Regional Partnerships Taking Shape

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on December 20, 2008

The Rural Enterprise Center has been engaged in assembling the partnerships needed to launch an agripreneurs (agriculture entrepreneurs) training center with an eye on the Southern half of the state as a target region, with Dakota, Rice and Steele county as target areas for initial deployment.

We understand that food and agriculture have been and will always be key sectors of our economy. According to the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota “Food and agriculture, the largest U.S. economic sector, commands a trillion dollars of retail sales, with critical impacts on employment, environment, and public health.”

I can also add without hesitation that the food and agriculture industry has impacted our social fabric and the health of our communities. In Rural Minnesota, Latino families heavily depend on these industries for jobs, which in turn shape social patterns and define the economies of these families. It is well documented that this sector also drives down wages and benefits, contributing to Southern Minnesota’s downturn in wages over the last 20 years. An irony considering the influence of such sector and a curse for the Latino community which provides much needed labor but can’t capitalize on the benefits, at least not under current structures.

As we think of strategic paths to support Latino families in rural Minnesota we see food and agriculture as a key sector to target for new enterprise development that can turn expanding markets into a new economic opportunities for this population, not only as providers of labor for this industry but in ways where the economic benefits can be improved. In order to accomplish results in this area, we need to explore systems and processes that create competitive advantages for this new population, while contributing to the competitiveness of the region as a whole. This results won’t come as a result of doing business as usual.

In the last 6 months, we have assembled a model and the support infrastructure that will allow us to launch a system to reach, screen, train, launch, support and grow new Latino farmers on a regional basis. This process have involved dozens of meetings, conference calls and many other forms of networking, most importantly, it has been a process of undurstanding the reallities of Latino families in the region. From the job siuation to leadership roles, from skills to knowledge of farm management, from farming experiences to potential interest in launching agriculture enterprises.

We have now closed a cycle that has resulted in the assembling of a solid network of partners. These partners include the North Country Development Fund, the Farmers Legal Action Group, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Minnesota, the Land Stewardship Project Farm Beginnings Program, the Dakota County Open Lands and Parks and many others. Each partner has a specific role to play in the process.

During 2008, many families participated in our food and agriculture efforts, although not fully deployed, the system resulted in 5 families growing range grown poultry, 30 families grew vegetables at our 48 plot community garden, 3 families became market gardeners, and we engaged families in Faribault, Owatonna and Red Wing in an exploratory process. We have now built a support infrastructure and structured the launch of a brand name for the poultry products with an eye on regional production and larger scale growth for 2009.

As the snow falls outside on the longest night of the year we are busy crunching numbers, working with farmers on their plans for the spring, researching winter farming options through season extension systems and cold frame techniques, organizing a cooperative of farmers, and so much more that I know spring will be here too soon for what we need to accomplish before it warms up again.

Stay in touch, stay warm, and enjoy the last days of the year.

Here is a video about winter farming, altough we are mostly collecting data this winter, we will be planting a 30×32 feet space in February 2009 with around 16 varieties of cold season greens that grow well in Minnesota’s limited winter light. Come fall 2009 though, we plan to be set-up to keep some families engaged for most of the winter months deliverying fresh vegetables.