by Dr. Ridgely Abdul Mu’min Muhammad

• 1. Recognize the necessity for unity and group operation (activities).

• 2. Pool your resources, physically as well as financially.

• 3. Stop wanton criticisms of everything that is black-owned and black-operated.

• 4. Keep in mind — jealousy destroys from within.

• 5. Observe the operations of the white man. He is successful. He makes no excuses for his
failures. He works hard in a collective manner. You do the same. (Message to the Black
Man in America: Elijah Muhammad)

 

This year Almighty God (Allah) has blessed us with beautiful crops of produce and fields of
wheat. Over the last 30 days we have logged 10,000 miles in travel, delivering sweet corn, squash,
watermelons, cantaloupes, bell peppers, whole wheat flour and eggplants to over 22 cities in the
south, east coast and mid-west. We were able to accomplish this because the Ministry of Agriculture
had representatives in all of these cities where these men and women are working in a
"collective manner" with each other and the believing communities in their cities.

The Ministry of Agriculture helped these people to organize themselves into food buying clubs and
they are actively buying from local farmers and wholesalers to supply fresh fruits, vegetables and
other wholesome products to their members. Therefore, when Muhammad Farms’ produce was ready to be
harvested, we had a ready market. Many of these markets were small, however by coordinating demand
we could drive our truck on a route that would drop off produce in substantial enough quantities to
make the trip economically feasible even with the extremely high price of diesel fuel.

For instance on our route to Newark, N.J. we dropped off produce in Durham, NC, Washington, DC,
Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA and finally Newark, where New York City representatives drove over
the bridge and took their watermelons back to Manhattan. One day these buying clubs will develop
into a chain of cooperatively owned supermarkets. And instead of one truck making a number of stops
and small deliveries, we will have tractor trailers loaded with 40,000 pounds of produce from our
farms and delivering all of this produce to a warehouse in one of our hub cities to be delivered to
each of the stores within that area. This is our dream and plan that will work because we are
breaking the spell of divisiveness that plagues our people like what you see in a horror movie.

Imagine a people walking around thinking that they were awake, but they always found themselves
in places that they did not plan to be in. Suppose that they thought they were walking up to a
friend’s house, but instead found themselves at the mall spending their money on designer jeans
that fit to tight and that cost too much. For 40 years we have been trying integration, when all
along we should have been separating ourselves, spiritually, morally and economically from the
children of the slave masters that put us under this spell of divisiveness. Yes, we know now about
Willie Lynch, but have we truly understood the damage done to our subconscious that prevents us from
working together to do the simple things that free and loving people do every day all over the world
as a matter of habit.

Drive in any community in America or around the world instead of the black community and you will
see people buying and selling amongst each other. You will see farms run by people of the same race
or culture and selling the produce to their communities. You will see manufacturing plants and
processing plants and warehouses and trucking companies and everything needed for the survival of a
group of people. However, when you go through black communities in America it is hard to find
anything owned and operated by black people.

Black people are some of the most talented, well trained, highly skilled and hard working slaves
on the planet. They have B.S. degrees, M.S. degrees and Ph.D.s. They practically run the places
where they work for white people, but somehow find it almost impossible to use those same skills and
brain power for self.

This is odd. This is strange. This is unnatural and this is a sin against the creature that God
created. God did not create man to be the slave or robot or "dog" for another man. I say
"dog" because I never really understood the depths of the mental and spiritual damage that
has been done to black people in America until I got and trained a dog.

At the farm we needed something to keep the deer out of our watermelon fields. We experimented
with a number of items and tricks, which the deer figured out quickly and continued to ravish our
melons. So I decided to get a small puppy and train him to love to run through my watermelon fields.
I trained him through rewarding him with extra food and pats on the head after he followed my truck
through the watermelon fields. So now, whenever I release him from his physical chain or emancipate
him, he immediately heads for the fields to do my bidding, because he knows that I would be pleased.

Now this is exactly how white people have got black people trained even though they emancipated
us from their physical chains. Through a process of punishments and rewards over a number of years
and generations, black people have been trained to do the bidding of white people. We are so well
trained that we are not happy unless we are working on one of his plantations, I mean jobs, and
spending our few dollars at one of his businesses. When a white business puts a price tag on an
item, we begin to think how to make enough money to get that item. When a black business puts a
price tag on an item, we try to figure out how to get him or her to reduce his price or just
outright give it to us. And if he does not give it to us, then we call him or her an exploiter of
the people. This is the act of a well trained "dog" for his white master not a normal
self-loving human being.

I remember when I was in the t-shirt designing and printing business and was selling my shirts
with beautiful art work on the front and poems on the back for $10. Black folk would come up to my
tent and tell me they would pay me $5 for the shirt and that they could get a t-shirt for $2.50 at
K-mart. Well I told them to go and get that blank t-shirt and throw some paint on it, but my
designer shirts were $10.

Let me give you another example of this type of sick thinking. If I offer a good product or
program to a black person, he will say in his mind: "If I get this it would benefit me. But if
I buy this from him, then he will benefit too. Therefore, I will deprive myself of the benefit of
having it, so that he will not benefit from me buying it from him." Sick!!!!

The "magic wand" of truth as taught to us by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and
expressed so eloquently now by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has worked to combat the evil
magic of the white slave master and his children. So we in the Nation of Islam and the Ministry of
Agriculture are breaking this spell of divisiveness and hope that we will be an example to other
chained and trained "dogs", like we used to be, so that they can break their chains and
follow us. Go to for a listing of your nearest representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and see
how you can participate in your own survival and liberation, not just "emancipation". And
thank you for your continued support of the Three Year Economic Savings Program which is the
financial backbone for Muhammad Farms which is working hard to develop a Ministry of Agriculture.