Tameka Peoples of Seed2Shirt on rebuilding equitable + just cotton systems & fostering the reclamation of cotton acreage for Black farmers

<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">In episode 306, Kestrel welcomes Tameka Peoples, the founder and CEO of Seed2Shirt, to the show. A Black-woman-owned vertically integrated ethical apparel production & boutique cotton merchant firm, <a href= "https://seed2shirt.com/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener">Seed2Shirt</a> is focused on rebuilding equitable systems and institutions.</p> <p><strong>“You’re seeing laws put into place like the 1862 Homestead Act where there were millions of acres of land just given to white families. And Black people were at the same time, being burned out of their communities. What I mean by that is — there’s elements to this thing that we call fashion — that’s connected to raw commodity that’s connected to land that is a part of the blood, sweat and tears that Black people have put and poured into this economy and poured into this country.” -Tameka</strong></p> <p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">When we look back at agriculture in the United States, a lot of the origins of farming in this country were built on an extractive, harmful, and extremely damaging history. So much was stolen and stripped – from lives to land to livelihoods. </p> <p class="">We don’t talk enough in the fashion industry about its true origins – about who helped build the cotton industry – a textile that has been deemed and marketed as: *the fabric of our lives*. </p> <p class="">From 1765 to 1861, during the years of Chattel Slavery, $528 billion dollars worth of cotton were farmed – mind you, this happened with the use of enslaved labor.</p> <p class="">Fast forward through layers and layers of other significant historical moments to where we are today. While the cotton industry in the United States was literally grown by Black folks, today – the numbers say there are less than 1% Black Cotton Farmers.</p> <p class="">This week’s guest understands so much depth of this history – and when she discovered she couldn’t buy a t-shirt made by Black folks using cotton farmed by Black folks, she decided she had to make one