When Martice Scales first started getting into farming he didn’t set out to be a community activist.
“I can’t walk away from it,” Scales said. “I see it, therefore I can’t ignore it.”
8-years-ago Scales moved away from a job in IT to pursue farming with his wife Amy Kroll. Kroll said after the initial surprise wore off, she was on board, despite the naysayers.
“I wanted to be a farmer when I was younger, and everybody was kind of like poo pooed it,” she recalled. “They were like, 'there’s no money in farming and it’s exhausting.'”
Since then, the couple has grown their enterprise to manage 2.5 acres of farmland at the Mequon Nature Preserve through the Fondy Farm incubator program, but they have plans to go bigger.
The couple said they first tried to secure a loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through a first-time farmer program but were denied.
“We had a terrible experience,” Scales recounted. “It was a lot of lip service but no actual follow through.”
So, he said after seeing other Black farmers like himself struggle with land access, and community members going without fresh food, they felt the need to do more.
According to data from a Congressional Research Service report, between 1900 and 2017, Black farmers went from accounting for 13% of all farmers in the U.S. to 1.4%. Meanwhile, their White counterparts went from making up 87% to 96%.
To help change that, come spring, the couple is looking to purchase their own community farm that would operate as a non-profit. They'l keep their current name, Full Circle Healing.
Scales and Kroll's goal is to support other farmers by offering long-term leases and offering a 5-year new farmer training program that would include the businesses side of things.
“I think my family is just trying to do what we were hoping the USDA would’ve done,” Scales said.
It’s a project that will come with a huge price tag. The 35 acres of land they are currently eyeing will cost about $1 million. They're relying on grants, zero interest bridge loans, and donations.
Full Circle Healing Farm will be hosting a“farm-raiser” on Feb 17th to share their plans with the community and rally support. So far they’ve already gotten the attention of Brittany Koteles who serves as Director of Land Justice Futures.
Koteles said her group works with landowners looking to sell their property in a way that considers racial equity and environmental healing, so the couple’s plan is exactly the kind of project they want to get behind.
She also said Land Justice Futures will be supporting the project by providing access to lawyers, real estate and land trust experts to help Full Circle Healing create a solid structure from the start.
With the right support, Scales is hoping to make their community farm a blueprint for others to do the same so that the reality around Black land ownership will start to change.
“We’re trying to do it as big as we can,” Scales said. “I’m thinking about my grandbabies having a place that they know is theirs. That’s more powerful than the discontent that I have for the system.”
If things go as planned the couple wants to lock in a new property by spring, then spend the remainder of the year on renovations, hiring staff and prepping the land. Their goal is to welcome in tenants Spring 2025.
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