Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Richard Ii. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?
Our farm has brought a lot of love and joy to many people. Two instances of joy stick out to me the most.
One story is about 2 people who volunteered at the farm regularly. They were with us on our Jackson Ave and Clara St properties every at least once, but sometimes, twice a week. We all became fairly familiar with each other as we would chat about our lives while tackling tasks on the farm. Fast forward a year, and those 2 volunteers are dating. Fast forward another year or 2, and they are emailing me to see if they can get married at the farm, where their love began. They got married at the farm earlier this year. I was honored to be able to witness, film, and host their intimate ceremony with their friends.
Another moment that I think about often is when one of my co-worker’s friends, a social worker, told them they have clients that live next to and around our farm. Their client mentioned that they love having us in the neighborhood because we speak to them and acknowledge them. We have people from all walks of life living in our neighborhood, many of whom are experiencing housing insecurity. We treat everyone the same at our farm, and I am proud that my self and my team can be a bright spot in people’s lives.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a Native New Orleanian of Black and Native American descent. I grew up with a love of nature. My grandfather raised worms and grew peppers for his hot sauce business, and I loved helping him with both. My family was constantly fishing and crabbing. Almost every family member had a garden. I also had many pets, including some exotic birds for which we would also grow food. Being connected to nature was a big part of my upbringing, as was being of service to your community. My family has always been very civically engaged and active members of the community. They showed my brothers and me how much of an impact we can make on the lives of others. My family instilled in me that we should try to leave this Earth better than we found it, and that has been my life mission. I initially thought I could have that impact on the world by becoming a lawyer, learning the law, and fighting for a more just and equitable world by changing “the rules.” I grew up seeing how poorly designed and unfair many systems were, and I intended to fix these issues. I went to college with the goal of becoming a lawyer, but things did not go as planned. Halfway through my collegiate career, I switched my path from criminal justice to sociology. This swap led me down the path of a career in food and environmental justice. I was introduced to food systems, urban agriculture, regenerative agriculture, aquaponics, and food policy because of this change in major. I learned about the ways our food is produced and consumed. I learned about the ways food is used as art, currency, medicine, and fuel for humans and the other creatures around us. I also learned about how intertwined food is with politics and economics. I saw working with food as how I could make a long-lasting impact on the world. So I dove in head first. My first agricultural job was as an AmeriCorps member, serving as their Child Nutrition Education and Aquaponics manager at the local food bank. It was there that I was able to see firsthand the power of food. I continue that work to this day at Recirculating Farms. Although food is essential in many ways, many of us are very disconnected from our food.
I see every day how this work can build bridges that connect people to their food and reclaim their power. We help break down barriers to food access. We demystify food and agriculture by showing people where food comes from, how store-bought doesn’t taste as good as home-grown, and how easy food can be grown without harmful chemicals. We use food as a tool to connect people to their cultures through cooking classes, farm dinners, beds dedicated to growing foods from specific cultures, and acknowledging the wisdom of indigenous growing practices from around the world. We use regenerative agriculture practices to show how humans can work and connect with nature to heal our environment and ourselves. Our regenerative agriculture lessons are used to help rehabilitate polluted land and help rehabilitate military veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, and more. The green spaces we build with those regenerative practices become hubs for healing and connection, hosting cultural art experiences, hosting youth whose parents are incarcerated, and being a place for people to find community. We are a community-led organization, meaning we ask the community what they need and want and do our best to make it happen. Collaboration is at the heart of our work. We work with other community-focused organizations and stakeholders to create policy campaigns, professional development classes, food distribution systems, and more. We truly take a holistic approach to addressing the issues of food and environmental justice. This holistic approach is evident from the community fridge in front of our farm, the community beds people harvest from daily, our weekly produce box that is half off for those using food stamps, our community composting program that keeps food out of landfills, our food rescue program that takes bruised or “ugly” foods and turns them into products, the free fitness and art classes we host weekly, and the thousands of hours we spend connecting with people from around our city and the globe sharing our passion for a world healthy and equitable world.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I had a very interesting upbringing. I saw alot of good, but I also saw a lot of bad. I was raised by very kind, intelligent, strong, amazing parents, but they are human. Humans who had their own struggles growing up, and damage that they needed to heal from. My life has been filled with all sorts of trauma, from dealing with drug-addicted parents to fierce custody battles and all the drama that comes with feuding households. The stress of it all eventually started to wear on me, and I became very sick, which made me have to drop out of high school at the age of 16. Soon after dropping out and having to move because of our family’s financial decline, I earned my GED. I then went off to college. Getting into college has many extra barriers for a poor kid with a GED, but once again, I overcame them. While in college the family issues did not calm down, but got worse. On top of all of that I lost my partner of 6 years. I fell into a deep depression and I dropped out of school and moved back home. I was at my rock bottom, but urban agriculture was here to save me. I was determined to progress my education and career even with my unfinished degree. This is when I found my job at the local food bank and realized my calling into food and environmental justice work. Working with nature was healing me and I could see how it was healing others as well. My work was fulfilling and healing, it brought me peace, it brought me self worth, it brought me community, it helped me unlock my power. This led to me eventually finishing my bachelors, moving into a place of my own, getting a masters degree, and falling in love again.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
Growing up, I never thought that I would be a farmer, especially not in New Orleans. But I would 1000% choose this profession all over again. It has given me more than I could imagine. If I could change one thing, it would be that I would have gotten into this field sooner and would have sought out training and education in the environmental and food justice space. I especially would have connected more with elders in my family and community to learn about their practices and connections to food.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Recirculatingfarms.org
- Instagram: @recircfarms
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecirculatingFarmsCoalition/
- Twitter: https://x.com/RecircFarms
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@recirculatingfarms1916
