For more than 6 years, Earth-Bound Building has created functional, durable, and affordable homes and farm infrastructure for rural landowners and farmers in Southern Maryland. As a Black-owned cooperative, they are also building a new kind of economy that’s rooted in sharing resources, supporting one another, providing fair and equal pay, and working in harmony with the land.
Earth-Bound understands that nourishing communities is about so much more than food. Ecological farm infrastructure is at the heart of a just and thriving food system.
Since 2014, Earth-Bound Building has been using their love of the land and deep respect of the natural world to guide their mission and practice. They focus on low-impact logging to mitigate the effects of climate change, create flourishing habitats for wildlife, and provide a steady supply of renewable building materials. All while giving small-scale farmers the infrastructure they need to thrive.
Education is also central to Earth-Bound Building’s mission. Through their apprenticeship programs, they train people of color to become craftspeople, equipping them with concrete skills that are in high demand in the region. As a collection of skilled craftspeople, Earth-Bound works with their communities to:
- Build ecological and functional farm infrastructure
- Design and construct natural homes and buildings
- Provide low-impact logging and custom milling for small-scale farms
- Offer inclusive educational opportunities through courses, workshops, and encounters
- Practice holistic ecological land and forest restoration strategies and solutions
Across the country, communities of color are hardest hit by hunger, poverty, unemployment, and other deep social inequities. Earth-Bound’s work is so vital because it puts the power to nourish and care for Black communities in their very own hands—training, employing, and equipping them to create sustainable lives and livelihoods. In a country haunted by echoes of slavery, it can be both healing and liberating for Black people to own their labor, work the land, and grow food for their families and communities.
To support their mission, Earth-Bound Building has launched The Earth-Bound Sovereignty campaign, a three-month fundraising drive to build a permanent home for their cooperative, purchase equipment, and expand their volunteer brigades and educational programs. They’ve raised nearly $90,000 of their $200,000 goal and are still collecting donations.
Join WhyHunger in supporting Earth-Bound Building’s work to create sustainable farms and homes and meaningful livelihoods for their community. You can donate to their Earth-Bound Sovereignty campaign through October 31.
To learn more, visit earthboundbuilding.com.
