A New Book Honors Black Contributions to American Agriculture

A version of American history is hiding in plain sight on your grocery store shelves, in a can of Coke or a bottle of vanilla extract. Coca-Cola’s flavor traces to the African kola nut. Vanilla became a commodity thanks in part to the ingenuity of a Black man of African descent. Rice and indigo, two cash crops that formed America’s economic foundation, also connect to Africa. But these contributions to American agriculture have been largely overlooked, if not deliberately written out of history. Michael Carter Jr.’s debut book puts them back in.

“Africulture: How the Principles, Practices, Plants, and People of African Descent Have Shaped American Agriculture” draws from Carter’s deep well of knowledge. As an eleventh-generation farmer, he grows African and other warm-season crops organically on his family’s 116-year-old farm in Orange County, Virginia. That land is also home base for his nonprofit, Africulture, where he supports other farmers to “increase their yields, markets and sustainability” and teaches the principles now outlined in his book. He has also worked as an agronomist and organic agricultural consultant in Ghana, Kenya and Israel.