About

Feed the People Farms is a small natural farm and nursery growing heirloom and heritage foods using folk-ways and sustainable technologies. We grow a diverse selection of heirloom vegetables as well as pasture raised eggs. We are a union recognized company committed to preservation, stewardship, and justice.

Mission

Feed the People Farms’ mission is the support of environmental and economic justice through the preservation of heirloom and heritage foods and the stewardship of the land and folkways.

Vision

Feed the People Farms’ vision is a member supported co-operative farm and education center that grows a diverse selection of food and plants for local and regional markets and communities. Proceeds help fund labor & community organizing, prison labor outreach, ecological restoration, and education.

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The Methods

We use organic and ancestral methods of farming that has a heavy emphasis on building a healthy soil and stitching the farm into the native ecology. The farm is oxen powered, and uses chickens for fertility, weed control, and integrated pest management. We use manure, compost, mulch, cover crops, and crop rotation. Our oxen are grazed in rotation and help restore ecosystems by grazing back invasives, reducing fuel fire load, providing fertility and by pulling out felled trees and invasives.

Feed the People Farms is a member-managed LLC and an official union shop of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). We partner with AtPlanta, Atlanta Food Not Bombs, and the Atlanta IWW.

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The Farmer

“Georgia Slim” Brown — a 7th generation Appalachian — was born and raised in Atlanta and the surrounding Appalachian and Piedmont regions. Spending most of his young adult life as a factory worker and country and bluegrass musician in Atlanta, he began learning traditional skills of self-reliance from the Foxfire books in 2013, and a home garden the following spring. Since then, his journey continued, and in 2017 Slim received a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Regenerative Leadership Institute.

Since 2014, Slim has worked in the landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture industries. In 2016 and 2017, he oversaw and taught for the Help us Grow Program of Covenant House GA, producing seedlings for 20 community gardens, and managing 1,000 sqft of fruit and vegetable gardens for at-risk youth in Atlanta. In 2017, Slim started Feed the People Farms with help from Food Not Bombs. In December of 2018, the farm moved to Shackleford family land in Carroll County, and since then Slim has kept part-time agriculture jobs to keep the farm going.

The Funding

We feel it is just as important for people to know how their food production is being funded as it is for them to know how it is being produced. Our operation costs range around $20,000 annually (this includes housing and labor) and are paid for by our Farm-share members and sales, but we have received small amounts of capital funding over the span of our operation. Here is a list of all of our capital funding to date:

• February 2018 – $7000 start-up grant from Dixie Hightower, LLC (James Chambers)
• March 2019 – $3,000 grant from Pierce Delahunt
• March 2019 – $1,500 loan from the West Georgia Slow Money Club
• October 2020 – $2000 crowd-funded capital for our oxen team and trailer
• March 2022 – $3500 from the IWW Atlanta Branch Co-op Development Fund to start the IWW Flock Share