Latino Enterprise Center (LEC)

Things are moving fast for our poultry entrepreneurs at the Northfield Area Latino Poultry CSA.

Over the last month, we finished the infrastructure to grow up to 1,000 chickens per round. Though there are only 500 in the first batch, the infrastructure we have in place can easily handle twice as much without compromising our operating principles.

Over the last month, we have also seen many visitors, from families who just want to learn how chickens grow, customers who have signed up to bring their kids to watch the growing process, to each family of the members of the group that was formed to run this operation. Altogether we have had over 30 people come visit, mostly family of the farmers and many of their friends.

This group of leaders in-charge of the operation have worked hard at many levels, just building the fence was a huge undertaking, once the post were in during the fall of 2007 we could only wait until the spring of 2008. Once the ice started melting, the chicken wire went up, and the warming house for the little ones was fixed up, then came the larger building where the first round of 500 birds is now inhabiting.

We bought very little materials and we built the place ourselves, we spent less than $4000 total, including the first order of feed.

Since birds take up to 8 weeks to be ready for processing, we have ordered extras to serve last minute customers. So if you have not ordered your chickens yet, print and fill out the order form and mail it to us with your payment.

Here is also an updated slideshow of the growing flock.

Juan Marinez, is a friend and MSU Federal Liaison at Michigan State University and a great resource on federal farm and agriculture trade policy. He forwarded a message that gives so much meaning to our chicken operation in Northfield, that I thought I would post it for your enjoyment and hopefully trigger some new thinking.

As you read this article, keep in mind that NAFTA was approved in January 1994 under the Clinton Administration, but it was not until this last January 2008 that it was fully implemented.

Our chickens won’t be marching to protest NAFTA downtown Northfield, and those of us working on this business have too much work, but we can all oppose unfair trade and agriculture policies by being responsible consumers as we go about our day, this is something that we can all benefit from and CAN be done by everyone.

If you think that building local food systems and linking consumers directly to farmers is something you would like to support, then stop for a minute, print our order form and send in your order for Northfield grown pastured chickens.

Two Chicken Stories: NAFTA’s Real Winners and Losers

Laura Carlsen | April 17, 2008

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

Pedro Martin works on a chicken farm just outside the village of Pegueros, Jalisco. The state of Jalisco ranks among Mexico’s top chicken-producing states, providing the nation with 11% of all chicken meat produced.

Many of Pedro’s friends and relatives have already left Pegueros, pushed up north by the bleak joblessness and poverty of their hometown. But Pedro told the Washington Post that he’s determined to stick it out in Mexico.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week was full of activity, we had a business training workshop on Saturday and worked on planting some of the cover crops and forage for the chickens in our poultry operation, Martha Ortega, of Agstar was there as well as a trainee and to share her experiences working with beginning farmers as a financial associate with the organization. This new effort, added to last year’s training on farming and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations management. Here is a slideshow of those experiences including last Saturday’s group, tomorrow (Wednesday April 23) we have a continuation of this work at the Northfield Community Resource Center from 6 to 9:30 pm.

Yesterday, we had a larger crew finishing the roof on the outdoor chicken house (serves as night shelter, and watering and feeding area for the birds) and planting more cover crops.

We are experimenting with four different cover crops, two types of clover, a mix of pasture grasses, legumes and clover, and black beans as foraging material (worked well last year). We will be documenting how the birds utilize this forages this year so that we can make more informed and better decisions in the future. We will keep experimenting with other plants as well, including Portulaca oleracia L or Pursley (I believe is commonly called), which is allegedly much richer in Omega 3 than flax, Camelina sativa or spinach.

Here is a slideshow on yesterday’s activities, including all of the attention that the little birds are getting from customers and neighbors visiting our operation.

Though there is much work going on besides the poultry operation, we still need more customers, so I am trying to stay focused in posting about this initiative for a while longer. We now have received the first batch of chickens and are officially in business every day. I also participated recently in various events, including the statewide conference on microenterprises in St. Cloud, organized two workshops on business planning, together with the Northfield Enterprise Center, and have been supporting individual entrepreneurs one-on-one. The poultry operation includes supporting its organizing and training the leaders in business management and planning. I am also working with a larger group of organizations on a statewide Latinos in Agriculture Program with the purpose of supporting the many Latino families in rural MN who want to get into agriculture operations.

Over the last couple of months and over the next month, the group working to produce chickens for direct marketing (click here to print order form), has been working hard to get the structure in place. Though the housing for the first two weeks after the birds arrive is ready, the paddocks where they will be raised need some more work, specially in building a roof that can be shared by all of the paddocks.

The first order will arrive on April 18th to be grown for the first delivery on June 13, then birds will arrive every two weeks.

In recent weeks, much work has been done, here is a quick photo update.

On the weekend edition of the Northfield News, there was a nice article about our poultry operation in Northfield.  Thank you to Andrea for such a nice write-up and accurate profile, though we could add to the story, here is the link for those interested in reading it directly.  I will keep posting pictures of the operation as it progresses.  We had a busy weekend working on the fences and building as we continue to get prepared for the April 15th arrival of our first batch of days old chickens.

Who we are

We are a group of Latino families who experimented growing free range chickens during 2007 right here in Northfield. Most of us have experience working in farms but needed to see how things work here, so we tried it last year with great success. We are now ready to start a small direct marketing operation raising chickens and want to do so in partnership with our customers through a share system similar to that of Community Supported Agriculture farms.

Where are we located

This year we are based out of 4597 315th St. W just north of Northfield off of Highway 3. Everyone who signs up for a share of our chickens or is interested in shares in the future is invited to visit the place where their chickens are being raised. We also invite those with children to come and participate in the process of growing healthy foods.

How we raise our chickens

We are committed to producing high quality meat at an affordable cost and in a natural and healthy way. This means that we raise our chickens outside (free range). We also plant certain foods (buck wheat, black beans, etc.) that they eat during the day either as mature grains or as tender plants (beans). We also feed them regular chicken feed to supplement their diet. As part of our commitment to sustainable agriculture, we do not use antibiotics or hormones of any kind. Instead we rely on local knowledge for natural medicines from our elders and other farmers in the community.

Why should you order from us

Our commitment to quality, affordable prices and sustainable methods for raising our chickens are the primary reasons we believe you should buy from us. The fact that we are local also ensures that your dollars stay in our community. As new migrants to this area, we offer you an opportunity to learn more about us by doing business with us. Our operation is reliable, we have invested in infrastructure to ensure that we can deliver what we promise, and we will process all of the birds at a certified food processing plant close to Northfield and keep them frozen until you pick them up. By working with us, you will also contribute to this community’s sustainability by supporting local food systems. Most importantly, you should choose us because you will get a fresh, naturally grown, high quality, and affordable product.

Our business meets criteria for social and environmental responsibility

In 2007, we took a trip to Fairmount, on the blue earth river basin in southern MN. We went there to pick up 450 hazelnut trees which are now planted where the chickens will be raised and on land next door where we will grow vegetables between rows. As we raise chickens, they will fertilize the hazelnuts, as the hazelnuts grow, they will provide shade for the birds in the future, four years from now, we should also start harvesting hazelnuts and chickens from the same land. Hazelnuts have root systems that can grow 12 feet down and expand over a 15 feet diameter. These characteristics make them one of the best options for soil protection, eliminating the need for tilling the soil, and over time, they will produce an equivalent biomass per acre to soybeans. Though Chub creek behind our land is one of the most polluted tributaries to the Cannon River, we can claim that we won’t be adding to this problem, and you as our customer, can feel proud to be part of a solution to farm run-off pollution.

How to Order

If you are and “end-user”, which means that you will be consuming the product yourself and want to order our chickens, please print and mail this order form to place an order for the 2008 delivery schedule. Remember, a chicken weights between 4 and 5 pounds, if you can, please order in multiples of these amounts for each delivery date.

To open order form, click here: on-line-order-form.pdf

Dr. Martin Luther King was an amazing person no doubt about it. But most amazing, was his ability to understand and project himself into the future, what it would look like if we all believed in each other and if we all instead of racing to the next finish line, tried to find more meaning in getting there in the first place.

In the race to the “buttom line”, we have pitched nations against nations, workers agains workers, businesses against each other, and in the process, we have created one of the largest gaps between the rich and the poor. We allow corporations and individuals to shift large amounts of wealth from country to country and create policies so that they can keep gaining the most value for their money, but we prohibit the poor from moving accross border lines chasing higher value for the only wealth they posses, themselves. We transfer the wealth from villages into corporations and CEO’s but do everything to force people back into the “economic corrals” that we have created around free trade zones and other so called “free trade and globalization” policies. These settings create blind spots for people in search for opportunities with the illusion of a better tomorrow that never materializes but it is too late when they realize and can’t turn around or build a future anymore. We promote through our consumer choices systems that lower the value of the contributions of of those who’s only resource they own and can invest for a return is their labor. In the process of course the buttom line for corporations is improved and somebody somewhere else ends up wealthier.
Understanding these issues is not enough, doing something about it is not popular, and sometimes equivalent to “political suicide”, but those out there who believe in Dr. King’s dream, I hope will understand that it is not only important for all of us that we change the ways we do business and become more responsible towards people and natural resources, but it is also in our own interest and for the benefit of our own children to do so.

In the upcoming 40th anniversary of Dr. King’s death, there are many things happening, but the most amazing I believe is the rebirth of a dream based on new technologies and business ventures that represent a new generation of thinking and innovation portrayed in the video recently posted on you tube about the coming celebration of this important anniversary. I hope you find it as interesting.

If you have read some of my background, you probably heard that in 1995-1996, I started what we called then, the Guatemalan Peace Coffee, right after the Guatemalan peace agreements were signed between the leftist rebels and the Guatemalan army. In an interview with MPR I found the following quote “Peace Coffee got its start in 1996 with coffee from Guatemala. It was founded by a native Guatemalan who moved to Minnesota during his country’s civil war. He wanted to provide economic opportunities for some disenfranchised communities during the peace process. So the company was appropriately named Peace Coffee”.

I am the “native Guatemalan”, but the story starts in 1994 when, with support from Mark and Niel Ritchie, and Karen Lehman, I founded the Fair Trade Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), I then went on to be a founding member of the Fair Trade Federation, in discussions with folks at IATP we decided that my strenghts were not really in policy issues, but in business development. I was then given support to establish a for profit subsidiary for IATP as an effective way to increase our ability to engage many of the disenfranchised producers around the world that IATP works with on a regular basis. Though these leaders are experts on issues of trade disparities and the United State’s responsibility through its overwellming influence in promoting such disparities through unfair trade policies, they don’t have a voice in the international arena. It was obvious that we could also do something about this unheard voices through an “alternative” business model.

In 1995 I traveled accross Guatemala visiting coffee plantations and cooperatives with Josh Mailman, a founding member of the Social Ventures Network. The idea of launching a coffee company was born during that trip. Josh Mailman said to me “if you can involve Rigoberta Menchu (1992 Nobel Peace Price winner) in supporting a coffee roasting and distribution compay in the U.S. I will find you money to fund the start-up”.

A few months later we had arranged support from the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation in New York and Rigoberta Menchu herself. By then, we had incorporated Headwaters International which was to be a holding company for the coffee initiative and other business ideas that may come our way. IATP moved to its new offices in south Minneapolis in 1996 and the emerging coffee company was asigned space in the basement as it had a back door exit to the parking lot.

As we launched the Guatemalan Peace Coffee, we started a partnership with the Union de Ejidos de La Selva, in Chiapas Mexico and started selling their coffee on consignment from the basement of IATP’s current offices at 2105 1st. Ave. S. in Minneapolis.

We grew our sales rapidly during 1996 and secured the support for a formal launch of the company during a visit that we planned Rigoberta Menchu. During her visit, we launched the Guatemalan Peace Coffee at the First Lutheran Church in downtown, Minneapolis. Later the same day Senator Paul Wellstone introduced Rigoberta Menchu and Peace Coffee to a full auditorium at The College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.

This memories came to me in a rush a while ago when I was looking at IATP’s website and found a new video just posted about Peace Coffee. The transition from Guatemalan Peace Coffee to just Peace Coffee was started right after we launched the company and saw that there was potential to patner with many more producers from around the world. Right after Chiapas came Nicaragua and we knew it could keep growing better under a generic brand, though we thinkered with launching a different country’s peace coffee every year, the idea did not gain traction.

We then started the process to hire a general manager, on July 11, 1997 Dale Wiehoff then Executive Director of IATP and Headwaters Int’l board member, and myself, interviewed Scott Patterson out of a group of about 5 final applicants for the management position. Scott was the youngest applicant but also the one who seem to have the personality and desire to take ownership of the emerging company, though we went into 1998 before Scott picked up the whole vision and concept, he held the job until the middle of 2006 with flying colors. The rest is history and it is nice to see what all these young people can do when provided with a vision and the infrastructure to promote peace through economic justice, and turn the vision of a Guatemalan immigrant with big ideas, into a real example of social entrepreneurship.

As I engage in new business creation and development with the never ending hope that we can change the world for many people through social entrepreneurship, I invite you to take a look at Peace Coffee’s video below and to make sure that you contribute to our local economy, even though coffee comes from half way accross the world, all of those folks you see in the video live and work right up in the Twin Cities, also I don’t believe there is a single company that can claim yet that they grow their coffee locally in MN, so the choice is yours and it is simple.

This is the official name for the woodland owners and value added processing business based in Maltrata, Veracruz, Mexico that I recently visited with the group from Saint Dominic’s Catholic Church of Northfield.

As we continue to work on the plans for developing a community based tourism business as a partnership between folks in Maltrata and business leaders in Northfield, Minnesota, I wanted to introduce readers of this blog to the “eco” part of this project.

The woodland owners association was formed as an initiative from two individuals who lived in Northfield a decade ago. The leaders of this initiative Martin Gómez Pérez (President, black jacket) and Ignacio Pérez (Secretary, tan jacket) shown in the middle of the picture, to the right is Martin’s wife and on the left is Martin’s sister Adelaida Gómez Pérez, who supports the association through her work with the office of Fomento Agropecuario (Agragrian Support Office) of the Municipality or Ayuntamiento of Maltrata.

This organization currently manages in excess of 13,000 acres lf forests, some of it is being harvested while other parts are being managed for future production. This is a forest dominated by pine varieties, cypress and hardwoods, primarily oak varieties, the big difference between this region and most other similar forests is that it only takes 14 to 16 years for a tree to reach a 14 to 18 inches diameter, a bit over one inch of growth in diameter per year.

The organization is formed currently by 33 landowners, employs 20 people in different positions, plants over 400,000 trees a year, has a value added processing plant in town, runs its own nursery, and has totally eliminated the conventional middleman from the operations. The Sociedad also ensures an equal distribution of benefits to its members and decent labor conditions and compensation for workers which shows in the high level of motivation observed in the plant and in the fields.

Members also are ensured full participation through a cooperative-like governing structure, their efforts to go direct to market and share work and develop community-driven development strategies has allowed them to capture over 4 times the market value for their forest products if compared with the traditional prices paid by middleman (coyotes) who are well known for paying the lowest prices and sometimes disappearing with large unpaid bills to the woodlandowners.

The Sociedad is now positioned to also transform their large acreage of forest lands around Maltrata into an eco-tourism destination, something that has won the approval from the Secretary of Tourism and from the regional development organizations. Currently there is a window of opportunity to generate up to US$50,000 of federal funding from the Mexican government to develop nature trails, cottages and other infrastructure to support an ecotourism destination among the members of the organization.

In future postings we will wrap this reports up with an introduction of the “Maltrata Community Eco-Tourism Initiative” a project that will incorporate regional destinations, stays with families from the town, and day trips to the forest and volunteer opportunities for tourists and locals to support the re-forestation in the region, increase investment in the forest industry and re-claim lands of forestry vocation currently under other types of cultivation.

At the LEC, we have been very optimistic about the larger impact of these kinds of projects, primarily, we must acknowledge that many of the young folks working for this operation would most likely migrate to the United States if these opportunities did not exist in Maltrata.

Engaging communities in other countries where large sectors of the population (specially the young) are migrating for economic reasons is something that needs to be addressed within the context of immigration policies, the farm bill and how this affects the local economies in other smaller nations, but most importantly needed changes to trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA that have had a devastating direct effect on small communities.

Supporting the development of local initiatives with measurable and high impact social, environmental and economic benefits has a high return when addressing the reduction of economic-driven migration. This is one important aspect that U.S. taxpayers need to be thinking about in the coming elections, selecting candidates that really understand the immigration issue and are willing to invest in the right strategies is the key to reducing current counter productive border initiatives.

Investing in communities is a self-sustaining mechanism built-in as a result of local ownership. If one understands what causes people to leave their hometowns, and then have the opportunity to work with the families left behind, one can see in real terms the sustainable permanent solutions to economic driven migration right in front of us. By exposing more individuals to this reality, we hope that we will invite new investment in these kind of initiatives as solutions to larger economic disparities and environmental degradation driven by a desperate families fighting for survival.