Conversations with Maurice Person

Hi Maurice, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born in rural Kansas. My Grandfather, Joe Person, grew up as a sharecropper and settled there when he returned home from WWII. He soon had 11 children and about 30 grandchildren. I was one of the oldest of those grandchildren and it wasn’t uncommon for families to have a big garden in their backyard. I would always be outside helping my grandfather plant rows and make the trellises straight. I didn’t mind weeding and loved playing in the dirt(soil).  My grandmother was always in the garden with us, or we would be in her front yard planting flowers, trimming hedges or doing small landscaping work.

After about 30 years, I started growing peppers and heirloom tomatoes. I would make a salsa relish that I would give to friends during the holidays. One year my tomatoes got really huge but they never turned red. I realized that the reason was because I wasn’t rotating my crops, and the nutrients in the soil were depleted. I started to do research on how to amend my soil, how to retain water, and keep my soil nutritious. One study led to another growing method called wicking beds. I came across aquaponics when I was looking for plastics that hold up in the sun and don’t leak harmful petroleum-based chemicals.

Aquaponics is a growing system that uses water and the “effluents,” from the fish molting, the fish food, and/or the fish waste process. Aquaculture, like fish or shrimp, “waste” provides the same nutrients that you would find in animal bi-products like chicken manure or bat guano which are also commonly used in organic food production. Fish are cold-blooded, so no there is no threat of e-coli. When I discovered that food could be grown without soil, I was excited and then frustrated. I felt that everyone should know about this growing system. I decided that I would try.

I was inspired by my grandfather who was a serial entrepreneur. He grew Black enterprise in the city through his relationships and business acumen and my family members developed business establishments throughout the city. In 2013, while I was living in the city, married and the parent of two, I started my first business, the first official indoor farm in Kansas City, Missouri. It was in a prime location on contested land. In addition to the aquaponics system, we had an art gallery, and a small produce stand. We also ran a Community Supported Agriculture program and connected with another farmer to sell his produce. We were doing a lot, and were not prepared for the cost that became associated with pumping water 24-7 and running high-temperature lights. We closed after nine months.

I dusted myself off, picked myself up, and I did more research. I believed aquaponics could work with a different approach. In 2017, I started a business called Kansas City Aquaponics. Our focus was to teach people how to apply aquaponics on a small scale, starting with a minimal budget, and then grow from there. We would concentrate on the biology of the water for optimal food production before trying to grow fish as a protein source.

I connected with East H.S. in Kansas City, Missouri. East HS is one of the biggest high schools in the state of Missouri. The school was started as an agriculture school in 1965 and now hosts about 800 students. Over 75% of the students are foreign language speakers, with just over 40 different dialects being spoken. The biodiversity was amazingly beautiful. Working with teachers Mr. Killen, who taught Algebra, and Mr. McCullough, who taught biology; we created an after school program for about 40 students.

The next year the teachers were given permission from the district to create curriculum and reboot the agriculture program. I had attended a Black Urban Growers conference in Atlanta and fell in love with the city; having never lived anywhere else in my life, I wanted to move. However, the teachers asked me to consider staying in Kansas City for the 2018-2019 school year. So I did. East H.S. happened to be the recipient of a $4-million dollar school improvement grant, so we used some of the money to help create infrastructure on the land. We had about 180 students enrolled, and the teachers created an animal and plant pathology curriculum.

A farm agent from Lincoln University, an agricultural HBCU sat down with me and helped create a schedule to rotate the crops that we planted with the school. I was able to run my business selling produce to restaurants out of one of the three greenhouses. My relationship with the teachers and students blossomed as I would share information with students about the aquaponic system, including the fish I was breeding and raising. I helped them plant and farm in their raised beds, and bought some of the produce that the students planted and grew themselves for my local CSA. By May, the students were finished with school and ready for the summer, so we hired some students as interns to help us manage the farm during the summer.

After we grew about 10,000 lbs of produce, I made a “Black History Month” post about it. Bragging on myself. I really didn’t think anything of it until it went viral. The post got about 20K views and 13k shares. I had people all over the world asking me to come teach them how to farm. Liberia, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Vegas, Virginia, Detroit and so many more. It felt like I could go any direction. Lots of phone calls and discussions, leads and doors being opened, but nothing really landed until after school was out.

I was contacted by an organization called Community Movement Builders, who brought me to Atlanta to build an aquaponics system for them in 2018. The organization is a member-based collective of Black grassroots organizers that create sustainable, self-determined communities. CMB fights gentrification using collective, community organizing, and cooperative economic strategies.

After building the aquaponics system, I had a longer discussion with Kamau Franklin, the founder of CMB, and we found that our visions and mission were in alignment. In 2019, I moved to Atlanta to become the Food Sustainability Coordinator for CMB. I help steward for the community garden next to the organization’s headquarters, as well as plan workshops around food sustainability, foraging, growing mushrooms, keeping bees, raising chickens, building raised beds, making compost and of course aquaponics. I am a volunteer for CMB, which is a nonprofit, so I still maintain a role in my community as a small business owner. I give consultations on earth and land stewardship, Afroagrarian ecology, and installing aquaponics systems.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Closing my business nine months after opening was no fun. However, once I was able to see where I made my mistakes and start over, it was adventurous and fun again. One struggle I personally had in KC was getting support for what I was trying to do. I had to realize that friends and family can’t always be fans and clients, even if they are trying their best to.  It’s also important to rest and not stress over things you can’t manage or are out of your control. Moving away from my daughter was also really hard. She is with her mother in Kansas City, I talk to her frequently, but the Facetimes are not the same as a physical connection. The pandemic hasn’t made it any easier.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I’m really proud to be a part of Black growers who are reclaiming our roots. I am really quick at picking up information and can identify over 300 different plant species. I helped start an herb garden at one of the nation’s only Black-run and -owned Prenatal Doula and Midwife training facilities. Uzazi Village in Kansas City uses the herb bed to grow medicinal herbs for the clinic. I am featured in a documentary that was produced by an indigenous Inuit woman’s company. The name of the documentary is called “Food For the Rest of Us!” and there will be an online screening the second week of February. I’m proud that my Grandfather and Grandmother taught me that I can do anything. I recently built a greenhouse using old window frames. No plans or designs, just built it.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Find a good and solid support system, not one that will enable you. One that will hold you accountable, but will also hold you. Also, find time for other passions, for me, that is music and soccer. Finally, don’t be afraid to use your business or platform to be an agent of change. A lot of people are being critical of people who seem “woke,” and I grew up in an era where you were called an “Uncle Tom” or a “sellout” for being smart. If there is any “agenda” at all, I believe it’s to keep our best and brightest young Black girls and boys dumbed down with misinformation. I want to help change that.

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