Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on June 7, 2010
What if every Latino/a family in Southern MN were given the opportunity to contribute their real skills, knowledge, entrepreneurship spirit, hard working ethic, and all the many other great assets to the regional food and agriculture sector? We could actually build a new system that is fair to workers, profitable for the small companies (farming enterprises or small farms), creates wealth for the region by keeping the resources multiplying and growing locally, improve our production efficiency (through richer, more stable, protected and improved soils, waterways and reduction of inputs), and build a regional ecology capable of turning around the way we think about farming, food, economic development, the role of new immigrants, and the ecology.
As long as we keep thinking just about job creation, instead of investing in competitive advantages as a strategy for economic development, we will continue to think of people like Mercedez as cheap labor for farm fields and meat processors and other factories, while missing the real potential these folks represent for the region. When we mismanage the people’s potential, we miss the larger potential to turn our regional food and agriculture into something we can sustain for the long haul. We have to keep in mind that conventional agriculture does not create competitive advantages, but keeps talent and opportunity from emerging through the forces that it generates in terms policies, subsidies for unsustainable systems, the flow of resources from the public to fields and factories and then out of the communities, eroding our natural and material resources while further creating economic and intellectual poverty and with it, the incapacity of building systems outside the of track of dead ideas.
Mercedez story is part of a series of articles, this is the second and many more are on their way, stay tuned. Click here to see the story published by the Northfield News.
Here are some photos of Mercedez’ operation. In a chronological account, we first we take the open fields and place free range poultry units in quarter of an acre plots, these birds are fed and live outdoors, they include a combination of meat birds and heritage breeds, most of the heritage breeds are 
picked live at the farms by families who like to butcher their own birds, as they like to use every part of the bird, the rest are taken to inspected processors for market distribution. From the fields, we remove excess composted manure and cure it to turn it into clean finished soil.
Then vegetable production can start, as these field composted manure is rich in all of the nutrients needed to grow vegetables. In the future there will be a story about this as well as further explanations are in line as to how we manage the micro and macro ecology that includes flora and fauna, organic matter, sun, water, etc, to its maximum potential for net energy yields in the form of food.
Mercedez has operated his poultry at the Rural Enterprise Center’s experimental farm in Northfield and grows his vegetables at his newly secured land in partnership with Greg Carlson on the South side of Northfield. He is now starting to think about strategies for land ownership. One step at the time, 
from the aspiring dreamy farmer living in poverty, to introduction to MN’s farming conditions, specialized training, to systems development, to land ownership, to the full launch as a new farmer working under a new ecology of food, that is Mercedez story, one that will still take many more years to finish telling, and his is only one of many we will be telling as we build a regional competitive advantage by building the systems, support infrastructure and programs needed to make Southern MN a hub of a new way of doing agriculture at a large scale without compromising the efficiency of the small scale farming systems and the contributions of new immigrants to this new ecology of food.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on February 12, 2010
The Minnesota Food Association is leading the organization of the 5th Immigrant Farming Conference in Saint Paul. Follow this link to the MN Food Association announcement about the conference. Below is the introductory text from MFA’s site.
5th Immigrant and Minority Farmers Conference
FEB 19-20, 2010, St. Paul, MN
Location: Wilder Foundation
451 Lexington Parkway North near University Av.
This conference focuses on being as relevant as possible for farmers. Farmers are involved in the planning, presentations,
participation and evaluation. The conference is free to farmers and this is only possible with the generous support from sponsor partnerships. Farmers, sponsors & other participants welcome.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on February 8, 2010
I will be presenting on a panel with two other distinguished local leaders of the Northfield area at St. Olaf College’s 10th Annual Globalization and Social Responsibility Conference to take place on February 26 and 27th.
Here is an extract from the schedule on the 27th.
11:30-12:30 p.m.
Panel Discussion: “Immigrant Activism and Empowerment”
The Lion’s Pause, Buntrock Commons
Panelists:
Beth Berry, Tackling Obstacles Raising College Hopes (T.O.R.C.H.), http://northfieldtorch.org/
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, http://www.startribune.com/ProjectCluck , Rural Enterprise Center, http://www.ruralec.com/
Janet Lewis Muth, Rice County Growing Up Healthy http://growinguphealthy.org/
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on January 26, 2010
From the document “Immigrants and the Economy” published by the Fiscal Policy Institute “Latinos constitute 46 percent
of the immigrant population in the country’s 25 largest metropolitan areas.” So what about the economic contributions? Check out the whole report, this is good strategic planning data if you are in economic development. Too bad it concentrates in urban centers though, we know well that the rural area is also benefiting from immigrant labor force and entrepreneurship.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on September 16, 2009
I just saw this article from The Twin Cities Daily Planet about immigrant demonstrations last weekend throughout some of our region’s rural cities and towns. The article does not cover all of the activities, more articles were written in the Post Bulletin and the Owatonna People’s Press. The issue of new immigrants, especially Latino/a in our region is bound to keep growing in its social intensity as well as its importance for the region’s economic vitality. Minnesota 2020 for example, has published some important facts about the role of new immigrants on the schools and the region’s economy, specifically in Worthington, where the Latino population became key in re-energizing the schools and downtown to name two areas positively impacted.
Here at the Rural Enterprise Center, we are concentrated in tapping on the opportunities that this new population represent, specifically the areas of intensive sustainable agriculture that engage existing resources and improve their productive capacity through the incorporation of traditional knowledge that many new immigrant families bring with them. Our current free range poultry and vegetable production system is one clear example of how we can all turn to the positive side of almost any challenging situation, no negative approach has ever produced a positive result, and no reaction to a situation is ever better than a proactive approach.
With this in mind, we will continue to work on our economic development systems, and as we do this, many other approaches will continue to evolve like the ones documented in the reports above. All of this is good, the conversations need to happen and policies and systems that don’t work need to be fixed, sooner or later.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 31, 2009
I just received the release below from the Latino Economic Development Center in Minneapolis. Ramon Leon, the founder and Executive Director will be receiving the Mexican Consulate’s Ohtli Award “Opening Doors” in the Nahuatl language.
Minneapolis MN. August 31, 2009
LEDC’s President and CEO Ramón León, to receive the prestigious Ohtli Award by the Mexican consulate of Minnesota
-For immediate release-
Latino Economic Development Center’s President and CEO Ramón León will be presented with the Ohtli award at the official Mexican independence celebration event on September 15, 2009 by the Mexican consulate of Minnesota. The Ohtli award – which is the Nahuatl language word for “opening doors” – is one of the most prestigious honors bestowed by the Mexican government to recognize individuals who have distinguished themselves in improving the quality of life for Mexican citizens living outside Mexico.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Here are some photos of Mercedez’ operation. In a chronological account, we first we take the open fields and place free range poultry units in quarter of an acre plots, these birds are fed and live outdoors, they include a combination of meat birds and heritage breeds, most of the heritage breeds are 
picked live at the farms by families who like to butcher their own birds, as they like to use every part of the bird, the rest are taken to inspected processors for market distribution. From the fields, we remove excess composted manure and cure it to turn it into clean finished soil.
Then vegetable production can start, as these field composted manure is rich in all of the nutrients needed to grow vegetables. In the future there will be a story about this as well as further explanations are in line as to how we manage the micro and macro ecology that includes flora and fauna, organic matter, sun, water, etc, to its maximum potential for net energy yields in the form of food.
from the aspiring dreamy farmer living in poverty, to introduction to MN’s farming conditions, specialized training, to systems development, to land ownership, to the full launch as a new farmer working under a new ecology of food, that is Mercedez story, one that will still take many more years to finish telling, and his is only one of many we will be telling as we build a regional competitive advantage by building the systems, support infrastructure and programs needed to make Southern MN a hub of a new way of doing agriculture at a large scale without compromising the efficiency of the small scale farming systems and the contributions of new immigrants to this new ecology of food.
