Posted by Kblanchard on June 28, 2011
My name is Rafael Martinez and I am interning this summer with the Rural Enterprise Center. I am a student of agronomy at Monterrey Tech (ITESM), in Querétaro, México, interested in the relationship between nature and people through agriculture.
My journey began 13 months ago, when I first came to the Midwest. That first summer I had the opportunity to work on a couple of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in Iowa, and later attend Iowa State University as an exchange student during the fall. It was during this time that I learned about sustainable agriculture as an alternative to overcome flaws of our current food production systems.
My original plan was to attend Iowa State for the whole academic year. Unfortunately, due to the political and social situation in Mexico, ISU and other universities were forced to stop sending students there, canceling the exchange program with my home university until further notice. It was then that I choose to take this as an opportunity to obtain experience by getting involved in agriculture development projects. This winter, I worked at the Center for Rural Affairs in a Latino farmer outreach project. It was through this work that heard about the Rural Enterprise Center, and it’s unique approach to social issues and sustainable agriculture.
During this first three weeks of work here I’ve been most involved with the construction of the chicken production demonstration site at the Agripreneur Training Center and the development and facilitation of the training program. It has been hard (and muddy) work, but has given me the chance to meet this awesome community and hear about the ideas and the commitment of the people involved in this project. It is rewarding to see the chicken coop being built and the trainees taking it very seriously, making plans to actually start their own business. Bob Kell and Katie Blanchard have been wonderful too, giving me just the right support and making sure I’m having a good time.
Working with Rural Enterprise Center, I’ve been learning not just about the barriers and limitations that the Latino community faces in becoming agricultural producers, but also integral approaches to overcome them. I’ve always believed that I’m in a position to be a mediator between Americans and the Latino community since I deeply understand both cultures and especially the problems that immigrants faced in Latin America and when they establish here in the US. I’m glad that my work here at REC is helping me develop leadership skills to be a better me a better mediator, while letting me participate in this project.
I will be around for three more weeks, since I need to get ready to begin classes in August. I hope that the success of the Agripreneur Training Program brings along other projects to allow future interns the opportunity to learn about the Latino community and the training and support of beginner farmers
(Katie’s Note: It has been great to have Rafael around, and we are especially thankful for his hard work on the chicken coop. We look forward to many future opportunities for student intern involvement in the Agripreneur Training Program!)
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 Kblanchard on April 7, 2011
I have been meaning to write about this important report since it came out in February. A project of the Applied Research Center, The Color of Food is an account of the state of racial inequality in our food system, and a challenge to the “good food movement” (a catch-all for sustainable/local/real/slow food), stating:
A movement based on a holistic understanding of food justice needs to encompass the chain of food production that connects seeds to mouths. The food chain includes the workers that help to plant the seeds, harvest the crops, package the food, deliver the product and serve the meal to consumers.
The report is particularly interesting in what it reveals about Latino workers in the food system. As the graph below demonstrates, Latinos make up just 15.4% of the US population, but 25% of total food workers.
Despite being the most represented racial minority in food work, Latinos have the lowest median annual wage of all food workers, at $18,438/year. The median annual wage of all people of color is $19,349. For Black food workers, the median annual wage is $19,523. For Asian food workers it is $23,427, and White food workers make an annual median wage of $25,024.
The race/gender gaps in wages and management positions are also striking. Compared to a white man’s $1.00, Latino men make $0.66, and Latina Women make $0.50. Only 8.5% of managerial positions in the food system are held by Latino men, and 4.5% are held by Latina women. People of color in managerial positions also earn significantly less than White managers.
I recommend a look through the entire report; it presents the fact, clear as day: Good Food, Real Food, Sustainable Food — whatever we want to call it, it has to include justice, goodness, real wages, and sustainable lifestyles for producers, processors, distributors… all food workers.
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 February 12, 2011
In partnership with the program Achieve Ownership headed by Umbelina Treviño Cremer at the Three Rivers Community Action in Rochester, and Diana Lobo a Northfield based real state agent the Rural Enterprise Center has started a new outreach program aimed at providing services to a larger number of Latino families especially in the Southern Minnesota Region. 
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.
Posted by Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin on
No, I am not leaving, this is the title of Kate Taylor’s blog post on Main Street News as she finishes her 5 months National Emerson Hunger Fellowship. The final product of her work is almost ready for publishing pending final revisions, a complete guide (or as I call it Strategic Plan) for developing agripreneur programs in other communities.
