyst for change. FarmerJawn is not just a farm, but a resource for awareness and education to the Philadelphia community. Adopting its namesake from the popular term, “jawn”, coined by Black Philadelphians, Christa strived to put the Philadelphia community first, and “eat for the next generation.” To Christa, it is essential that consumers know where their food comes from, and the practices employed to grow it. Just as environmental factors are important to Christa’s farming values, the social and physical pillars carry the same weight. Much of Christa’s education on nutrition and regenerative farming is supported by her background in healthcare. One of the main principles at FarmerJawn is that food is medicine, and that what people put in their body can directly affect their health, but also their genealogy. Through the educational resources at FarmerJawn, Christa generates awareness about how our food directly affects our health, and that what we eat can impact the health of the next generation.
Education and awareness are vital to Christa’s leadership at FarmerJawn. Prior to creating FarmerJawn, there was a severe lack of resources available to Philadelphians about chemical free and organic food. Christa wanted to provide community members with resources to educate them on these practices, and at FarmerJawn, Christa designed courses open to the public that teach those who are interested how to grow organic food right in their backyard, and she accompanies. These educational resources with awareness of regenerative farming practices. Christa emphasizes the importance of returning to one’s roots, remembering that the land occupied in Pennsylvania was originally Native land, lived on by the Lenape. In honoring the indigenous people who originally lived on this land, Christa believes in returning to the practices of the Lenape, allowing the land to grow organically as it once did before industrialization brought the use of chemicals into agriculture. Although this approach to farming may require more effort, the long-term effects on the health of the community outweigh the obstacles.
With FamerJawn’s awareness efforts, Christa also hopes to inspire people to think about the origins of their food, and the labor of the farmers who provide for our communities. This extends to not just food, but to clothing, beverages, and more. Even though a farmer may not have made these products, the ingredients to make them are produced by farmers.
“This is the age of collaboration. It’s not enough to just work on your own. I truly believe in collaborating because everyone has a different audience, and every audience deserves to understand the message that food is medicine, and that agriculture is the culture, “says Christa.
Collaboration is key to the success of FarmerJawn. However, finding community members both internally and externally to collaborate with FarmerJawn’s mission is not easy. Christa noted that she faced initial challenges finding a team who aspire to the same mission. This extends to Christa’s own leadership and her view of herself as a leader. She discusses the responsibilities bestowed upon herself when becoming an employer and stresses the importance of empowering your own employees and their livelihoods. Prioritizing the livelihood of her employees is essential to Christa’s leadership. As FarmerJawn grows, Christa’s leadership grows with it, as well as her mission to continue to improve her own leadership skills to better the experience of not just her employees, but her community.
And yet, these relationships in her community are her motivators. “The most rewarding aspect of my work is the conversations I get to have with people. I am very introverted to be quite honest with you. Most people think I am extroverted, and I can have the energy to be when I need to. I always say I love being able to interact with people when I see them out or if I’m having a meeting with someone and they’re happy with the work that we’ve done and accomplished so far. When I look at it, we’ve barely scratched the surface; there’s still so much work to do, but when I get to meet with people and they say, ‘I’m proud of you and thank you’, it puts the battery in my pack even more and adds an extra AA to go out and continue to be great. Even in the dark moments, I know my community is still with me and that they appreciate the work that I’m doing.”
This dedication to her community extends to her work in youth development and commitment to empowering the next generation. Reaching youth has grown to be an integral part of FarmerJawn’s mission. “We become so far removed from our food the older we get, but kids are the ones who can have the impact on their families’ food choices”, says Christa. Christa has partnered with local Philadelphia schools to give kids the opportunity to visit FarmerJawn’s headquarters, learn about healthy nutrition, and even career possibilities in agriculture. In doing so, school curriculums have also improved to include conversations about agriculture, normalizing these careers as notable professions. As a Black, female farmer, Christa is proud of her work and is continuing to bring agriculture into the conversation.
“I am a Philadelphian through and through. I’m a city kid, I was in Girl Scouts, went camping, but I never had that connection to the land growing up as I do now through FarmerJawn. What I love about being a Black woman in agriculture, and being the largest Black owned food grower in the state of Pennsylvania is being able to show people that they can do it too.”
Christa is challenging the current negative rhetoric surrounding agriculture and farming as a profession. “There is so much trauma and soil is certainly stigmatized. We’re trying to destigmatize soil. We’re trying to make it so that people are not traumatized by the experiences of our ancestors but are instead feel empowered”. By changing the rhetoric around farming, change will come about through education and the resources to take control of our food systems.
Six years after FarmerJawn’s conception, Christa continues to lead by the values of community, education, and awareness, but what keeps FarmerJawn’s impact alive is Christa’s commitment to her own development as a leader and entrepreneur. When discussing her own leadership journey, Christa remarked on a final testimony of her growth as a leader and lessons she has learned through this experience.
“Focus on leading yourself. Focus on finding out who you are, and what you would like to be, and that leader, whichever it will be, will be how you live your life”
Images courtesy of Christa Barfield.
Captured May 2024.