Episode Notes: Farm Workers to Farm Owners

Title: Farm Workers to Farm Owners Watch / Listen 

Description: Where do racial justice and food justice meet? Perhaps at the point where Latinx farmworkers are able to buy their own land. In the United States, 83 percent of farmworkers are Latinx but Latinx people own only 3 percent of the farms. This week on The Laura Flanders Show, Latinx farmers discuss what they bring to the US food system in terms of fresh produce, healthy techniques and a cooperative management style born out of years working as laborers in less than sustainable conditions. Laura also speaks with Dr. Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern about her book The New American Farmer and looks at the challenges a new generation of farmers face, how incubator programs help, and why this transition could be good for everybody.

Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes:

•Food Justice Is About Everything We Do: Leah Penniman 

•Farm to Coop to Table: Food Justice in Urban Agriculture 

•Free The Land: Shirley Sherrod and Black Land Struggles in the South 

•Excerpt: Community Wealth in Freddie Gray’s Neighborhood of Sandtown 

•Don’t Feed the Racist Patriarchy!: Chateau Hough + Hip Chick Farms 

•Standing Their Ground: African American Farmers vs the USDA 

Related Articles and Resources:

•The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

•Launching the Next Generation of Latinx Farmers in Washington’s Skagit Valley 

•More Latinx Farmers Own Their Land. Could They Make the Food System More Sustainable? 

•FSA provides program flexibility to help farmers cope during pandemic 

•New Entry is a local, regional, and national leader in the field of sustainable food systems… 

•Class Action Suit Filed Against USDA on Grounds of Discrimination Towards Latinx Farm Owners 

•Farmworkers face coronavirus risk, keep us fed: Dolores Huerta speaks with LA Times on farmworkers as essential workers 

•ALBA Farmers (Central California) 

•Farmworkers are climbing up the organic food chain 

•Bucio Organic Farm: Loans helping put people on the land. 

•Viva Farms (Incubator Program) 

Guest Bio:

•Francisco Farias, Owner, Farias Farms Juan Farias, Owner, Farias Farms

Farias Farm was started by Francisco, Juan, Sergio Farias (pictured below in order from left to right). All three founding members were born in Michoacan, Mexico, Francisco and Sergio came to the Washington State when they were in there teens while Juan arrived when he was five years old, Skagit Valley has been their home away from home. In Mexico the Farias Family had been farmers for many generations growing their own food. Once in the US all three brothers worked in agriculture for a large portion of their lives and eventually decided to start Farias Farm. Read More 

•Dr. Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Author, The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern Assistant Professor of Food Studies and Affiliate of the Departments of Geography and Women's and Gender Studies at Syracuse University. In her book, The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability (MIT Press, 2019), she explores the experiences of Latino/a immigrant farmers as they transition from farmworkers to farm owners, offering a new perspective on racial inequity and sustainable farming. Dr. Minkoff-Zern argues that immigrant farmers, with their knowledge and experience of alternative farming practices, are—despite a range of challenges—actively and substantially contributing to the movement for an ecological and sustainable food system. She has also published in journals such as Geoforum, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Food, Culture, and Society, Antipode, Agriculture and Human Values, and Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, among others. Read More.  

•Rigoberto Bucio, Owner, Bucio Organic Farm

Fifteen years ago, Rigoberto Bucio worked on a small organic farm before entering the farm business incubator at the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA). He was a young farm worker proud to be part of a community of organic farmers in the Salinas Valley. With ALBA’s training, FarmLink’s financing, and business advising from Kitchen Table Advisors, he has started and maintained his family farm operation over the past decade.  Read More 

Music in the Middle:

“Raise the Vibration” by KlevaKeys featuring Diamond Dancer, from the “10 Years of KlevaKeys” collection, courtesy of the artist and House Key Records. Read More