Highlighting Women in Agriculture: S.U. AG Center Campus Market

Consistent with many fields of interest, Black women are largely underrepresented in both agriculture and successful entrepreneurship.
Black women continue to start businesses at higher rates than others, but due to various factors including race, gender, personal resources, and distribution of government resources influence their ability to maintain their businesses and experience longevity. L’Asia George is making strides to alter both discouraging statistics by introducing the Campus Market to Southern University.
Southern University’s third Campus Market featured products from women farmers such as chicken feet and hearts to spicy cracklings and pecan candy. After receiving the opportunity to partner with the Louisiana Department of Health with their initiative to bring free, fresh produce into the black community, the Campus Market was born. L’ Asia found it important to give exposure to student entrepreneurs so they can gain a foundation and take advantage of the resources an HBCU can provide.
“My purpose in hosting this event is to bring entrepreneurship back into this area along with also providing healthy food given different options to people in this community supporting students and local farmers,” she explained.
George shared why giving women in agriculture support was important to her explaining, “It’s a small number of women in agriculture. Most of the time when you think of agriculture you think of a man working in the field with farm animals, but its women, women support the business. Especially the farmers who are married, the wives are the ones doing the finances, putting things together behind the scenes and I want them to get a space to shine, show their faces and contributions.”
Michelle Muse of Muse 3 Farm, a vendor at the Campus Market, shared her family’s story and detailed the excitement and challenges of starting a farm. After retiring from their corporate jobs her husband and his brother decided to return to their hometown here in Baton Rouge with their families. With the knowledge of the food desert North Baton Rouge residents are facing, they came with the hopes to give back to the community. Partnering with Sothern’s agriculture department, the Muses continue to reeducate themselves on the fundamentals of farming, while Mrs. Muse continues to explore this new realm from ground zero with no former experience in agriculture. Her story of tenacity and bravery in venturing into a new path can be an encouragement to other women.
“It would let other women see what we are doing, and it would empower them. And they’ll say, ‘Ok I probably could put a garden in my backyard’, or ‘I can dig a hole and put a seed in it’ or ‘If this lady is standing out here selling her goods, I can do the same thing” she expressed when asked how her interesting story filled with new beginnings can influence others.
Some of the next generations of Black women in agriculture are currently being cultivated at Southern University. Kennedy Hughes, a sophomore pre-veterinary major, entered the major impulsively, without much prior knowledge of this discipline. She described the events the department has, that keep students engaged and continuously learning about different concentrations, as what has kept her in the major.
“They give women a lot of opportunities to branch out in their fields, they offer a lot of work-study and experience the ag farm at the back of campus. They offer internships and make sure you apply for them even if they aren’t necessarily your field of interest.” This describes her account of the support she has been given as a Black woman currently studying agriculture.