We see possibilities.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 13, 2011
We are also hiring an outreach coordinator, this individual will work primarily with Spanish speaking families in the Northfield area, but will cover other communities in our region.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 12, 2011
Click this link for the job description and application contact for our Agripreneur Training Program manager position. This is a new job opening, the qualified candidate who fills this job will be working to implement a vision of re-defining the role of Latino/Hispanics and other minorities in the food and agriculture industry, by building a socially responsible and economically/ecologically viable and sustainable food and agriculture system.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on December 11, 2010
I mean farming the landscape of opportunity and the possibility of “redefining the role of Latino families in the food and agriculture system”. Our vision is that through a different arrangement of assets, resources, support infrastructure, the processes that define the current ecology (both the natural and artificial components) of food and agriculture, and by strategically overcoming a handful of critical barriers (access to land, financing, technical assistance and training) we can transform the role of Latino families and their participation in our agriculture and food system. Currently, although there are many Latino-led businesses in this sector, for the most part the vast majority of Latino families’ role in this sector is limited to providing unskilled cheap labor in the fields and factories. We are in the business of seeing this changed to a new role at the core of a new system that is socially responsible, economically viable and ecologically sustainable in the larger context of our market place and society.
We measure success as we structurally and systematically affect the role of Latinos from one of laborers who go home poor after generating millions of dollars for our regional and national economies, to one as players in partnership with the millions of farmers, consumers, farm organizations, government programs, and businesses who want to have a more secure country where our food does not depend on non-renewable resources and unsustainable practices. The Latino population in this country together with the millions of established farmers who they can partner with are positioned to make one of the greatest contributions to this nation from this point of view. We just need to realize it at a large scale, and to engage at the right levels, building capacity, re-directing resources and changing the systems and infrastructure that make our current systems un-sustainable in the long run.
Winter is the best time for farmers to plan and re-sharpen their saws, this is also true for our organization as we revisit and evaluate our plans and strategies and make the changes necessary to be more effective and aggressive about achieving our institutional mission and goals. This process goes a lot faster and a long way farther when there are partners, allies and supporters as well as whole communities willing to do their part to bring about the resources and support infrastructure to make things happen. The United States Department of Agriculture’s is a key supporter of our work. A recent Small Socially Disadvantaged Producers Grant is allowing us to build the foundation for a regional network of farmers organized under the Hillside Farmers Cooperative. Read more about this at the USDA Know Your Farmer Know your Food Program blog.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on November 8, 2010
Just saw this article that Heather Thorstensen of AgriNews recently wrote about our work in Southern Minnesota. Here is the link to the article.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on October 24, 2010
I will be speaking at the Wedge Food Cooperative’s annual meeting, with close to 15,000 members, and over $31 Million in annual sales, the Wedge is the largest cooperative grocery in the country and a leader in innovative partnerships that have significantly expanded cooperation and local food systems development in Minnesota and the Midwest. Check out their annual meeting announcement and scroll down to Gardens of Eagan and Cooperative Partners Warehouse at the bottom of their website’s front page. Both of these initiatives add valuable and needed infrastructure to the growing local and regional food systems.
My presentation at the Wedge’s annual meeting will focus on the larger opportunities for systematic changes that we can initiate through larger partnerships, the deployment of new cooperative enterprises and structured and deliberate steps that can be taken to transform the flow of healthy foods from farm to table at a larger scale. At the Rural Enterprise Center we work all of these within a larger systems development framework, as we pursue these objectives in the transformation of food and agriculture systems, we incorporate principles for social responsibility, fair trade and ecological sustainability in a way that is scalable to meet real market demands for healthy products.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 19, 2010
It was over a year ago, when I heard of Riverbend Market Cooperative organizing meetings in Red Wing. I had already met with Latino families there in an effort to establish a presence and link local farmers with low income families. Our efforts in reaching out to potential future farmers in the Latino community in Red Wing were happening parallel to other efforts to organize the market cooperative, both would come produce a very attractive partnership.
Three weeks ago, Hillside Farmers Cooperative started providing frozen chickens to Riverbend Market Cooperative with very positive results and the development of a closer working relationship that promises to re-invigorate the engagement of Latino families in that community and region and an increase capacity of the Rural Enterprise Center to continue to reach out to new agripreneurs and community leaders in the area.
Here is a recent video produced on behalf of Riverbend Market Cooperative.
The Rural Enterprise Center is a program of
Main Street Project that focuses on enterprise development. Our mission is to strengthen communities by bringing together the support infrastructure, systems, resources and programs that rural entrepreneurs need to succeed. More...
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