Over the past year, Chavis has helped launch the Jackson Ward Farmers Market and expanded delivery through the Black Farmer CSA. The 23rd annual Happily Natural Festival he founded takes place Aug. 29. (Photo by Jay Paul)
A Richmond-born farmer and food justice advocate, Duron Chavis has long championed community-based agriculture and food sovereignty. Recently, those efforts have begun to bear fruit: In May, a 60-acre property at Duran and New Market roads in Henrico County was transferred to the nonprofit Central Virginia Agrarian Community Land Trust, where Chavis serves as board chair. The project aims to address the historic, generational loss of Black-owned farmland in Virginia by creating new pathways to land access, including building housing for farmers and cultivating agri-communities.
Richmond magazine: Can you talk about this recent land acquisition?
Duron Chavis: About a year and a half ago, Parker Agelasto [of the Capital Region Land Conservancy] told me he wanted to donate land to our land trust and invited me out there. It was a conversation about the historical narrative connected to the property; it was a campground for the United States Colored Troops. We now have title to the 60 acres and plan on using it for farmers experiencing land tenure issues or beginning farmers who don’t have access to space. We are aspiring to put tiny homes on the property for folks that are farming to optimize their experience.
RM: Why is land access such an important issue when it comes to farming?
Chavis: Land access has always been an issue for our efforts. I see this transaction as part of that reclamation and part of that work that is so necessary for us to figure out ways to protect agricultural land and make sure that we have space to grow food [and] to make sure that folks that have been historically kept from access to land also have access.
RM: Given the strong interest at Runnymeade Community Farm in Varina, how many farmers do you hope to support through this new project?
Chavis: We got over 150 applications at Runnymeade; people were applying that weren’t even from the Richmond region. There are about 24 farmers at the Runnymeade location, so that gives me a sense of what is going to happen once we open the Duran Road property. We imagine people will have at least an acre of land, and maybe about a dozen or so farmers will have an opportunity to have a low-cost or no-cost lease.
RM: What does the overwhelming response from applicants signal?
Chavis: It speaks to this moment, this zeitgeist, where we’re seeing people want to get into farm work. There are a lot of conversations about older farmers aging out, but there’s a whole generation of 20-somethings, 30-somethings that want to farm, get into ag as a vocation, but are like, “How do I do it?” When we start talking about sharing land through the community land trust, we’re filling a gap.
RM: How do you stay optimistic and moving forward?
Chavis: I enjoy teaching, mentorship and sharing space. There’s a long arc to this thing. When I first started, we were building a community garden with dreams of building neighborhoods connected to farms and resilient local food systems. Every time we train folks, there’s a possibility, and giving people the resources they need is deeply fulfilling. I get to play in the dirt every day and share space with people young and old who want to improve the health of our community. It’s deeper than a job for me — it’s my life. We’re building a new world; that’s kind of fate, that’s my meditation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
