Immigrant Farmers and the Transformation of Agriculture at a Large Scale

Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on July 4, 2010

Prink’s Farm in Cannon Falls, a partner for sustainability. Here is a story I just wrote about our approach to bringing in new farmers but also improving the current conditions at this first fully ecologically managed farm operation.

It is happening, more Hispanic/Latino, Hmong and other immigrant communities are making their mark in the U.S. agriculture landscape. It is inevitable, just as hundreds of years ago with the first immigrant populations, agriculture and food production has undergone changes continuously. These new populations are bringing with them traditions and ways of doing things that could provide the U.S. with a new competitive advantage in the world of food and agriculture.

After having tried the fossil fuel intense war industrial complex leftover kind of agriculture long enough, and realizing that this system is not sustainable and will have to end, it is time to think of what may be able to replace it. Some experts and well entrenched folks in this field of conventional agriculture get nervous and shake their heads at the simple idea that we could have a different way of doing things at a large scale, but the truth is that we have to, if one looks at the facts such as how many corporations control grain production, feed, meat, and the key commodities that feed the industrial system, plus the energy that is needed to run it compared with the energy yield from the system the picture doesn’t look good for all of us, from available of real food to the vulnerability this systems places all of us at to the health consequences for everyone. From the reliability of the safety of our food, to the quality, to the declining energy yields, to the residual chemicals to the pollution that comes back to us in the lost habitats, water, air and many other forms creating a deadly cycle at the same time that we need more food to feed the world.

At the Rural Enterprise Center we have looked at the high incidents of poverty among agriculture and food production workers and have tracked down to the family levels the impact that these conditions have in our society and our ability to innovate our way into a new generation of farmers and farming systems. When we look at the irreversible damage of conventional agriculture on our soil, water, air and human health (from workers to consumers), the picture again, does not look good.

To move in a positive direction, our government, corporations, small farmers and citizens need to heavily and deliberately test new ways of using our natural resources, conserving and improving them at the same time that we produce more and healthier food than our current system does. This principle is at the core of the prototype projects that we have started launching at a small scale. But as we look at what we call “production units” (defined units of production that can be replicated my millions of times just like conventional systems) we are also ensuring that they can be scaled up to “economic units” (a set of production units, either of the same products, or intermixed to minimize energy inputs and cost and maximize energy outputs, or energy yields and profits for the farming family). Further more, these economic units are assembled into larger but still local “economic clusters”, or networks of interrelated economic units or family farming enterprises capable of maximizing not only yields and profits, but also economic multiplier effects, wealth creation, natural resources conservation, rebuilding of ecological corridors, and the capability to shape future policies at the local level. Above this level, a system of clusters can be launched at a national level as the details and problems in the system get worked out. All of this while engaging existing banking, services, extension, distribution, value added, retail and other existing infrastructure and support systems. Where the system or the infrastructure is not efficient, creating innovative solutions then becomes the key to the future competitive advantage of regions and communities, and consequently the country as a whole.

As we work with Hispanic/Latino beginning farmers (in the U.S.), who have come with extensive experience and desire to work hard, we see the shaping of this potentially new system coming together.

This month’s story relate to the nuts and bolts of creating this new system, using modern tools, science and infrastructure is key to innovating our way out of the current path.