Hi, We’re FINCA Seremos.
Finca Seremos is the first project of Collectivo Seremos.
The name Finca Seremos means “We-will-be Farms” in Spanish. It comes from the closing line of “Love Sonnet LXIX” by Pablo Neruda, a nod to the love that founders Chris and Brenda have for each other and their family, for stewarding the land, and for their communities in Inwood, Washington Heights, and the Bronx. The poem’s final line—“And through love I will be, you will be, we will be”—also frames the deep understanding of interdependency and mutual aid at the heart of Finca Seremos’ approach to farming.
Meet the Team
Chris Nickell and Brenda González founded Finca Seremos in 2022. Originally a dream to pursue in 10–15 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, we accelerated plans at the end of 2021 because we felt a heightened urgency to facilitate food-based healing work in our communities.
-
Founder
Brenda is an artist and educator. A degree in graphic design with a focus on schools introduced her to her calling - working towards individual and collective liberation through education, first as an art educator, and then as a school administrator. She is the Director of Culture at Comp Sci High in the Bronx.
-
Founder
Chris Nickell is a farmer and community organizer. Studying vocal performance in college led them to the academic study of music, and after spending several years with independent musicians in Beirut, Lebanon, they completed a doctorate in ethnomusicology at New York University in 2019. A background in labor, housing, and community organizing led Chris to serve for three years as Deputy Chief of Staff for State Senator Robert Jackson. Since 2022, Chris has studied agriculture on farms throughout the Hudson Valley, organized around soil health and farmer and farmworker housing in the region, and deepened their connection to food justice serving on the steering committee of the Washington Heights & Inwood Food Council.
Our approach
Finca Seremos seeks to bend our arc toward justice in three key components of farm operation: ecological stewardship, building community, and cooperative labor.
Ecological stewardship
Ecological stewardship prioritizes the health of our ecosystem above annual yields—over time, a balanced ecosystem will be more productive for us humans and our non-human kin. Stewardship starts with listening to the land by putting a portion into diversified vegetable production while cover cropping the remainder with beneficial, non-food plants to see what works best. By going beyond requirements for organic certification under the National Organic Program, Finca Seremos aims to boost the strength and resilience of the ecosystem by increasing soil health and diversity of species at all trophic levels while providing food for ourselves and our communities.
Building community
Building community, upstate and uptown, is the second priority in the vision of Finca Seremos. We aim to organize through food. Complementing the many organizing models that respond to emergency and crisis, our work will slowly build the kinds of deep relationships that only food can cultivate. This work will begin over conversations at CSA pickups, building relationships with our customers, trading recipes and resources for housing, education, healthcare, and labor concerns. We’ve cultivated broad networks of support and social services across all these areas through our previous work in government and education that we can leverage to help our community solve everyday problems starting at CSA pickup.
Finca Seremos will also partner with local high schools where we have strong relationships to offer internships for our majority Black and Brown neighborhood youth to experience farming outside the stigmas that agricultural work carries for many of their families. In this way, we’ll provide a chance for students with farming in their family’s past to reconnect with ancestral knowledge, creating a much-needed pipeline for farmers of color to skill up, get on land, and feed our people.
Cooperative labor
Cooperative labor is the final piece of Finca Seremos’ vision, implemented by creating a worker-owned cooperative. As long-term residents of a low- and middle-income housing coop, customers of several commercial coops, and people from cultures of cooperation and mutual aid in Appalachia, Puerto Rico, and Cuba, we understand how cooperative principles form a solid bedrock for ethical, sustainable decision-making in workplaces. Inspired by Soul Fire and Rock Steady Farms, our coop will delegate power and responsibilities to different levels of the governance structure so that we can maximize worker dignity and input, as well as financial stability.