Welcome to Our Story: Why EightFold Farms DC Established DC's First Commercial Urban Mushroom Farm To Fight Food Apartheid

Protester during 2017 Grocery Walk in SE Washington, DC

In the spring of 2017, while studying for the Advanced Sommelier exam, I moved into my home in the Barry Farm

neighborhood of Southeast DC. It didn’t take long before I began to feel frustrated by the lack of restaurant options and how far I had to travel just to do my grocery shopping—over four miles to the nearest store! This led me to a simple but important thought: Why don’t we have more accessible, healthy food options in our neighborhood?

Food Options on MLK Ave. In 2017 there were three grocery stores to feed over 140,000 residents of Wards 7 & 8.

What started as an idea for a grocery store soon grew into a deep dive into the realities of food apartheid and the policies that created them, especially in DC's Wards 7 and 8. These neighborhoods, home to thousands of residents, have long struggled with limited access to fresh, affordable food. The USDA defines food deserts as areas lacking access to fresh produce and healthy whole foods, often due to a scarcity of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and other food providers. After some research, I learned that Ward 7, with a population of over 70,000, had only two full-service grocery stores in 2016. Meanwhile, Ward 8, which serves more than 78,000 residents, had just one.

As I dug deeper into the historical roots of these disparities, I discovered a pattern of policies that had systematically caused Black migration east of the Anacostia River, stripping away opportunities for economic mobility. These policies, including redlining, urban renewal, and other racially motivated decisions, created a foundation for the inequality we see today.

Realizing that opening a grocery store wouldn’t fully address these deeply rooted issues, I shifted my focus to finding a solution that could make a real difference. That’s when I stumbled upon Cuba’s response to their economic depression during the “Special Period” from 1991 to 2000. Amid food scarcity, Cuba turned to urban agriculture to boost food production, creating thousands of urban farms and jobs. This gave me the idea that urban farming could be the key to addressing the issues in my own neighborhood.

Community, by definition, is a place where people live with mutual understanding, shared interests, direction, and plans. For a community to thrive, there are three essential elements: (1) an independent economic structure, (2) codes of conduct, and (3) political representation. These components allow people to compete fairly economically and politically, leading to a culture rooted in trust, cooperation, and accountability. Food apartheid in Washington, DC are a direct result of systemic racism, which has created socioeconomic disparities that have, unfortunately, devastated Black communities. I believe that commercial urban agriculture can help rebuild these communities by improving social capital, stimulating the local economy, and promoting group economics through job creation, resources, products, goods, and services.

Our first delivery to The People's Market in 2024!

In my search for inspiration, I found incredible stories of mushroom farming initiatives that have turned food insecurity into a source of hope and economic opportunity in places like Rwanda, Nepal, and Zimbabwe. For example, in Rwanda, Kigali Farms trains local farmers to grow mushrooms and provides a buy-back program, creating jobs and supporting local agriculture. Similarly, PHASE Worldwide in Nepal has helped thousands of farmers, especially women, build sustainable farm businesses to combat malnutrition. In Zimbabwe, The Future of Hope Foundation has trained hundreds of farmers and partnered with supermarkets to sell mushrooms grown by local communities.

These stories of success inspired me to explore mushroom farming as a way to create both nutrition and economic opportunity in my own neighborhood. Just as wine grapes require specific conditions to thrive, mushrooms also have unique growing needs, making them a perfect crop for small-scale, year-round production. After attending a workshop led by Willie Crosby from Fungi Ally and researching methods for cultivating mushrooms in shipping containers, I realized this could be a sustainable, profitable model for urban farming in Southeast DC. The icing on the cake? I could power the farm using solar energy and rain barrels, further reducing costs and ensuring sustainability.

So, with a clear vision and an understanding of the research around urban agriculture’s potential, I set out to create a farm that would not only provide fresh, healthy food but also create jobs and stimulate economic growth in one of the most underserved areas of the city.

This is just the beginning, but it’s a journey I’m excited to be on. Through this blog, I hope to share more about the farm, the impact of urban agriculture, and the steps we’re taking to bring healthy, local food to our community. Thank you for joining us as we work toward building a better, more sustainable future!