Martha Ma

COMMUNITY-BASED FARM MANAGER

Martha was born and raised in Queens, NY and is currently the Farm Manager at the Bushwick Grows Community Farm, a permaculture farm and community education space that is an initiative managed by Riseboro Community Partnership. In this interview, she describes how COVID-19 has put food insecurity on the map, and how her community has responded by growing and distributing food locally. “In chaos, there is opportunity”, she says. Amidst the gravity of the crisis, she sees an opportunity for people to reconnect to the soil, to interrogate our relationship as humans to nature, and to make bold changes to the current laws and systems that produce massive social inequality. She also touches on how COVID-19 is intersecting with gentrification in her community, and her concerns and hopes for the future. This interview is part of the Nos Cuidamos oral history project, which is a collaboration between Cities For People, Not For Profit and the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project.