Morning after morning, in a greenhouse near Hastings, a handful of Hmong farmers plant seeds and tend to sprouts of basil, lemongrass, flowers and other produce that they’ll sell at farmers’ markets this spring.
Just off Hwy. 55, this Hmong-owned farm is nestled in the metro area, just like a growing number of immigrants’ small-scale farms and garden plots throughout the state.
The immigrant farmers make up nearly half of the vendors in the farmers’ markets that are popping up in community after community to serve consumers who want connections to the source of their food.
They are the kind of small-scale farmers that organizers of an immigrant-farmer training conference hope to attract Friday and Saturday.
These farmers face many challenges — the least of which is a command of the English language adequate enough to understand the rules and regulations that govern the growing of food and flowers. They need technical assistance and information on subjects ranging from marketing to microbes.
The conference will be offered in six languages for at least 140 farmers, including those of Hmong, Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Somali, Ethiopian and Latino origins. Another 30 or so people from government and nonprofit agencies also are to attend the conference near Como Park in St. Paul. Registration has closed.
“This is the only significant conference that is targeting immigrant farmers,” said Glen Hill, executive director of the Minnesota Food Association, a co-sponsor of the event. “There are a lot of conferences about immigrants and refugees, and a lot about sustainable farming, but this is the first and only that addresses immigrant farming and their special needs and interests.”
A growing subset in farming
Nobody knows the exact number of immigrant and minority farmers in the state, which is one of the top resettlement centers for Asian and East African refugees. The most recent U.S. agricultural census showed that the number of minority and Hispanic farmers in the state nearly tripled from 356 in 1997 to about 1,000 in 2002.
Many say the actual count is far greater.
An estimated 200 to 300 of those 1,000 or so farmers are Hmong, said Nigatu Tadesse, outreach coordinator for Minnesota Farm Service Agency. Asian farmers overall, he said, now represent 40 to 50 percent of the vendors at farmers’ markets in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
“It’s a very diverse group of farmers in all ways, especially in the metro area culturally because you see a lot of immigrant farmers who are either Hmong or Somali,” said Paul Hugunin of the state Agriculture Department’s Minnesota Grown Program.
Tadesse, an organizer of the conference, said it will help farmers form relationships with one another so that they can get information from more experienced sources they trust. It’s also strengthening partnerships among organizations such as the Association for the Advance of Hmong Women in Minnesota, the Minnesota Food Association and University of Minnesota extension, he said.
Technical training
These agencies and others have united for this third-annual conference, the biggest yet. It will cover marketing, land access, organic certification, and production of safe and healthy food.
“It’s important they receive technical assistance and training to help them with their farm business,” said Ly Vang of the Association for the Advancement of Hmong Women in Minnesota. “They need to understand agriculture rules and regulations.”
Many immigrants find agriculture in the United States daunting, with many laws and requirements, Vang said. “It’s like a big wall they never get through,” she said.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for immigrant farmers is getting access to land through buying or leasing. One session will help farmers understand the expectations of landowners who are willing to lease their land for garden plots.
“Often these groups don’t come together but when they do, there sometimes are communication problems,” Hill said.
On Saturday, the immigrants will tour two Dakota County farms. One is owned by Der and Nikk Thao, who raise vegetables and flowers near Northfield. They were the first immigrant farmers in Minnesota to secure a federal Farm Service Agency loan, which they used to buy their 68-acre farm. They now rent land to other Hmong farmers.
Tadesse said the couple represent what many immigrant farmers hope to achieve.
“They are really successful people,” Tadesse said. “They have achieved the American dream. They have overcome any challenges they faced. We’d like other people to follow their example, to achieve dreams.”
Joy Powell • 952-882-9017
