Q&A: The youngest certified farm in the nation, Kendall Rae Johnson, chats about practicing sustainability beyond Earth Month.
At just eight years old, Atlanta native Kendall Rae Johnson is the youngest certified farmer in the nation. With a title she earned at six, Kendall and her parents, Ursula and Quentin Johnson, have continued cultivating a community that thrives on sharing and teaching through their urban farm aGROWKulture.
Every April, Earth Month and Earth Day remind us of the importance of using sustainable practices to protect our environment. I got to chat with Kendall about how every day is essentially Earth Day and how people can practice eco-consciousness beyond April. I also got to tour the farm, teeming with various fresh fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs.
Laura Nwogu: What do we have here?
Kendall Rae Johnson: “Strawberries! It’s strawberry season, so there’s gonna be a lot of strawberries. But most of the time, I probably eat them by the bunch.”
LN: (Laughs) How long do strawberries usually take to grow?
KJ: “They don’t really take a while. But they do spread fast. You see this row right here? This row has runners in it. Runners come from the main strawberry. It’s like a stem that comes from the main plant, and on the other side of the stem, there’s a tiny strawberry.”
LN: Oh! That’s a nice one.
KJ: “Yes!
“Mostly, the best strawberries come from some of the taller plants. Here.”
LN: Thank you. Now, what does Earth Day mean to you?
KJ: “It means helping out the Earth with all kinds of problems that it might be having and helping the environment, which is helping the Earth.”
LN: I know aGROWKulture farm is all about sharing and community. How can people do that for themselves beyond Earth Day and Earth Month when it comes to making sure the earth is clean and sustainable?
KJ: “They can start their own farm. They can plant trees, and they can recycle. And something that can encourage other kids: keep growing.”
LN: Do you have any tips for starting a farm?
KJ: “You can make a raised bed or a row. And the easiest plant to plant is a tomato because they grow pretty fast, and no matter how deep it goes, they’ll still grow roots.”
LN: You had your second annual Earth Day Parade and Learning Fair last weekend, and the theme this year was “Plastic vs. Everyone.” What are ways people can make sure they’re being responsible with plastics?
KJ: They can keep it out of the ocean. They can keep it out of forests.
There’s a little bit of trash right now, so I picked it up and made it into a toy for my dogs.
Quentin Johnson: So, reusing in different ways, right?
KJ: Yeah!
LN: Can I see the toy, or are the dogs playing with it?
QJ: I threw it away (laughs).
KJ: I think those are some of my pumpkins, and there’s also some sunflowers. You can tell they’re sunflowers because the edges of the sunflower are kind of like a blade, and it’s in the shape of a shovel or a heart.
LN: I see. I’m learning so many new things today.
KJ: “Hmm, it seems like something’s been eating my plants. Ooh, there’s a big hole right there. This can only mean one thing: hornworms.
“It’s hornworm season. Hornworms will eat your plant in a whole night. That’s why we have to put down something that has a really really strong smell to keep them away.”
LN: What does a day on the farm look like for you?
KJ: “A day on the farm looks like a whole bunch of fun and a little bit of work. A lot of the times, me and my dog go running through here and all the way over there to check on the plants.”
LN: I didn’t know you guys had a bee nest. You make honey?
KJ: “Yeah. Sometimes our beekeeper Mr. Bill comes over here to check on the bees. It’s important that we can leave it there because that way the flowers that are there there can be pollinated.”
LN: And your great-grandmother gave you this land, right?
KJ: “So my great-grandmother gave my mom this land, and then my mom gave me this land.”
LN: As the youngest urban farmer in the nation, have you observed how she’s been able to move in the world compared to others who haven’t been exposed to this lifestyle?
KJ: “I don’t compare to anyone. I just know my stuff. I do it.”
Ursula Johnson: “This is a field that nobody wants to get into, so it’s like it was open for her. And it wasn’t something we were looking to put her in. It was just something that was already naturally in her that, as parents, we said, ‘OK, how do we support this to make her wherever she wants to be in it?’ And that’s our comparison. I think it has nothing to do with the child; it has to do with what the parents are willing to do with that kid’s talent to …”
LN: To help them grow.
UJ: “To help them grow, yeah.”
KJ: “I like how you said grow (laughs).”
LN: How important is it for people to know where their food comes from?
KJ: “If they don’t know where their food comes from, how are they gonna be a farmer if they want to be a farmer? It’s especially important for kids to know where your food comes from. That way, they’ll just think that food comes from the store, and they won’t actually know where food comes from.”
LN: And how does it feel when you look at everything you’ve been able to grow?
KJ: “I feel good, excited and happy all the time!”
This interview was edited for length and clarity.