Regenerative farming · Education · Food production

Not a farm.
Not a school.
Not a media company.
An institution built to outlive its founder.

Sovereign Soil Collective is a veteran-owned, Black-owned institution in New Jersey, organized around four sovereignties: food, knowledge, narrative, and economic. It is built for veterans who want to farm, for Black families who want land and the knowledge to hold it, and for the New Jersey partners who want to see both.

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A student walks through the marble doorway of a brick dormitory at Phillips Exeter Academy on move-in day
Latest Field Note

Bigger Dreams

A road trip to drop my niece at school became a strategy session. Exeter, a farm in Massachusetts, a vineyard in Connecticut, and Hercules. Sovereign Soil and the Twelve Labors.

August 31, 2026 · 9 min read · all Field Notes
On the record
  • Jun 2026Sovereign Soil Collective LLC formed, New Jersey
  • Jul 2026Certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SBA VetCert)
  • 2026Heroes to Hives certified. Rutgers RU Ready to Farm. Farmer Veteran Coalition member
  • Aug 2026Field Notes launched. First note: a Saturday farmers market
Founder's Declaration

There comes a point when you decide whether to participate in the systems around you, or to build something capable of outliving you.

This institution exists because of that decision. Sovereign Soil Collective was not founded to become a farm. It was not founded to become a school. It was not founded to become a media company. It was not founded to become a nonprofit. It was founded to become an enduring institution dedicated to the development of people, land, knowledge, leadership, and opportunity.

Communities cannot thriveWITHOUTfood.
Food systems cannot thriveWITHOUTland.
Land cannot thriveWITHOUTstewardship.
Stewardship cannot thriveWITHOUTeducation.
Education cannot thriveWITHOUTleadership.
Leadership cannot thriveWITHOUTpurpose.

The mission is to connect these elements into a unified ecosystem capable of serving future generations. This institution is founded on the belief that ownership matters.

Ownership ofLand
Ownership ofKnowledge
Ownership ofSkills
Ownership ofNarrative
Ownership ofOne's future

The goal is not merely prosperity.
The goal is sovereignty.

The Four Sovereignties

Every activity the Collective undertakes serves one or more of four sovereign domains.

Food security, economic mobility, educational opportunity, community resilience, and leadership development are interconnected. So the work is organized by the sovereignty it builds, not by the department that does it.

FoodFood Sovereignty

The ability of communities to produce, access, and control their food systems.

KnowledgeKnowledge Sovereignty

The ability of individuals to acquire and apply knowledge that improves their lives.

NarrativeNarrative Sovereignty

The ability to control and communicate one's own story.

EconomicEconomic Sovereignty

The ability to create and maintain economic independence.

Enterprise architecture · the hundred-year plan

Six pillars, one ecosystem.

Sovereign Soil Collective is the parent institution. Six divisions operate under its authority, and no division operates alone. One is active today; the rest are sequenced by phase. Each contributes revenue, knowledge, talent, content, relationships, and infrastructure back to the whole.

Food SovereigntyPhase II

Sovereign Soil Farms

Produce food, steward land, and serve as the operational foundation of the institution.

  • Produce
  • Livestock
  • Beekeeping
  • Greenhouse
  • Orchard
  • Agritourism
Knowledge SovereigntyPhase II

SEED Academy

Student Education, Entrepreneurship & Development: leaders, entrepreneurs, farmers, and community builders. Every participant remains a student.

  • Youth development
  • Veteran development
  • Ag education
  • Leadership
  • Workforce training
  • Entrepreneurship
Economic SovereigntyPhase III

Sovereign Wellness

Transform agricultural products into premium wellness offerings.

  • Elderberry
  • Honey
  • Herbal products
  • Wellness shots
  • Teas
Narrative SovereigntyActive now

The Miseducated Blk Man Media Group

Shape narratives, educate audiences, and expand influence.

  • Publishing
  • Podcasts
  • Video
  • Public speaking
  • Courses
  • Books
Mission IntegrationPhase IV

Sovereign Hospitality

Memorable experiences that connect people to food, learning, and community.

  • Farm dinners
  • Retreats
  • Events
  • Agritourism
Institutional ContinuityPhase IV

Sovereign Leadership Institute

Develop leaders capable of serving communities, organizations, and future generations.

  • Veteran leadership
  • Public-service leadership
  • Executive development
  • Community leadership
The Flywheel

A flywheel, not a funnel.

The institution runs on a cycle rather than a line. Every rotation strengthens the next one, and revenue goes back into land, programs, infrastructure, and education.

  1. Sovereign Soil Farms produces food, experiences, and stories.
  2. SEED Academy turns operations into educational opportunities.
  3. The Media Group documents and distributes the knowledge.
  4. The audience grows.
  5. Audience members become customers, students, volunteers, supporters.
  6. Revenue increases.
  7. Revenue is reinvested. The cycle repeats.
Doctrine

What we believe, and what we will not trade away.

Core values
Stewardship
We inherit resources temporarily and are responsible for improving them before passing them forward.
Service
Leadership exists to serve others.
Excellence
Mediocrity compounds failure. Excellence compounds opportunity.
Accountability
Every commitment creates responsibility.
Curiosity
Learning never ends.
Courage
Progress requires action despite uncertainty.
Sovereignty
Self-determination through ownership, knowledge, capability, and responsibility.

Agricultural doctrine

Soil before yield
The objective is not this year's harvest. It is the productivity of the land over generations.
Diversity creates resilience
Monocultures create vulnerability, in crops, livestock, revenue, and pollinators alike.
Every acre must teach
Fields become classrooms.
Waste is a design failure
Nothing leaves the system that the system can use.
Stewardship creates legacy
The century-farm standard.
The Academy creed
Leadership is service.
Knowledge creates responsibility.
Ownership creates accountability.
Stewardship creates legacy.
The measure of success is not what we acquire.
It is what we improve.

The Mission Lock

Future leaders may change operations, tactics, and structures. These commitments they may not abandon.

  • Food Sovereignty
  • Knowledge Sovereignty
  • Narrative Sovereignty
  • Economic Sovereignty
  • Stewardship
  • Leadership Development
  • Service
  • Community Advancement
The Founder

Brian M. Forbes

"Opportunity is often determined not by potential, but by access."

He grew up in the South Bronx, where produce was an afterthought on a corner-store shelf and nobody he knew grew anything. He is a first-generation farmer by choice, building Sovereign Soil so his four daughters inherit ground, not a guess.

Raised in New York City, Brian experienced firsthand the food insecurity, economic inequality, and limited access to resources that many communities face. Military service brought discipline, perspective, and exposure to systems larger than oneself. Public service in the Department of Veterans Affairs brought insight into healthcare administration, organizational transformation, and the needs of veterans.

Across a career spanning food service operations, health administration, records management, project management, and executive leadership development, one theme kept surfacing: systems matter. The quality of a community is tied to the quality of the systems supporting it. Sovereign Soil Collective is an institutional response to that truth.

  • ServiceU.S. Army veteran
  • CareerFederal healthcare executive, Department of Veterans Affairs
  • RootsSouth Bronx-born, New Jersey-based; husband and father of four daughters
  • VoiceWrites as The Miseducated Blk Man
  • LearningRutgers RU Ready to Farm · Heroes to Hives certified · Farmer Veteran Coalition member

How success is measured

  • Acres preserved and improved
  • Food produced
  • Veterans trained
  • Youth educated
  • Businesses launched
  • Families served
  • Leaders developed
  • Communities strengthened
  • Knowledge transferred
  • Opportunities created
  • Generational wealth established
  • Institutional longevity

Success is not measured solely by revenue. The ultimate measure is whether Sovereign Soil Collective remains impactful and operational after the founder's lifetime.

Where we are

Phase I: the Foundation Years.

Build capability before expansion. Free before paid, grants before loans. Right now the Collective is a legal entity, a doctrine, a working executive cabinet, a growing body of agricultural training, and a founder securing his first ground.

Learning the land

Rutgers RU Ready to Farm, Heroes to Hives, Battleground to Breaking Ground, Next Acre. A deliberate apprenticeship before the first acre.

Securing ground

Land access in New Jersey through NJ Land Link, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, veteran-farmer networks, and candidate sites under due diligence.

Building the institution

Sovereign Soil Collective LLC, formed June 2026. Certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business. Registered in the federal system.

Telling the story

The Miseducated Blk Man documents the build as it happens: Field Notes, the Institution Builder series, the Little Farmer pilot, and the Unshackled line.

Phase I · 2026–28FoundationDoctrine, cabinet, training, land strategy, first audience.
Phase IIAcquisitionFirst land. First production. First programs on the ground.
Phase IIIIntegrationFarm, academy, media, and wellness operating as one ecosystem.
Phase IVExpansionCampus model, hospitality, leadership institute at scale.
Phase VLegacySuccession, endowment, the hundred-year test.
Narrative Sovereignty

The Miseducated Blk Man

The narrative division of the Collective. The founder writes the Field Notes and essays here as himself. It exists because this space wasn't made for palatability. It was made for liberation. It speaks first to Black men carrying weight, and welcomes everyone who loves them. The arc of every piece: from survival to wholeness, from performing for rooms to owning ground.

Read the Field Notes Essays at miseducatedblkman.com

Stay unshackled.
Stay unfiltered.
Stay unapologetic.

Join

Follow the build. Or help build it.

This is only the beginning. Institutions are not remembered because they existed. They are remembered because they endured. Here is how to be part of it.

Get the letters

Field Notes, essays, and institution-building updates from the founder. A letter when there is something worth saying, never noise.

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Land, partners, and mentors

Own farmland in New Jersey? Run an extension program, food hub, or veteran-farmer network? Let's talk.

brian@sovereignsoil.com

Read the Field Notes

The build, written down as it happens by the founder as The Miseducated Blk Man. Markets, land, bees, institution.

sovereignsoil.com/field-notes