The Story on MPR, Things to Add

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on July 27, 2009

Although a lot of what came out in The Story was about some of my encounters with racism and discrimination, all of those events happened before I moved to Northfield, there was a lot of positive facts that did not fit the main focus of the story, I have had many conversations with folks in Northfield, MN who also thought the events exposed had happened here, the answer is no, although I have had situations in Northfield as well they pale in comparison to other places I have been with my family. The farming community here is terrific and very supportive, I feel confident that if something worthy of community action would happen to me in this town, I will have all of the support I would need to deal with it fully.

I have written extensively on all of the support and amazing partnerships that I have been able to align in establishing Latino farmers in Southern Minnesota. These folks include established non-Latino farmers, and although we still have to visit many farms before we are able to find a viable option, this may not be something far from the norm. There is also the experience factor that now allows us to screen farmers much better before we walk into their farms or call them, we also now have a large network of hundreds of farmers who are good friends and want to work with us to accomplish our mission.

I first lived in Northfield for 2 months when I arrived from Guatemala in 1992, but moved to Minneapolis where Amy and I lived for 10 years. Then we went back to Guatemala in 2000 and moved to Belle Plaine when we came back. In August of 2006, we moved to our current place just North of Northfield where we bought a 1.9 acre parcel and our small Finca Mirasol Farm is based. Here we have established a free range poultry system that combines perennial cropping systems and permaculture infrastructure designed to sustain production for a long time from the same piece of land. From these experience the Rural Enterprise Center was born and the mission is to develop the support infrastructure, the systems and programs so that we can launch a network of Latino/Hispanic farmers in Southern MN and establish our presence, contribute our assets to this region’s agriculture and food industries, and prepare the ground for new generations to find it easier to enter this economic sector.

At the Rural Enterprise Center, we are currently working to deploy a large scale farming system based on the technology that we have developed at our small place and we are focused in engaging established farmers and existing support systems in the process of introducing Latino/Hispanic farmers into agriculture. Our job is to provide a path for families to brake barriers and reduce risks that are natural to engaging this sector of the economy, and that are exacerbated by the existing levels of racism and discrimination in our rural communities. Although racism is real and alive every where we work, it is something we are able to deal with through the support of thousands of people that now work with us to achieve our mission.

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