Blog
7th Annual Immigrant Farmers Conference
For farmers and those who work with farmers, it is officially conference season! The growing season ended a few months ago. Hunting season is over. You could go ice fishing. But for farmers, this is mainly the season for learning, sharing, planning and preparing. How can I better get my costs under control? Should I switch varieties of potatoes, broccoli, beans? Is there a better way to rotate or interplant my crops to get better production or decrease my pests? How can find more markets and what do those markets want? What is this “Organic Certification” and how can work towards that?
While there are numerous, excellent conferences coming up in January and February, the Annual Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference held in St. Paul, MN stands alone as a conference that is planned and geared for immigrant and minority farmers. Hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, Minnesota Food Association, USDA-Farm Service Agency and USDA NRCS, the two-day conference provides education and connections to resources for small farm and beginning growers. The 7th Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference will be held on February 3-4, 2012 at the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Event Hall, 710 Olive Street, St. Paul, MN. The theme of the 2012 Conference is “Planting Seeds for Success on your Farm.”
What makes this conference special? In February 2011, we had a total of about 240 participants of which 170 were immigrant farmers from 8 different ethnicities from 6 different states. The planning committee is made up of about 15 people from 7 or 8 organizations and 5 – 6 farmers, who work together to determine the program and topics. It is very diverse and inclusive. We have simultaneous interpretation into up to 6 languages through an extensive set of earphones, microphones and transmitters. All workshops are presented, or co-presented, by actual practitioners, meaning farmer market managers, distributors, farmers, chefs, etc. Interpreters accompany the participants as they visit the exhibit tables so to facilitate discussion and exchange. Interpreters and presenters meet before the conference to review the presentations and discuss language and cadence. Workshops and conference evaluations are mainly a brief facilitated verbal question and answer after each session. A highlight the past 3 years has been the lunch time story telling. After everyone gathers up their lunch plates (again catered by Sen Yai Sen Lek Thai Restaurant from Northeast Minneapolis), we gather in the main auditorium and we share stories about where we come from, farming in our native country, farming in our new country, peculiarities of life in America, and life’s wonderful happenings and challenges. It is an amazing collage of perspectives and insights into our burgeoning diverse farming culture.
The highlight for me is the atmosphere. It’s a farmer’s conference. The farmers are foremost and prominent; it’s their conference. While it may start out slow, by the second day, the farmers feel empowered and are very at ease to ask their questions and pursue the knowledge they seek. Farmers from wide ranging heritages (Kenya, Liberia, Somalia, Laos, Cambodia, Bhutan, Burma, Vietnam, Mexico, Guatemala and so on) are sharing and learning together, and meeting people from other organizations, businesses, universities, the MN Department of Agriculture and USDA agencies. This conference brings together people who would not otherwise meet each other in their normal lives and creates long-lasting bonds and networks.
Registration is on-line at (http://www.mnfoodassociation.org/content/12915 ) or by calling MFA at 651-433-3676, or the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota at 651-222-0475. The conference is free to farmers. The cost for other interested parties is $50 per day.
Glen
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Some of you may know, some not, but I lived in Thailand for 16 years and in Rangoon, Burma, for 5 ½ years from 1985 – 2006. I met the Karen people (a large indigenous group in Burma and Thailand) in 1992 when my now dear friend came to Thailand looking for support in setting up a wildlife sanctuary in Tennaserim Division of southern Burma. There are about 150,000 refugees (mostly Karen) living in camps along the Thailand/Burma border due to the ongoing civil conflict in Burma. Some have been there for 25 years or more. For about 10 years now, many Karen are now choosing to resettle in other countries. It is a very difficult choice to leave one’s country, then to leave one’s region, and to settle in a completely new culture, society and climate. I believe that the main reason they choose to resettle is for their children. With children who are 5 years old, 10 years, 15 years old or more, with most of them knowing nothing but life in a refugee camp, with no end in sight to the political and military conflict, what are your options? We in Minnesota are truly fortunate to have the Karen people come to our state. The Karen people, culture and values will make our state a better place. I truly believe this. It saddens me to see how they struggle to get started here when I know how ‘rich’ they were where they came from. But they bring such warmth and caring with them. Minnesota is a better place and will be a better place because of them. I believe that.
We have had a number of Karen people in our farmer training program in the past two years. Recently I talked with Htoo Lwe who with her husband A Bee (his parents named him Abraham, after Abraham Lincoln, but then shortened it to just A B, and then added the ‘ee’ to B) farmed in our program for the first year in 2011. She is a health worker for the Karen Organization of Minnesota as her full time work.
I asked her why do you farm? You have so much to do with work, family, community, adjusting to America, so why do you farm?
“The first one (reason) is that is it organic, the way we always farmed. In America, you need to produce for yourself if you want organic produce. As a health worker, I see that we need organic produce for our people. We need to eat many varieties to get the nutrition that we need. As a farmer, I can give to my people for free or a cheaper price. Many of us refugees are coming here when we are old and our elders need good food. When I give them vegetables, they say to me ‘Oh, your vegetables are very good’ and this makes me happy and I know that I am doing a good thing. So part of it is economic. We don’t really make money, but we save money. We save money as a community. And it is social, for our community, our people, our elders’
We find this common thread among many new immigrant/refugee communities. I imagine that the ‘immigrants’ of 100 or 150 years ago also thought that way. We do it because it is the right thing to do. We shared for a common, larger good. Because strong and healthy individuals make a strong and healthy community which makes a strong and healthy nation. Many of us ancestors of old immigrants seem to have forgotten or lost that. I hope that our new citizens can hold on to their deep roots in community. We need it.
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Rodrigo Cala and his brother Juan Carlos come from a family farming tradition in their native Mexico. They participated in the Big River Farms Training Program for 3 years from 2006 – 2008 and have now bought their own farm in Wisconsin. They are amazing farmers with great dedication to their crops and their customers and a clear focus on their goals. MFA taught them Organic Certification and GAP certification and they now continue this on their own farm. They continue to sell green peppers to Chipotle, together with other large food distributors, as well as their own CSA for the Latino community this season. Both brothers continue to hold down full time day/night shift jobs at factories as well.
What makes you happy farming, Rodrigo? Why do you do this?
“ I have a connection with my farm and a connection with my soil. It is different than going to a factory job. Farming is a business but it is not just like that. This year production may be bad but it does not mean that farming is bad or the farm is bad. We can still eat well. The risk and fault this past season is the weather, but it is not me, the soil or my plants. Some farmers say ‘Oh, I didn’t make any money’, but for me, I feel different. I think, ‘is my soil making progress?’ and if it is then my stress is gone. It’s not just money. The best food in the world comes from your own farm. You have many different recipes, but any chef will tell you that it starts with a good raw product. For me, I like the best food in the world. If you care where your food comes from, then it is worth it. I have a friend, all her kids are overweight, she doesn’t understand it is the type of food they eat not the amount. I feel bad for her.
My mind has changed. If we want to help our community then we have to go to our community and not just to the distributor. I need the distributer to make my farm work, but if I want to make change, I need to go to my community. I want to help make change. When I changed to organic, everything changed for me. When I first started talking about organic and the way I farm, people did not trust me, did not believe me, so I said ‘fine’. I will just keep doing and less talking. When I eat only organic, right away I can feel the change in my body. If farming is just a way of making money, then maybe you will not be happy. You can be rich in other ways, like your health.
My blood is very good. I eat the good stuff. “
We see the reoccurring theme that farming has a higher value for farmers. Organic vegetable farmers feel it is the right way to grow and to eat, and they are happy to share it with you. If you feel it is false or over-righteous, then they’ll just be quiet and go back to work. Another common theme we see regularly is the balancing act between the desire to give to the community and the need to make the farming operation viable. But I can feel the passion and commitment of Rodrigo, like others, to farming the way he wants to farm, pride and honesty in his product and a sense that there is also a greater purpose to all this.
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Email: glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org
PS – Farming is full of risks as a career venture, yet so very attractive to so many of us and absolutely imperative to a specific group of people. They just know that this is what they want to do with their time and life. So there must be some happiness, joy or contentment in farming for some people to take to it with such convicted passion. So over the past month or so, I asked some of the farmers in our Big River Farms Training Program: What makes you happy when you are farming? Why do you do this?
This is what over 85% of Americans are asking for – if the food or food product contains any Genetically Engineered Organisms (GMOs), then it should be labeled as such. Hhmmm? Why is that such a hard thing to do? We require the food industry to label all the other items that we can’t even pronounce or know what it is, so why not GMO ingredients? So, Come on, Man, let’s get it done. Send our President a simple straight-forward letter saying, yes, I agree with you, please require foods with GMO ingredients to be labeled as such, and be sure to copy your state and federal legislators.
Because ….. while about 80% of processed food in the US has some GMO ingredient in it, here comes the first Genetically Engineered whole crop designed for direct human consumption and it has been approved by our government. Food and Water Watch is circulating a petition to the top 10 grocery chains in the nation to not sell Monsanto’s new genetically engineered sweet corn which could be available by next summer.
Why should you be concerned about Monsanto's Genetically Engineered (GE) Sweet Corn? Three simple reasons:
1 - This is the first GE Crop that Monsanto is marketing for direct human consumption.
2 - It will not be labeled.
3 - It hasn't been tested for human safety.
Monsanto's sweet corn variety combines two genetically engineered traits and the USDA does no independent testing of GE crops. This combination of traits for herbicide resistance and pesticide production has never been through a safety evaluation of any kind. These traits have never been engineered into a food that will be consumed directly by people. Most of the GE corn that is currently grown is eaten by animals or processed into corn syrup, corn oil and other corn ingredients that show up in processed food. Monsanto is aiming to have their new GE Sweet Corn grown on 250,000 acres next year (roughly 40% of the sweet corn market). Since the USDA and Government are not listening, consumers need to take action. You can sign a petition here to ask grocery stores to not sell this sweet corn.
November 8, 2011
Community holds us all together. It’s a verb, noun and adjective. It’s a place, a feeling and a group and groups of people. It is what makes us human, gives us energy, hope, faith and happiness. An integral part of community is non-profit organizations; sometimes called non-government organizations (NGOs), community-based organizations (CBOs), and even social profit organizations. Overall the underlying purpose is to promote a cause, work for a change, address an issue and make a better world for today and tomorrow. We probably have had nonprofits in our society since the earliest civilizations. Social organizations grew from what the kings or government could not do, or would not do, or what people could do better as a group rather than individually. Of course over the centuries, these organizations changed and we continue to see the change and growth today. Whatever the nonprofit’s cause, it relies on people giving – giving time, money and effort. Fast forward to today …. Give to the Max Day on Wednesday Nov 16 is another rallying cry for people to support their causes; where we all come together and give money to our nonprofit organizations. You can give to your favorite nonprofits anytime, so why is GiveMN and Give to the Max Day important? I think there are two significant reasons – one is practical and one is moral. Practically, this is the time of year that nonprofits are developing their budgets for 2012. We need to know what we can count on for income for the 2012 season. Since 2009, Minnesota Food Association has based it’s budget on secured income. So your donations now help us plan for the next year. Morally, this is a day in which we can show solidarity, as a community and a nation that we stand for the nonprofit community, for the good work that we as a community of groups do for our community and nation. Last year, over $10 million was given on Give to the Max Day from individuals like you, and me, in one day. That is an amazing statement for the priorities that we as Minnesotans place on the services our nonprofits provide. If you support local food, new and burgeoning farmers, occupation development for new immigrants to our state, and building a more sustainable food system by growing farmers and growing food – locally and organic – then please give to Minnesota Food Association on Wednesday, November 16. We will of course be sending you more information in the coming week about how you can donate and for which purposes, and we will try not to overwhelm you with an abundance of emails and information. But please keep us on your radar for Give to the Max Day on Wednesday November 16.
Glen
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Email: glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org
Daniel Chen and Aspasia Sieber and their 3 children began farming with Big River Farms this past season on a ¼ acre and grew some beautiful crops.
Daniel finds the happiness in farming through a feeling of independent fulfillment in being “able to grow one’s own food and provide for others. Farming is meditation, you can focus on what you’re doing but also think broadly. Farming fits into my personal constitution. It’s a point of pride in one’s self to be able to be independent from the industrial food system. I grow my farm to have a connection to the planet, to be separate from GMOs for example. I enjoy the social and political ramifications of people growing their own food and growing extra food for others in our community. I like farming because we can see concretely what you have done with your time, you see the produce. It is a good community to belong to. It fits with how we want to develop our kids, their minds and sensibilities. I like them to see that farming and growing food is within their grasp”.
In talking to Daniel, my feeling is that this is not farming to carry on a tradition of farming, but to carry on a tradition of independent thought and finding concrete life actions that let one live out one’s life ideology. Daniel calls it his personal constitution. Farming says that he is not totally dependent on some other forces in some obtuse system for his food; that one can live in the city and still keep one’s feet on the ground and hands in the soil. Farming is production of a product which he likes from his other working life – construction.
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Recently I talked with See Nay and Ti Moo. See Nay and Ti Moo are of the ethnic Karen community of Burma. In Burma, they were farmers until civil war displaced them. They have been in MN now about 3 – 4 years. This past season, together with Rol Tha and Aung Tin, they worked on Big River Farms three full days per week from early May into November in a work/apprenticeship program. They attend all the training classes and in-field sessions. Next season they will work part-time on the farm and part-time growing on their own farm plots.
Ti Moo tells me, “Open space gives me good oxygen which makes me feel good. In the morning, when you receive the sun’s first heat, it is the best feeling. And it’s vitamin D. Moving makes me happy and when you farm you have to move. The season makes me happy, watching the plants grow makes me happy.”
See Nay confers, “When I plant the plants, and see the green coming up, and look at them everyday and see plants growing, that makes me happy. Even seeing the cover crops grow. I have been this way since I was little, I feel this way. Then when the crops mature and it is time to harvest, it makes me happy. Working with plants and nature is very different than working in a store or building. In the building, you don’t feel anything. Outside, you feel. Everyday I walk around and see the plants growing, and when I can harvest and give to people, it makes me happy.”
We can see the common theme of being outdoors (it is hard to live in an apartment when you have grown up out doors in the rural areas and jungle), of watching the whole progression through the season, and the nurturing aspect of seeing plants grow and produce. Wholesome values that we can all relate to.
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Email: glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org
PS – Farming is full of risks as a career venture, yet so very attractive to so many of us and absolutely imperative to a specific group of people. They just know that this is what they want to do with their time and life. So there must be some happiness, joy or contentment in farming for some people to take to it with such convicted passion. So over the past month or so, I asked some of the farmers in our Big River Farms Training Program: What makes you happy when you are farming? Why do you do this?
Farming is full of risks as a career venture, yet so very attractive to so many of us and absolutely imperative to a specific group of people. They just know that this is what they want to do with their time and life. So there must be some happiness, joy or contentment in farming for some people to take to it with such convicted passion. I asked some of the farmers in our Big River Farms Training Program: What makes you happy when you are farming? Why do you do this?
May Lee of Mhonpaj’s Garden (www.mhonpajgarden.biz ) told me simply, “when I am doing it I am happy and when I am not, I am not. I am happy to be farming organic. I like to give good food to people. I know the food is good for them, so I am feeding someone the right food. Watching the plants grow is my therapy.”
There is a lot of thought in those few words.
Glen Hill
Executive Director
Minnesota Food Association
Email: glenhill@mnfoodassociation.org
October 12, 2011
What I was thinking about was Connection. To be part of or with. It is what makes us human. Rodrigo Cala farms because of the connection to the land and the good feeling of knowing good food from his farm is going here, into our community. See Nay says that the happiness comes from seeing the plants grow, from the seed to producing this beautiful fruitful food. I do this because I love being connected to and working with people who are exploring and learning in a completely different setting than from their countries of origin, and they’re farming!
We in Minnesota value our farmers and we value the future of our farming tradition. We value good food and knowing where our food comes from. Minnesota Food Association works to carry on our tradition of pioneering farmers who provide the good food of our region. We value the history and traditions of our region and our farmers, as well as the innovation and entrepreneurship of the new farmers. MFA aims to carry on the traditions of family farming with new, innovative farmers coming from Laos, Burma, Bhutan, East Africa and Central America who are settling in our region.
They bring a wealth of experience and tradition. They are not only a significant driving direction of the future food system in our country. The past 200 years have shaped the USA of today, and today’s immigrants continue to shape it further.
In this large and growing food and farming movement, this is our role. We train and support new immigrant farmers. We learn and grow each day and you can grow with us! After 25 years, MFA is garnering its roots and launching our new Membership Program. (Up and running by Oct 14, 2011 at www.mnfoodassociation.org )
As an MFA member, you will receive regular communications about what is happening in the sustainable, organic immigrant and minority farmer community. You will receive special invitations to events and meetings on the issues you care about. You will be given opportunities to participate fully in our sustainable and diverse community.
Some of you remember our roots in the early 80s through the mid-90s, under the direction of Ken Taylor, where MFA relied significantly on its members’ efforts and financial support. Nurturing that spirit of our beginnings and building on the innovations and advancements of today’s organic farming, your investment in MFA and new organic farmers moves us forward in building a more sustainable food system for the next 25 years.
If you have been a member of Big River Farms CSA, a program of Minnesota Food Association, we want you to take advantage of fully supporting the organization that brings you great organic vegetables by also becoming a member of MFA.
Please join us and sign up to be a member of MFA today! ( www.mnfoodassociation.org )You will be contributing to growing farmers and growing food. You will be helping the future of small family farm enterprises who produce good, fresh, organic food for our region. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Glen Hill
Executive Director
