Kendall Rae Johnson is only six years old, but she’s already a trailblazer in her home state of Georgia.
Kendall Rae is not only the youngest certified farmer in Georgia but also the youngest Black farmer in the state.
According to her website, Kendall Rae fell in love with farming after watching her green-thumbed great-grandmother Laura “Kate” Williams. At age three, she was already planting seeds.
“She started to see it go from a seed, to a plant, and then die and come back. She saw the plant life cycle of that and was like, wow,” Kendall Rae’s mom, Ursula Johnson, told 11 Alive.
Helped by her mother, Kendall Rae founded aGROWKulture.
“She started out in a patio garden and the patio garden grew from a little bitty something to, by the time her fourth birthday came, we had a full-fledged garden in our backyard,” Ursula Johnson told Good Morning America. “And then we moved, and now she has a farm.”
At four, Kendall Rae had already grown growing zucchinis, carrots, okra, and strawberries.
Black farmers make up less than 2% of the country’s 3.4 million farmers, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture. There is currently an ongoing battle between Black farmers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and white farmers around providing federal relief loans to farmers of color.
Supporters can donate to Kendall Rae’s farm fund through the website or donate a food basket to the community.
Kendall Rae hopes other young. Black farmers will follow her lead.
