We see possibilities.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 25, 2010
Invisible Minority is the title of a new series that is being published by the Northfield News and started with the first edition last Saturday. I will be posting their web link to these special edition as it becomes available the Tuesday after it is printed. Stay tuned.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 16, 2010
Northfield Area Foundation
Contact: Reginaldo Haslett-Maroquin
Northfield Area Foundation Seeks Applicants for Board of Advisors
The Northfield Area Foundation (NAF) is seeking applicants from Northfield and the surrounding area to serve on its board of advisors. The nominating committee will review applicants and submit a slate of candidates to the full board at its November, 2010 meeting. Candidates shall reflect the diversity of the Northfield community, which the Foundation seeks to serve including, but not limited to, educational, religious, economic, racial, and sexual diversity.
The NAF board meets every other month throughout the year. Currently thirteen directors serve on the NAF board. Directors actively participate in all activities of the Foundation including a variety of committees that have formed to carry out the strategic plan of the Foundation. Board terms are three years and a board member may serve two consecutive terms. A former board member is eligible for re-election following a one year absence from the board.
The NAF was formed by interested citizens in 1994 and is affiliated with the Minnesota Community Foundation. The NAF is a permanent endowment created to benefit the greater Northfield community. Contributions from individuals, families, businesses and charitable organizations build the endowment, the earnings of which are used to fund community needs and interests through applied grants. Since 2001, nearly $150,000 in grants has been awarded to assist a spectrum of non-profit organizations from the Northfield area.
The current board includes the following members: Bill Bleckwehl, Ray Cox, Craig Ellingboe, Dan Freeman, Mary Beth Hagen, Karna Halverson, Bruce King, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Anne Mayer, Dale Ness, Jaci Smith, Sarah Swan-McDonald, and Ross Thompson.
Interested candidates are urged to submit a letter of interest, including a brief bio, no later than September 1, 2010, to:
Northfield Area Foundation
P.O. Box 802
Northfield, MN 55057
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on August 10, 2010
I just posted a brief 500 word column on the Northfield News describing one example of how we approach the issue of poverty through the development of food and agriculture enterprises. This is one more article in a series, I will place the names of all of the articles I have been writing in this series for the Northfield News below, each linking to the original article. There are more coming, I have enough titles for two years of publications once a month, so stay tuned, here is the most recent posting.
Here is the list of all of the previous articles published starting with the latest.
August 7th, 2010 Investing in New Immigrant Families
July 3rd, 2010 The Story of Prink’s Farm
June 4th, 2010 The Ecology of Food: Mercedez’s Story
May 14th, 2010 Sustainability: The New Ecology of Food
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on July 20, 2010
At least here is one concrete step that our government has taken to accelerate the process of exposing the many ways we now poison ourselves through food and unhealthy farming practices.
For our part, we know there is a lot more than just antibiotics, what about bug resistance to pesticides, corn that produces pesticides and are used to feed animals, think of soil pollution and the contamination of aquatic life supporting systems with suspended matter from the farm’s surface, pesticides and other chemicals that go down the stream as farmers pour stuff down into the soil and our institutions continue to research and government allows corporations to prescribe doing so without regard for our ability to support life systems. But we are not in the business of judging anyone for what they do, accountability is something else, but that is the public’s responsibility and our institutions, for our part, we are in the business of building the new ecology of food and agriculture, one based on a whole system change.
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.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on July 2, 2010
Not a political party yet, but I can see with all of the activity and force behind this local foods movement all over the world, I have the feeling that someone will figure out how to turn this whole thing into something else. For now though, our friends at IATP have engaged in an initiative to have you sign a petition to have first ladies and their respective governing partners to eat local for independence day weekend, read the rest and join the party.
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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