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 11, 2011
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 Kblanchard on March 31, 2011
I stopped by the student center at St. Olaf yesterday afternoon to visit with some of the wonderful students who have coordinated several great fundraisers for Rural Enterprise Center this spring.
Organized by the student group Oles to Action, the students have been tabling outside the cafeteria for a “Sponsor A Chicken” program, including chicken coloring book pages and trivia about Latino Agripreneurs.
This weekend, the students are sponsoring a charity rave dance for REC (I proposed we figure out some Latin-dance classes and fiestas with the Apripreneurs in the future).
Oles to Action is a student-led organization that seeks to inform the St. Olaf student body of current social issues in the global community, facilitating a bridge of support between Oles and organizations which are working with these issues. Coordinators Thando and Alyssa told me they became involved with service at St. Olaf through Haiti relief efforts last year. After attending a film screening about the Invisible Children of Uganda at St. Olaf this fall, they decided to form an organization to keep on spreading student awareness and support to other efforts, international and at their backdoor. We’re thrilled they chose to work with Rural Enterprise Center this term.
Oles to Action represents one of the great resources Northfield has in its colleges. As a recent Carleton grad, I resonate with the desire of many students to get out of the respective campus “bubbles” and participate in the local and international community. There are challenges to this, of course, as students are most often temporary residents here and do not always get to dig in very deeply, or commit sufficient time towards understanding and dismantling the structural issues that perpetuate injustice, inequality, and myriad other issues in our communities. But the opportunities for real student engagement with Northfield community issues just continue to deepen, expand, and grow.
I am grateful to have the opportunity to stick around Northfield and dive into this work I could only barely dip my toes into as an overloaded Carleton student. I am overjoyed to work with enthusiastic students like these, who want to put action in education and serve this community that helps make our colleges so great.
Posted by Kblanchard on March 28, 2011
Kicking off our springtime pre-Agripreneur Training Saturday programs was a great winter farm tour last weekend. Fifteen aspiring farmer-trainees trucked it out to Regi’s place, Finca Mirasol, to learn about the winter poultry production buildings and see for themselves that yes, you really can produce some food year-round in Minnesota!
We all got pretty chilly standing in the frozen mud as Regi gave a brief introduction to the production buildings and process, but as soon as we ducked into the building it was warm and toasty and we all became quick friends with those hens!
Used as a prototype building this season, only about 25 laying hens lived in the building through the winter, but has capacity for 750 birds to have ample space. The building is entirely heated by the sun. It is a simple wood and plastic-sheeting construction, with a large south-facing wall with a double-layer of polycarbonate sheets for extra insulation. The building is tall enough to house a raised tank to keep water flowing through the gravity-fed tubing to waterers. Both sides of the building open up to allow chickens to free range during the day.
Winter poultry production is a marvelous opportunity on multiple levels — first, it will provide southeastern Minnesota with locally-produced, community-based, sustainably-raised meat through the winter season, but of equal importance is the job opportunity it provides to Latin@s whose usual seasonal work means they are more likely to be unemployed in the winter.
After lots of good questions and discussion at the farm, we trekked back through the thawing mud and returned to the office for delicious tamales made with Hillside Co-op chicken by the mother of some of the participants. Regi gave a brief introduction to the Agripreneur Training Program that will commence in the summer, and was met with lots of interested questions and discussion.
Upcoming Saturday programs will cover financial literacy, building credit, budget management, and general popular education activities to begin to build community amongst the trainees.
Posted by Kblanchard on March 18, 2011
We are excited to announce that applications are now being accepted for plots at Faith Community Garden, a project we co-sponsor with the Northfield Community Action Center. A number of raised garden beds – which make gardening more accessible for individuals who wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate – are a new option for 2011. Our garden coordinators can arrange mentorships for new gardeners or people who would like assistance. Classes on weekly harvest planning, best practices for organic gardening, food preservation and other topics are also planned for this season.
The 2011 season cost for a 25 by 25 foot garden plot is $25. That includes water, mulch and maintenance costs. Gardeners may apply for more than one plot, and scholarships are available. The gardens are located just north of Northfield on Highway 3, behind Benjamin Bus Company.
“With food prices projected to rise, and more people plugged into the value of local foods, we expect the garden plots to go quickly, ” said Jim Blaha, executive director of the Community Action Center. “Last year, more than 30 families and groups worked in the gardens, getting to know each other and growing great, healthy food.”
Plot applications and garden scholarships are available at the Community Action Center of Northfield at 1651 Jefferson Parkway. If you have questions, contact Katie Blanchard here at the REC Office, (507) 786-9900.
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 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.
