By Allison Maass/Murphy News Service
The number of immigrant farmers is increasing in Minnesota, while the population of traditional white farmers in the state is declining, a report published by the Center for Rural Policy and Development (CRPD) shows, but there remains a need for education for the new community of farmers.
“What we do is research on rural issues that the government makes policies on and provide information to legislators,” said Marnie Werner, research director at CRPD, a “non-partisan, non-for-profit research organization,” according to its website.
The report focused on Hmong and Hispanic farmers in Minnesota “because they have the most distinct farming groups,” Thaddeus MacCamant, author of the report, said.
The transformation of farmers in the state caught the eye of the CRPD and stirred its curiosity if the new farmers need more education, Werner said. CRPD officials also wanted to find out if continued education for farmers should be more focused toward immigrants.
“The idea is that we have a number of traditional farmers getting smaller and a growing population of people who would like to (get into farming),” Werner said.
MacCamant said he is not sure the exact cause of the decline in traditional white farmers, but he speculates that many of them are getting older and there are not enough replacements from the ranks of their families, etc..
The report found that many of the immigrant farmers could benefit from continued education, but trust needs to be developed within the communities where the immigrant farmers are located. There is also difficulty in finding Hmong people who will be willing to teach agricultural classes, more so than, say more-prevalent Spanish-speaking farmers.
Since there are more immigrants interested in farming now than traditional white farmers, educators should focus on these people who have “indicated a positive attitude toward continuing to farm,” the report said.
The report found that Hmong farmers are getting older, as well, and that almost half have no formal education. Most Hmong farmers farming small parcels of land in the east metro area of the Twin Cities and sell to farmers markets in the area.
The majority of Hispanic farmers follow more modern farming practices and the majority of them have had a formal education. Similar to the Hmong, Hispanics farm small tracts of land, but are more spread out around the state. Hispanics tend to sell their produce to churches, relatives and Mexican businesses, the report said.
MacCamant said some Hispanics came to Minnesota to do something other than farming, factory-work, for instance, but, for one reason or another, took up agriculture for a living.
“I don’t know when they came to Minnesota, but I know they didn’t come to farm,” MacCamant said.
Reporter Allison Maass is studying Journalism at the University of Minnesota.