Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on May 11, 2011
I will be tackling this issue this coming Saturday at the former Resource Center of the Americas from the perspective of the work that we do at the Rural Enterprise Center. If you come, be prepared to think of your neighborhood’s profile and if you would be willing to volunteer to be a drop-site coordinator for Hillside Farmers Cooperative.
We are embarking in a large scale effort to build a grassroots network of direct buyers of products from Latino farmers as we prepare to launch them in free range poultry, garlic, onions and black edible beans production.
About sustainable systems: We see a sustainable system as one that produces energy as a net result. Energy is the common denominator or currency for determining the ecological sustainability of a food, agriculture and natural resources management system. A farm has energy on both ends, it comes in the form of nitrogen and other chemical compounds normally found in nature as well as energy from the sun, wind, people’s and animal labor, equipment etc. The farm is the place where specific processes convert this energy into usable energy or into raw materials that contain the energy to be made usable through value added processing or other means which also need energy to run. On the other end of the farm is energy again, this time organized and re-arranged so that we can use it. What comes in the form of BTU’s, horse power, nutrient units, etc. on one end of the farm, comes out the other end in the form of calories and other forms arranged in a way that we can use them to live on.
A sustainable food, agriculture and natural resources management system will be the one that produces a yield sufficient to supply the needs of the society. Now, are we there yet? What are the strategies that are winning in achieving this mission?
When we looked at how food is produced and decided to get into the systems design and development, we knew that in order to launch a sustainable system we had to start where it matters most. So far as we have documented, the role that minorities and people in poverty play in the food and agriculture system is the highest most important element of un-sustainability as well as appropriate systems to remove cheap labor from the conventional system, support diversity in systems ideas and other critical paths of least resistance and high returns on mission driven steps. These are the critical steps that we took and some of which I will be addressing at the presentation as I seek to engage YOU in building a new system that is sustainable. In other writings we will address this issues further, but if you want an advance on it, come Saturday to the Resource Center of the Americas and I will get you started and excited about the possibilities in front of us.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on April 22, 2011
As a child growing up back in Guatemala, I worked in the fields with my father,
uncles and my brothers. Our land, is still in the family under the care of my youngest brother Elias. It is located about 1.5 hours walk from where my family lives in the Barrio Ixobel in the municipality of Poptún in the Northern rainforest province of Petén.
We used to spend from Monday through Friday in the fields as the walk back and forth from home was too much on top of working 10 hours a day. One of us would go back mid-week to fetch provisions — mostly corn tortillas to supplement beans and other farm products we would cook at the farm. Once in a while my mother would send a plastic bucket with fried eggs and potatoes and we would have a feast for dinner.
On the way home on Saturday afternoons after a long week we learned to make sure that the loads for the horses and the loads that we carried on our backs where properly packaged and loaded so that
we could carry them all of the way. Too heavy and we could not make it. Too light and we would waste our energy. Since we would start out cold, we would stop shortly after beginning to let our muscles relax. We took advantage of these breaks to check the loads of corn, pineapples, coffee, squash, avocados, firewood,
and other products as they would settle and the ropes loosen. This was especially important with the horses as a loose rope or an unbalanced load could scare or overburden them. We had to take care of the whole “team” – ourselves, the horses, and younger brothers who were slower.
Thirty years later, how are these lessons critical to running the Rural Enterprise Center?
If you are really following my story, you will see processes, organization, task management, mission planning, execution, corrective measures to ensure proper direction, and estimating loads and distance to ensure successful delivery. What we do today has everything to do with those processes down to the last detail. It is just a different country, environment, and culture. The loads are just as heavy, and the path we are putting families on is also one out of poverty as best as we can design it in this new land of abundance and discrepancy between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots.’
At the Rural Enterprise Center, we are entering a very important phase of development:
- Since January this year, we have hired Katie Blanchard as Agripreneur Training Manager, Bob Kell as Training Farm Manager, and Maria Sosa as Outreach Coordinator.
- Christine Sartor, a Northfield resident and local food systems enthusiast is working with Hillside Farmers Co-op to build-out their direct sales strategy.
- Also part of the Co-op, Todd Prink of Cannon Falls has become the anchor farmer for the poultry division, Scott Johnson is the grain processing and distribution manager, and Victor Torres and several others are moving forward with poultry production. Many are producing vegetables for their families and market.
- A recently developed partnership with Just Food Cooperative in Northfield has been built as a community entry point for volunteers interested in helping at the Agripreneur Training Farm, where training will begin this growing season.
- Another partnership with Saint Olaf College’s Center for Experiential Learning is helping us connect with valuable student talent. Currently six students are working on a community-wide business environmental scan and another student is managing Faith Community Gardens.
The families we work with need a path out of poverty. As we create a path we see their traditions, background, experience, aspirations and dreams as some of the most valuable assets that define their determination to succeed and to do what it takes. But what we know too well, is that success in this sector will only come when we design paths that redefine their role in sustainable agriculture, food and natural resources management systems. Just preparing people to “get jobs” in a system will not do it not will it work if all we do it is help them with their life loads a couple of steps and drop them back into the existing structures and systems which are not designed for the poor to succeed to say the least. In creating this path, we are also defining our own institutional role in this new system. We started cold on this journey in 2007; this is our first stop to let our muscles relax, check our loads, re-estimate the path in front of us, and make sure it aligns with the paths of the families we work with.
The path is very long and I hope you will consider joining us. If we work as communities to make more of our food local and sustainable, there is no limit to how many generations can continue to do the same, but we must be systematic in the design of processes, relentless in observing, learning and adapting, and competitive in the launch of new sustainable systems that align with family farm values and can be scaled to deliver for the whole marketplace.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on February 17, 2011
I posted Kate Taylor’s “goodbye Minnesota” note as she finished her work with the Rural Enterprise Center. The final product of her work includes three video recordings intended as complementary material for community leaders in other communities where we foresee developing new agripreneurs. I have added this material to the page with the full description of this approach, if you follow our work, this is a very important update.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 26, 2011
Although there aren’t many pictures we can be taking outside right now, the picture inside of our organization could not be more vibrant and fast changing. Last year we developed new structures and processes to ensure that we can approach the work with immigrant farmers in a systematic, deliberate and sustainable manner. We have built the organizational infrastructure needed to support the growth we need to see during 2011 and the coming years.
During this last part of January and February we will be finishing the mobile poultry processing facility design, applying for a building permit for the fixed infrastructure to conduct biological treatment of effluent from poultry processing and preparing the plan for the building of these infrastructure. Other parallel tracks are also moving forward like the overall business planning for the Hillside Farmers Cooperative, the hiring of an outreach coordinator for our region, hiring of an agripreneur training program and community farm manager, putting together the financial package for the launch of farming operations to support the launch of the cooperative, etc.
As we move forward in all of these fronts, we are thankful for the many partners, volunteers, and funders that make this work possible. Stay tuned for future postings where we will be profiling these partnerships and the key roles they play in launching a new food and agriculture system in our region.
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 December 9, 2010
All That We Share, by Jay Walljasper is a book about the things we share/own/control in common in our society in the U.S. and around the world. Jay also wrote another piece in the fall for Yes Magazine, called 51 Ways to Spark a Commons Revolution. We are on page 105 and 105 of All That We Share.
