Latino Enterprise Center (LEC)

I had the chance to have Cecilia Alvarez from the Enterprise Assistance Fund in Montevideo, MN visit us today.  With her was Chuck Waibel, owner of Garden Goddess Produce in Milan, MN.  Chuck is a researcher and producer of vegetables for winter distribution, a really interesting operation that grows and stores food in the summer and distributes it in the winter.  We have a lot to learn from these folks as we look into the winter months for our production in Northfield and other areas.

Chuck also produces vegetables during the winter through a system of solar heated greenhouses that require a very small amount of heat during the coldest weeks of the year.  He is sharing all of this data with us in Northfield and the blue prints for a chicken/greenhouse that he has developed with the purpose of extending the chicken growing season as well as combining their production with vegetables under the same facilities, also taking advantage of the heat generated by the birds.

Kay Fernholz was also part of the contingent, whom, with her sister Annette run Earth Rise Farm out of Madison, MN.  They established a foundation as the legal entity behind their farming operation and training center.

I had learned from these folks back in 2001 and then again recently as we assembled a statewide network of resources to support Latino families getting into agriculture.  Recently, our partnership work with the Land Stewardship Project on farm management training brought us back to looking at Earth Rise Farm as we envision a physical location in the western part of the state where we can launch a program of this kind.

Working with Cecilia Alvarez to strengthen our links, and to share experiences for the benefit our Latino communities around rural MN has been very productive.  In the coming months, we will be learning more about Chuck\’s winter production methods and as we train Latino/a farmers in the Northfield/Faribault area, we will incorporate this new technologies and production and marketing methods.

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.

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.

I am part of a group that is leading the creation of the Northfield community kitchen.  Recent developments include developing the vision and establishing a plan for it.  All of us are very interested in knowing organizations and individuals out there in the community who may be interested in participating in any way in this initiative.  To determine this interest, a survey has been designed and posted at the website dedicated to this effort.

Those of us involve currently invite Northfielders interested in this project to go to the site, fill the survey if you see fit or send your comments via e-mail if you are in support.

Our organization is very interested in seeing this project succeed as it will add much needed infrastructure to support the Latino/a market gardeners that have been emerging over the last year and those who will be involved in growing vegetables during the 2008 growing season.

Don’t let those low temperatures outside get you down, think spring and think gardening and outdoor activity.  During 2007 the Latino Enterprise Center supported the establishment of a community garden North of Northfield behind the Benjamin Bus company (by the radio tower). Given the good response and the commitment from the land manager to continue to provide the space, we have started to plan our 2008 season.

This project was designed to introduce Latino folks into the local food production system, healthier ways of living and a setting to interact with other families and connect with the rest of the community.  To do this, the best motivator was to find ways to plant traditional food products and to involve whole families as much as possible. There are many health benefits derived from a good hour a day and half a Saturday spent gardening, the most beneficial aspect of gardening for these families is probably their ability to network and build community at their own pace while building a food system where old traditions are passed on through the use of the land.  For the individuals who came by themselves, some of them have visited local farmers, grown chickens and experimented with other products, at least seven of them found market gardening to be a possible way of making a living and will be starting to produce for markets during the 2008 season.

On February 12th this year, a group of regional farmers members of the Minnesota Sustainable Farming Association gathered to discuss farm related issues.  The small contingent of aspiring Latino farmers, although shy and unable to understand everything being discussed, joined this group and are now set to participate at the March 8th, CSA sign-up day organized by Just Food Coop.

One market gardeners will be growing around 25 varieties of vegetables for delivery through the season (customers must sign-up and buy a produce share to be part of the program).

Six other folks will raise meat chickens in an acre of pasture that was prepared last year. Chickens will be free ranged on pastures without chemicals.  This chickens will be sold as CSA shares, and sign-up is required.  Both projects will have materials and instructions at the Just Food Cooperative March 8th sign-up.

Through this initiative we hope to keep engaging new families, both those who have land to share, and those interested in using it around Northfield.  Our mission through this program is to continue building a healthier locally based food system and engaging Latino families with the rest of the community through the tradition of working the land, sharing recipes, stories from their homelands, and learning from the local farming traditions and stories.

I am still working on a wrap-up report for our trip to Maltrata, but meanwhile, there are other interesting things happening I would like to post.  I mentioned that I went to Maltrata with a group of parents, kids and the principal of St. Dominic’s Catholic school, but my mission was a bit different, I went to explore the possibility of establishing a community based eco-tourism business.  This part of my report is still in the works, Juan Matus of the Mexican Consulate said they are very interested in what comes out of the trip and in supporting a possible tourism business in the State of Veracruz, where the town of Maltrata is based.  The support from the local government has already been promised and having the Mexican Consulate in St. Paul behind this project will improve its possibilities for success. I will do this part later, for now here is another development in a different front.

Las Thursday February 7th, I had a meeting with Mario Duarte, founder of La Prensa de Minnesota, and Marco Fernandez Landoni, Editorial Director of the Latino Communications Network LLC (the parent company that owns La Prensa and other media outlets such as La Invasora Radio Station).

The purpose of the meeting was to explore a possible partnership with the Northfield News to incorporate a Hispanic/Latino context to the regional news.  Though the conversation was the first of many that may need to be had in order to define what this all means, I see the need for a mass communications tool in our region that addresses the Latino/Hispanic culture, and I hope they set-up some sort of arrangement that can expand this community and the region’s perspectives.

I took a picture of Sam Gett, Jaci Smith both of the Northfield News and Mario and Marco with a frame of the Jesse James Gang in the middle, I was surprised by how much of the James gang history Mario Duarte already knew and since there seem to be no place in Northfield where there isn’t one of this paintings, I figured it was part of my job was to get them used to it right off the track.

January 28th, was our full second day here in Maltrata, though I split from the group to do my own work, I joined the group to visit the middle school.  We visited with kids during the 11:00 am recess and then three 7th grade classrooms, each between 50 and 60 students.  When asked who had family in Northfield, over half of them raised their hands.

According to the Atlas de Mexico, a free publication of the Public Education Secretary (SEP) that is distributed to elementary school children around the country, Veracruz has a total area of 71,735 square kilometers representing a 3.79% of the country and a population of 6,908,975 or 7% of Mexico’s population, this data is quoted from 2000 census.

Maltrata is one of 210 municipalities in the state and has a population of 20,000 (according to the Major’s office).  Veracruz is also a transit zone for many immigrants from countries to the south such as Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras who travel by train through the region.  Tales abound as to stranded travelers who have decided to make their home along their immigration route in towns along the highway. It is not hard to find someone who knows a Guatemalan or a Honduran who lives down the road or in the nex town. It is common for local folks to be approached by immigrants who need food, temporary work, shelter, or a donation to continue their trip to the United States.

On January 28th, our group had a chance to visit the