Quick brainstorm session: what should we do about all black towns in the south that are dying? How do we boost the economy? What do we sell?

[Amerikan Melanin]

My cousin and I were talking. We have have roots in a small town in western Alabama that is dead. shyt looks like the set of the walking dead. Houses falling down, dogs running around, no businesses except dollar general, massive poverty.

Town is 80% black. Black churches don’t do shyt for the people. I think there are less than 800 people left now cause everyone leaves as soon as they can drive.

Here is my idea, hopefully someone reads this and runs with it, if I can’t implement it.

Black Owned Farm to Table Business:

I eat at a lot of restaurants that pride themselves in farm to table food. Meaning picked fresh off the farm, brought to the restaurants prepared and put ln your plate.

Alabama and Mississippi have fertile soil. Land is cheap. There is no industry.

It could be as simple as starting with collard greens and watermelons, chickens.

Truck driving jobs.
Labor.
Administrative jobs.

How many soul food spots across the country get their ingredients from CACs?

Black farmed, black raised, black harvested, black distributed, black prepared and black cooked.

What y’all think??

 

[Savvir]

How would the price of the produce compare to the rest of the market?

Obviously you can’t undercut the large commercial farming products… so then you’re asking for restaurants/people to pay more for food in 2025?

 

[The Fade]

this talks about Alabama a little. And theres a video that goes with it if i can find it:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Gotta nurture the youth to be Merchant minded too. Gotta nurture talent outside of entertainment

 

[Amerikan Melanin]

How would the price of the produce compare to the rest of the market?

Obviously you can’t undercut the large commercial farming products… so then you’re asking for restaurants/people to pay more for food in 2025?

That’s why I am saying Farm to Table. This wouldn’t be for every restaurant only special ones.

There are restaurants that pay more for butter cause it’s from certain farms.

In my area there is a farm that raised special chickens for the restaurants out here, you pay more because they are organic free range etc.

 

[Jimmy from Linkedin]

the farmer only gets ~37c off of every dollar of every piece of produce sold. by making that into value-added production they are able to secure another ~18c to bring it closer to 60c of every dollar. Outside of that you are killed by distribution.

imo getting a bunch of bees and turning that honey into artisanal vinegars is the wave, locally selling the various flowers and seeds from the crops that come out of that. $20/6oz is not bad

restaurants and especially farms are RAZOR thin margins. an old joke is:

"How do you make a million dollars farming? ....start with two million."

another,

"hey man i heard you just won the lotto! 10m! what are you going to do with all that money?
"farm until there's none left."

unfortunately the way that the farmer in this country makes money is purely through land speculation. the farmers speculation is subsidized through corn for beef and ethanol, or soybeans for pigs and for other countries, and crop insurance, and his grandkids are paid to turn it into Last-Name Farms Housing Subdivision.

If the local economy is dead, only governmental intervention can bring the people back. the government considers the area a zone of opportunity which is still a bullshyt way to bring investment but that's what it is, one what of what it is at least.

other people have tried the agri-tourist / agri-BnB idea but golly. you better own the land and the house and it better be up to date. and you've got to make it a winery and have someone sacrifice themselves to the country clubs and to become a sommelier and get their shyt so prim-and-proper that it is undetectable that they are being sponsored by you for black power. they should already have mixed-kids to complete the cipher. and that is just one marketing person.

even with my vinegar idea above, only works if you have a guaranteed "up-market" market and obviously low supply costs.

if you can convince the people out there to start moonshining and turning that then into biofuel, or growing sunflower/safflower/canola en masse and making bio-diesel, STILL thats rough and requires a lot of investment.

OTOH, if you manage to have some extremely handy and auto-didactic people you could set up some construction-tourism where you have rammed-earth and lime-plaster workshops. Check out what cacs do with this: they get people to pay them to build a house, then they get people to pay for "workshops" where the participants pay to learn the techniques to build the house that YOU are getting paid to build. amazing.


you've gotta have a significantly compelling reason that brings engineers from huntsville up there to spend like $1000 a day there.

getting a james beard award is the level that your restaurant needs to be on and that needs significant input and the reliably BEST meats, produce, and chefs, looking at probably burning a million dollars for 3 years. Even still, the best restaurants CANNOT survive local-austerity.

not trying to shyt on your idea, just prompting you to think much bigger.

 

[#BOTHSIDES]

-Lumber
-Become a hub for tech and data centers (not sure if there are natural disasters there)
Is there a port?
Tree nursery I think it’s called where they farm trees
-coast could become a beach town
-could become university towns
-trade schools could open there like Tuskegee if it has the roads and infrastructure
-railroad
-manufacturing (cars/machinery, etc)

 

[#BOTHSIDES]

this talks about Alabama a little. And theres a video that goes with it if i can find it:

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Gotta nurture the youth to be Merchant minded too. Gotta nurture talent outside of entertainment

Could become like an Art Basel type of spot

Energy
Institutions

 

[Amerikan Melanin]

the farmer only gets ~37c off of every dollar of every piece of produce sold. by making that into value-added production they are able to secure another ~18c to bring it closer to 60c of every dollar. Outside of that you are killed by distribution.

imo getting a bunch of bees and turning that honey into artisanal vinegars is the wave, locally selling the various flowers and seeds from the crops that come out of that. $20/6oz is not bad

restaurants and especially farms are RAZOR thin margins. an old joke is:

"How do you make a million dollars farming? ....start with two million."

another,

"hey man i heard you just won the lotto! 10m! what are you going to do with all that money?
"farm until there's none left."

unfortunately the way that the farmer in this country makes money is purely through land speculation. the farmers speculation is subsidized through corn for beef and ethanol, or soybeans for pigs and for other countries, and crop insurance, and his grandkids are paid to turn it into Last-Name Farms Housing Subdivision.

If the local economy is dead, only governmental intervention can bring the people back. the government considers the area a zone of opportunity which is still a bullshyt way to bring investment but that's what it is, one what of what it is at least.

other people have tried the agri-tourist / agri-BnB idea but golly. you better own the land and the house and it better be up to date. and you've got to make it a winery and have someone sacrifice themselves to the country clubs and to become a sommelier and get their shyt so prim-and-proper that it is undetectable that they are being sponsored by you for black power. they should already have mixed-kids to complete the cipher. and that is just one marketing person.

even with my vinegar idea above, only works if you have a guaranteed "up-market" market and obviously low supply costs.

if you can convince the people out there to start moonshining and turning that then into biofuel, or growing sunflower/safflower/canola en masse and making bio-diesel, STILL thats rough and requires a lot of investment.

OTOH, if you manage to have some extremely handy and auto-didactic people you could set up some construction-tourism where you have rammed-earth and lime-plaster workshops. Check out what cacs do with this: they get people to pay them to build a house, then they get people to pay for "workshops" where the participants pay to learn the techniques to build the house that YOU are getting paid to build. amazing.


you've gotta have a significantly compelling reason that brings engineers from huntsville up there to spend like $1000 a day there.

getting a james beard award is the level that your restaurant needs to be on and that needs significant input and the reliably BEST meats, produce, and chefs, looking at probably burning a million dollars for 3 years. Even still, the best restaurants CANNOT survive local-austerity.

not trying to shyt on your idea, just prompting you to think much bigger.

Great feedback, honey isn’t a bad idea at all.

 

[DJSmooth]

Nothing. Move to a city with more economic opportunities and stop living in poverty.

 

[ItsPeople]

Become black Amish.

 

[7th Letter Specialist]

Yall should just come over here to Cali so we can run everyone else out.

 

[Art Barr]

That shyt dead.

You would need to find some corporation. Willing to create an entire socio eco system in that town.
That when said corporation pr's expansion. That other groups and corporations. who csn be pitched using the pr. Come aboard and try to build infrastructure and business in thr same area.

Other than that. The shyt dead.


Art Barr

 

[5thbornpowerseed]

My cousin and I were talking. We have have roots in a small town in western Alabama that is dead. shyt looks like the set of the walking dead. Houses falling down, dogs running around, no businesses except dollar general, massive poverty.

Town is 80% black. Black churches don’t do shyt for the people. I think there are less than 800 people left now cause everyone leaves as soon as they can drive.

Here is my idea, hopefully someone reads this and runs with it, if I can’t implement it.

Black Owned Farm to Table Business:

I eat at a lot of restaurants that pride themselves in farm to table food. Meaning picked fresh off the farm, brought to the restaurants prepared and put ln your plate.

Alabama and Mississippi have fertile soil. Land is cheap. There is no industry.

It could be as simple as starting with collard greens and watermelons, chickens.

Truck driving jobs.
Labor.
Administrative jobs.

How many soul food spots across the country get their ingredients from CACs?

Black farmed, black raised, black harvested, black distributed, black prepared and black cooked.

What y’all think??

I think you are on to something.
I also think the only way for something like this to work is to establish best practices through trail and error.
The only way to know if something like this is doable is to actually do it.

 

[HarlemHottie]

My cousin and I were talking. We have have roots in a small town in western Alabama that is dead. shyt looks like the set of the walking dead. Houses falling down, dogs running around, no businesses except dollar general, massive poverty.

I didn't know this was going on. Yall should publicize, black Americans gentrified out of cities might choose to buy there.

We'd be willing to buy. Like my SC born and raised grandma used to say, 'It's a poor mouse that only got one hole [in which to hide, you jbo deviants ].'

 

[Savvir]

That’s why I am saying Farm to Table. This wouldn’t be for every restaurant only special ones.

There are restaurants that pay more for butter cause it’s from certain farms.

In my area there is a farm that raised special chickens for the restaurants out here, you pay more because they are organic free range etc.

what is the maximum distance that a restaurant can be from the farm for this business model to work?