Educasting Study Guide on Food, Sustainability, and Society

A Hunger to Farm: Immigrant Farmers in America

Introduction: Zenobia Barlow of the Center for Ecoliteracy

Track 1: Program Synopsis

For generations, Americans’ taste buds have long had the opportunity to experience new flavors due to the mix of cultures and peoples who have come to the country. We’ve tasted and mutated Italian, German, English, French, and other European cuisine. Now there are new flavors on the horizon as immigrants from Latin American, Asian, and African countries come to the United States and grow vegetables they used to eat in their countries of origin. Yet, perhaps more important than the new culinary experiences these farmers are making available for Americans is the agricultural niche they are building and the way they are changing the face of American agriculture for the future. Throughout this program, host Mark Sommer talks with guests to find out what kinds of vegetables are being introduced, what some of the farming methods of new immigrants are, and what challenges they are faced with as they learn a new country’s culture and laws. Guests on this program include Juan Martinez, Michigan State University Cooperative Extension; Michael Yang University of California cooperative extension; Chou Xiong, Hmong farmer; Maria Moreira, dairy farmer and immigrant farmer mentor; Gus Schumacher, United States Department of Agriculture; and Suliman Kamara, Tufts University.

Track 2: Juan Marinez
Assistant Director for Outreach, Michigan State University Cooperative Extension program, and liaison at Julian Samorra Research Institute

Guest Bio:
Juan Marinez of the Michigan State University Cooperative Extension Service is a liaison to Michigan’s Latino communities. As the U.S. Agriculture Secretary’s national program coordinator on farm workers from 1999 to 2001, he helped obtain $20 million to assist farm workers affected by natural disasters. He has developed a Latino leadership program and directed an oral history project documenting Chicanos/Latinos in the economic development of Michigan.
http://www.wkkf.org

Track 3: Michael Yang and Chou Xiong
Program Representative, UC Cooperative Extension and Hmong immigrant farmer

Guest Bio:

When Michael Yang was 6, his father was killed fighting alongside Americans in the Vietnam War. The Yang family was one of thousands who were relocated to the United States at the end of the conflict, a population that continues to adjust to life half a world away from their homeland.

http://groups.ucanr.org/ANRdiversity/Vignettes/Michael_Yang.htm

Chou Xiong came to the U.S in 1990 and began farming when he was 18 years old. He was cited for not having worker’s compensation insurance for his extended family two years ago in Fresno for $14,500. Not knowing what to do, he paid off the fine. He grows Asian vegetables and green beans for his customer in Los Angeles and throughout California; Chou also works a second job as a night custodian. California is currently considering legislation under Senate Bill 452 that would allow family farmers to forgo worker’s compensation for relatives helping on the farm. http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/140235.html

Track 4: Maria Moreira
Dairy farmer and new immigrant farmer mentor

Guest Bio:
Maria Moreira is a dairy farmer and cheese maker whose family came to the United States from Portugal in the 1960s. She also teaches sustainable pest management to Hmong farmers as part of a program to provide land, skill, and access to markets in Massachusetts.
http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2005/food/cheese.html

Track 5: Gus Schumacher
Former Undersecretary of Agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services at the United States Department of Agriculture

Guest Bio:
Gus Schumacher, Jr. is the former U.S. Agriculture Department’s under-secretary responsible for domestic commodities, insurance and farm credit operations. Coming from a farm family in Lexington Massachusetts, he also served as the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture and at the World Bank. He is also an avid advocate for farmers markets, and helped develop a website of resources for farmers markets at www.farmersmarketsusa.org. It’s not uncommon for him to bring back from his travels a bushel of apples for his wife to share with her classroom—his favorite is the Honeycrisp.
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome

Track 6: Suliman Kamara
Farm and marketing cooperative coordinator for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at Tufts University

Guest Bio:
Suliman Kamara, who specializes in sustainable farming and crop production with the Ministry of Agriculture in his native Liberia, now is the marketing coordinator for the New Entry sustainable Farming Project at Tufts University. The non-profit assists immigrants with agricultural experience to become commercial farmers. Kamara, who has a master’s degree in tropical crop production from People’s Friendship University in Moscow, has organized an immigrant farmer marketing cooperative, researches markets and pricing for ethnic products and trains and organizes subsistence farmers in sustainable agriculture marketing cooperatives.
http://nutrition.tufts.edu/research/nesfp

Closing: Zenobia Barlow