Outreach Highlights
July 2008

Massachusetts’ first immigrant farmers reach out to its most recent

A group that traces its roots to Massachusetts’ earliest immigrant farmers has reached out with some very special assistance to farmers who arrived in the Commonwealth only recently from the mountains of Southeast Asia.

Farmers from the Hmong region of northern Laos – who work 70 acres in the central Massachusetts town of Lancaster under the tutelage and mentoring of Maria Moreira of UMass Extension – have received a brand new 50 horsepower Kubota tractor from the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture (MSPA) and Heifer International.

The MSPA, one of the earliest agricultural societies in the United States, was incorporated in 1792. Among the founding members was Samuel Adams (who hosted the first meeting), and was later joined by the likes of John Adams (the MSPA president from 1805 to 1813), John Hancock, Artemas Ward, Josiah Quincy and other national figures from Massachusetts.

It was as if America’s “Founding Farmers” extended a very special kind outreach across the centuries to others working the soil in an unfamiliar land and very new circumstances, noted Moreira, who runs Lancaster’s Flats Mentor Farm, a springboard for many new farmers and new crops.

The Hmong growers have been farming the Flats Mentor acres since 1985 with help from MSPA, Heifer International, UMass Amherst and UMass Extension, as well as from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Services (CSREES) program.

Growing just enough to feed their families in the mid 1980s, they now sell their produce at retail and wholesale markets in eastern Massachusetts. The number of farmers markets representing Flats Mentor farmers has increased from just three in 2004 to 23 last year.

With the gift of the new tractor, that number will increase to at least 30 in the current season, according to Moreira.

“We are all just thrilled, and very grateful to MSPA and Heifer International,” she added. “All farmers work hard, and we all put heart and soul into our land. But these farmers have been particularly dedicated and courageous. They work in the best and oldest tradition of American agriculture, and this gift helps recognize that.”

Moreira said that the Flats Mentor Farm program:

• assists and supports small farmers of diverse ethnic backgrounds by providing them with access to land, farming infrastructure and marketing assistance needed to promote and sustain successful farming enterprises.
• promotes economically viable agricultural production that protects the environment through the practice of sustainable farming methods through hands-on-training and technical assistance on soil fertility, irrigation, pest and weed management, and marketing planning, training and implementation.
• provides opportunities for beginning farmers to increase their family income and quality of life by assisting them in production and marketing their produce.

"The Hmong come with an inner connection to the land, and they find it wherever they go. They are fully committed to it," explains Moreira, who, as a native of the Azores, is familiar with a newcomer's hopes, uncertainties and longing for land.