Erica Andrea McRae

Erica Andrea McRae — publicly known as Erica Plants — is the Founder and Executive Director of The Black Agrarian. She came to this work from the soil. As a licensed seed seller, nursery operator, and working farmer, she has helped hundreds of Black growers secure farm numbers, access USDA resources, build their agricultural businesses, and step into their power as producers — not just participants.

Her approach has always been the same: Grow With What You Got. Don't wait for perfect conditions. Build with what's in your hands right now. That philosophy runs through everything she does — from her hands in the soil to the systems she's built for the community.

She is the founder of Plant & Heal (plantandheal.com), an herbal and agricultural education platform; Gardening Under Influence (gardeningunderinfluence.com), a widely followed Black gardening media brand and LLC; GrowFluencers (growfluencer.com), a platform for Black agricultural content creators; and Ms. Erica's Garden Classroom, an agricultural education program for children and communities. The Black Agrarian is the infrastructure layer beneath all of it.

The Black Agrarian exists because Black agrarian life deserves to be findable, resourced, and continued. The 500-year history of Black people shaping North America's food systems didn't end — it's alive right now, in growers across all 50 states. This directory is how they get found.