Although today we had individuals from as far as Saint Cloud, the goal is to concentrate our efforts in the Southern half of the state with an even more dedicated effort targeting five counties between interstate 35W and the Wisconsin border.

Informational meetings have been scheduled for every first Saturday of the month at 10 am at the REC offices, 105 E fourth street Northfield, and every first Monday of the month at 6 pm at the same location. Presentations are also being scheduled in partnership with organizations in the region as we identify new partnerships. This effort will significantly improve the public education about our work and our partners and the ability of families to fully participate in community life, establish permanent roots and participate and contribute to our rural communities in a meaningful way.

This outreach work started on the first week of February and will continue as long as families keep coming and responding to our calls or until our programs are fully populated. The goal for this year is to reach 300 families through informational sessions. From this larger group, a selected number of families will participate in one day intensive home ownership and financial management training. An even smaller group will qualify to participate REC’s poverty reduction and assets and wealth creation strategy through sustainable agriculture farming enterprise development.

The families that will enter the Agripreneurship Training Program at the REC are being trained to play a key role in the sustainable food and agriculture system that we are deploying regionally. This new system is part of a much larger and robust process to redefine the role of minority families in the sustainable food and agriculture system. We seek to significantly influence this role from one of primarily providing cheap labor, to one of defining, owning and benefiting from this emerging industry in the country.

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.

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.

As usual, we are looking for ways to engage the larger regional population in building this regional food system. If you are a farmer, write to us through our contact form and let us know if you grow grains or have land (4 acres or more) that you would like to commit to free range production in partnership with a new immigrant family.

If you live in any of the communities within the outlined region please sign up to any of the established mailing list and start purchasing poultry from the established farms or contact us if you are from a different city and would like to help us build a support network to launch a free range poultry operation in your area.

As the poultry operations grow, we will add vegetable production to fully utilize the composted manure that the poultry generates, will add grain processing and distribution to supply the feed for the poultry farms and other value added components.

Here are the cities where we are currently developing a support infrastructure, please click and sign up if you want to receive updates on the activities in your area and to purchase poultry at a local farm or through one of our local drop-sites.

Northfield

Cannon Falls

Red Wing Area

Dodge Center, Kasson Area

All communications are concentrated on making sure that we bring as many families to the farm as possible not only to purchase products, but because building a local food systems requires engagement, knowing the farmers, sharing knowledge, and creating connectedness, especially for the children. A visit to one of our farms is an experience by itself for the children, so if you have children, bring them along and walk around and show them where food really comes from.

For Northfield area residents, sign up by following this link

For Cannon Falls area, follow this link

The tour in numbers:
Finca Mirasol supplies 150 families with fresh free range poultry, Open Hands serves 80 members under their Community Supported Agriculture operation model (CSA), Greenvale Park Community Garden has 40 plots and Stogrow grows thousands of pounds of produce for St. Olaf cafeteria that is served fresh to students.

The Tour in Perspective:
Northfield is surrounded by great productive lands where we could easily grow most of the food for this town right here, and reduce the carbon footprint derived from transporting food across the country. What we saw today is just an example of what is going on in our area, it is clear that we have the knowledge, talent and resources right here to feed our small towns. All we need now is leadership, an increased community awareness, and transformation of corn and soybean fields into food production.

CONTACT: Kat Vann, Main Street Project, (612) 879-7578

Innovative Free-Range Poultry Operation Launches in Cannon Falls
Media is invited to tour Prink’s Farm on Saturday, Aug. 22, 10 a.m.
11055 – 317 St., Cannon Falls

CANNON FALLS, Minn. – The Rural Enterprise Center, a program of Main Street Project, is pleased to announce the launch of a unique, new free-range poultry operation in Cannon Falls. Prink’s Farm is the second member of the new Hillside Farmers Cooperative to deploy the Rural Enterprise Center model for raising free-range poultry and other products using sustainable farming practices. The innovative model builds on the experiences, culture and knowledge in intensive farming systems that new immigrants bring to the southern Minnesota region, while incorporating the resources of established farmers looking for ways to diversify their farms and support the community.

Todd Prink, owner of Prink’s Farm, is an investment manager and life-long Cannon Falls farmer who began raising organic products in 1985. The new poultry operation is a partnership between Prink and Eladio Evan-de Carpio and family – another member of the co-op. “As a long-time farmer, it’s very exciting to be part of something with this much potential,” says Prink. “We’re working together to raise happy, healthy and great-tasting chickens, and actually improving the environment in the process.”

The first poultry operation, called Finca Mirasol (“Sunflower Farm”), began a year ago and is located in Northfield. The co-op has a distribution partnership with Thousand Hills Cattle Company, also of Cannon Falls. Both co-op locations also sell whole chickens direct to the public.

“This is an important step in building out what we call an ‘economic unit’ in the development system,” explained Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Rural Enterprise Center Director and model’s creator. “We’ll continue to improve the system’s efficiency while also offering a superior product to local and regional customers.”
The public can purchase Hillside Farmers Cooperative free-range chickens or tour Prink’s Farm operations on Saturdays, 8 a.m. – noon, beginning Aug. 22 through Oct. 31. Prink’s Farm is located at 11055 – 317 St., Cannon Falls, and will sell Finca Mirasol poultry until their own flock matures.

The Rural Enterprise Center is a program of Main Street Project that focuses on economic development. Our mission is to strengthen communities by bringing together the support infrastructure, resources and projects that rural Latino entrepreneurs need to succeed. For more information, visit ruralEC.com or MainStreetProject.org.