MPR is running a series about entrepreneurship in Minnesota and reconnected with the Rural Enterprise Center’s training program. The article cites  Kauffman Foundation research that in 2010, Latinos accounted for just under a quarter of all new entrepreneurs. That statistic doesn’t surprise us one bit. It’s why we’re so excited to begin supporting new farmers through a business incubator process this spring. And it’s why organizations like the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) and W.K. Kellogg Foundation are providing incubator support, as well.

As Tim Penny, President of SMIF says in the article, “I see this as an opportunity to build your own success.”

Read the MPR story by Elizabeth Baier here.

The seed packets are part of an innovative campaign to raise awareness and contributions to the new Grow a Farmer fund — a low-interest micro-loan fund for graduates of the Rural Enterprise Center’s Agripreneur Training program for aspiring Latino farmers. When you buy a seed pack for $5, 10, or $25, that entire amount will be deposited in the Grow a Farmer Fund.

Melanie Reid, Just Food Co-op general manager and Regi Haslett-Marroquin, Rural Enterprise Center program director

Our friends at the non-profit Renewing the Countryside came up with the creative idea for the campaign — and Just Food Co-op was excited to test out the approach, devoting the front page of their last newsletter to the effort. Here’s what Just Food Co-op General Manager Melanie Reid said about it: “Our collaboration in the Grow a Farmer campaign provides our owners and community members a direct avenue for changing the way our food system functions. Let’s grow some farmers this spring!”

The fact is that most new farmers in our training and new incubator programs have very low family incomes — $20,000 or less a year. So conventional loans that require collateral just aren’t an option. But new farmers need between $4,000 and $7,000 to purchase chicks and feed for their first free-range flocks. A loan from the Grow a Farmer fund helps them get started. After they sell their flock to customers, they’ll be able to repay the loan. And as the fund grows, so do the number of new farmers who can tap into the resource.

Jan Joanides, executive director of Renewing the Countryside sees more potential in connecting food co-op owners and new farmers through creative financing and fundraising. “Local, healthy food is a priority for people invested in food co-ops. The opportunity to grow the number and diversity of local farmers lines up with those values.”

Q & A Days at Just Food Co-op

Staff from the Rural Enterprise Center will be answering questions in the store on Tuesday, Feb. 28 from 5 – 6 p.m. and on Saturday, Mar. 3 from 10 -11 a.m.

Can’t make it to Just Food? It’s easy to donate online here!

This bill is part of the work that the Minnesota Department of Agriculture has been doing to respond to the increasing demand for services, especially financial services to bridge the gap between aspiring immigrant and minority farmers who can’t access conventional lending to get started on their farming dreams.

Although our organization is working hard to build infrastructure that can deliver financing to the farmers we work with, the challenge is really overwhelming when we look at the larger landscape of opportunity to bring alternative economic development opportunities to our rural communities. This bill is a very important step in a process of building a culture of support, tolerance, and diversity. It is especially a step towards removing structural barriers that keep promising agriculture entrepreneurs from contributing their full potential to our rural and urban food and agriculture landscape.

Along with me, Ly Vang of the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota, and Susan Stokes of the Farmers Legal Action Group (FLAG) in St. Paul also testified on behalf of this bill.

After several months of participating in some of the planning process for the conference, it was exciting and inspiring to share a room with hundreds of farmers from around the world, learning about the history of immigrant and organic farming in Minnesota, producer cooperatives, and small farm –related skills, all in sessions echoing with an excited murmur of at-least-5-way simultaneous interpretation into all of the languages of the people in the room.

One of the many workshops during the conference. Photo from Crazy Boy Farms

During the conference, I partnered with one of our program participants to co-facilitate a workshop about getting started with poultry production. It was an incredibly engaging session, with participants sharing questions and experience throughout our presentation of the basics of raising chickens and Rural Enterprise Center’s free-range production model.

I cannot overstate how important and inspiring this gathering was. The vast majority of the conference attendees were individuals and families who were forced to leave their home countries to seek refuge in the United States. Getting established here over the decades or days that their communities have been in Minnesota does not come without significant challenge, particularly when it comes to finding land and becoming an agricultural producer.

There is great work being done by organizations and agencies in Minnesota and around the country to agricultural entrepreneurship a reality for refugee, immigrant, and minority farmers, but there is also a long way to go. This conference provided an exciting and vital opportunity for organizations and agencies to learn from aspiring immigrant, refugee, and minority farmers about some of the very real and intense struggles that they face. Most importantly, all of the workshop sessions provided an opportunity for farmers to share experiences and learn about new skills and resources to use and implement in the farm business that they have or want to grow.

As a young aspiring farmer myself, I related to the doubts and questions that farmers shared throughout the gathering, and also to the stories of profound meaning and satisfaction they find in producing food for their communities and taking care of the soil. I look forward to continued collaboration with all of the communities and programs working to make agriculture work for immigrant, refugee, and minority farmers. The challenges are huge, but so are the opportunities. And as the conference made me feel quite clearly, we are all really in this together.

MAST stands for Minnesota Agricultural Student Trainee and its mission is to improve global understanding by providing educational and cultural enrichment through international exchange. Working with the Rural Enterprise Center in Northfield will be part of his three-month MAST experience.

Daniel graduated from the National Central School of Agriculture (ENCA) in 2008 (the same school that I attended in Guatemala, and is currently continuing his studies in agriculture business management at the Escuela Agrícola Panamericana, Zamorano.

At ENCA, he worked on crop production systems including vegetables, fruits, ornamental plants, extended season systems (greenhouses), cattle ranching, pig production, egg production and managed the student broiler production projects, and many other activities aimed at improving the productivity of small farms as well as building the capacity of families and communities to sustain and increase food security.
At Zamorano, Daniel continues to learn the science behind farm production critical to rural communities, but with a larger systems view – gaining experience in post-harvest processing, larger scale natural resources management, technologies such as GPS and GIS and the application of these tools to improving landscape-based ecological management for communities, and other approaches to the challenge of scaling up capacity to produce more food sustainably.

Daniel’s work with the Rural Enterprise Center will expand his understanding of the food and agriculture system in the United States. Part of his time will be focused on two specific pieces of our program’s systematic approach to addressing poverty:

• Financing: Review and analyze the strategies followed by credible programs and organizations serving the financial needs of immigrant populations in other parts of the country – and compare those experiences to our financing strategies and opportunities.

• Production: Review and refine our free range poultry production manual, with a focus on nutrient management, soil chemistry and manure management; identify research projects to complement the development of a larger and more permanent student-based production research internship program at the Rural Enterprise Center.

I’m hoping his time in Northfield will be a positive experience for him. I’m sure it will help the Rural Enterprise Center continue to make progress in some important areas. But to begin, it is good to catch up on what’s happening in my home country and with my old, young friend.

People in the Northfield community and beyond are pulling together to support the family in a variety of amazing ways. Read the Northfield News story here, with links to a new Facebook page, volunteer opportunities, info about a Dec. 16 benefit concert, and donation opportunities at Just Food Co-op and through First National Bank of Northfield. Friends have also set up an online donation site.

Keep a good thought this week for the family — and for the generous community that has surrounded them.