History of Minnesota Food Association
History of Minnesota Food Association
In 1981, a group of citizens organized to preserve the Saint Paul Farmers Market. This successful movement also resulted in the formation of the Minnesota Food Association in 1983 under the leadership of Ken Taylor. MFA spent the first 12 years as a citizen engagement project galvanizing a local food advocacy movement initially in St. Paul and expanding throughout the state of Minnesota.
In 1995, after the loss of Ken Taylor, MFA’s founder, new initiatives focused on Farm and Food Festival, Community Food Project and then in 1998 the establishment of the New Immigrant Agriculture Project providing training and technical assistance to immigrant farmers.
In 2005, Minnesota Food Association began leasing the farm in Wilder Forest and began to focus on becoming a land-based organization training farmers on the ground. In 2007, Minnesota Food Association began serious work on opening up markets to small scale farmers and began to distribute produce under the label Big River Foods to Cub Foods, Kowalskis, Festival Foods, Chipotle, Byerly’s and Lunds and several small groceries and restaurants.In 2008, the marketing and training were integrated into one comprehensive program called Big River Farms. This was also the first year of Organic Certification, marking the first and only immigrant farmers in Minnesota to be officially Certified Organic producers.
In 2009 and 2010, Minnesota Food Association’s program Big River Farms took deeper roots on the land with more depth to the classroom and in field training. Big River Farms continued to operate the CSA and distribute to a variety of wholesale markets with most of the produce coming from the farmers-in-training. The organization also launched 4 farms into independence on their own farms, developed a soil fertility regime, and connected more farmers directly with more markets.
