August 13, 2024
Thom Carroll/For PhillyVoice
Christa Barfield, the founder of Farmer Jawn, says a staffer found a swastika spray-painted on the floor of the farm's West Chester barn on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Police are investigating.
A vandal spray painted a large swastika on a barn floor at Farmer Jawn, the 123-acre farm in West Chester, farm workers and local police said.
Christa Barfield, the farm's founder, said her livestock manager discovered the antisemitic symbol on the property at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, and Westtown-East Goshen police were dispatched to the scene at 1023 Westtown Road two days later. Their investigation is still ongoing.
Barfield said in an Instagram post that this was the "second hate crime against Farmer Jawn this year." She did not immediately clarify the nature of the first, but told CBS Philadelphia that someone wrote racial slurs on the same barn's walls in May.
"This hateful symbol has no place in our world, and we are deeply saddened that such an act has taken place at our farm again—a place where we strive to grow love, unity, and respect regeneratively and organically," she wrote. "We cannot and will not allow hate to take root here. Our team, made up of amazing people from diverse backgrounds, deserves to feel safe and respected. We’re taking immediate action to stand against this hate alongside key partners and community members."
Barfield said the farm will launch a community campaign through yard signs reading, "Only Love Grows at Farmer Jawn." The farm also will host a special pop-up event on Saturday, Aug. 24, for a day of "community, education and solidarity."
Farmer Jawn began leasing the West Chester land from Westtown School, a Quaker co-educational day and boarding school, in 2023. Prior to that partnership, the venture mainly operated out of Elkins Park — though its genesis was Barfield's backyard garden in Germantown.
Farmer Jawn offers a community-supported agriculture program and sells produce at a farm market, also on the school's grounds. Billed as the largest Black woman-owned, regenerative, organic produce farm in America, its mission to provide organic food to underserved communities has attracted much attention and acclaim; Barfield took home a James Beard Award for emerging leadership earlier this year.
Westtown-East Goshen police declined to further comment on the incident.
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