Agraria_Journal_Summer_2022

AGRARIA JOURNAL 2022 33 AMY HARPER Fellows started seeds in Agraria’s hoophouse in preparation for planting in the George Washington Carver Demonstration Farm. PHOTOS BY DENNIE EAGLESON Fellows learned how to drive a tractor and use a chainsaw as part of their training. Shown here are Brie Jeffrey on the tractor and Anita Armstead on the chainsaw with Agraria Facilities Director Matt Salazar. Gregory Muhammad might have been unfamiliar with regenerative agricultural practices before joining the 2022 cohort of Agraria’s Regenerative Farmer Fellowship. But he knew all about regeneration, for that has been the focus of much of his life’s work. As a home improvement contractor for 40 years, he has regenerated and maintained everything from homes to apartment complexes. But his passion throughout his life has been helping improve the lives of young people. As a teen, he worked with kids in various youth programs in Dayton and, at the age of 46, decided to return to school to pursue a degree in early childhood and elementary school education, from Alabama State University. After returning to Dayton, he taught in Dayton Public Schools and worked as an intervention tutor in Northridge Schools. Those experiences prompted him to start his own daycare program for preschoolers to “do readiness for kids before they get to school.” He no longer operates that program but has continued to work with and mentor youth in the neighborhood. Now he is taking his commitment to youth to another level. He’s regenerating a 4 1/2-acre piece of property in West Dayton that he purchased 10 years ago and giving it new life as the Oasis Agricultural Center. What began as a community garden is now a farm, complete with a USDA-funded hoophouse. He also plans to transform an old apartment building on the site into an agricultural learning center with an aquaponics room, a kitchen, and classroom space for educational programming and tutoring for neighborhood youth. “Most of the kids I’m working with are in a war zone out there,” he said, referring to the rough neighborhoods he served as a teacher and mentor in Dayton. “They need to get out of the war zone and get in touch with what’s real. You can get a certain calmness from working with the earth.” What he hopes to instill in the kids he works with is self-improvement. “That is the basis for community development,” he said, echoing a core tenet of the Nation of Islam. Gregory came to the Regenerative Farmer Fellowship through his participation in Central State University’s beginning farmer program at Edgemont Solar Garden in Dayton. He appreciates learning from and with his Fellows in the cohort as well as the opportunities the Fellowship offers to connect with resources that will help him realize his goals as an advocate for youth and his community. “It’s getting serious out there,” he said. “When crisis hits, a lot people are going to suffer if we don’t start doing something now” to prepare. “It’s all about resilience.” Regenerating Land and Community BY AMY HARPER AMY HARPER Gregory Muhammad