I've let pretty much everyone know that I've
never had more fun cooking than I have since
moving to California.
One recent meal was a simple eggplant sandwich.
But it wasn't your normal, run of the mill
globe eggplant, but a Japanese eggplant, which
you can pick up at almost any decent market
in the Bay Area or, for that matter, the state,
most times of year.
At the downtown Berkeley farmers market, there
are several Hmong families selling their produce.
They drive more than three hours from Fresno,
which is home to the nation's largest Hmong
farming community. On a chilly morning,
I was joined at the market by UC Berkeley's
Jennifer Sowerwine. She helps small-scale
Hmong farmers sustain and expand their businesses.
I sat down with Jennifer to learn more about
what she calls the 'Changing Face of California
Agriculture'.
The Hmong farmers, they've been farming since
they arrived from Laos beginning around the
1980s or so. They were able to access small
plots of land and adapt a lot of their cultural
practices in farming in the Central Valley,
you know this hotbed of corporate agriculture.
So, they began slowly cultivating a lot of
the crops they were familiar with and then
they began seeking out markets.
So you know I was out there in Fresno a couple
years ago, saw some Hmong farmers and I thought
it was really interesting. They were struggling, needless to say. You have all these
small farmers doing real food, mostly for
their communities, but when you go to standard
supermarkets, you might as well be in Boise.
So, what's happening with the food in Fresno
that small farmers are growing? Where's it
getting to?
Well, so you're right. The Hmong farmers are
up against a lot of challenging odds. They've
had huge challenges with limited English language
and limited ability to access connections.
So, a lot of them have turned to farmers markets
where it's fairly easy to get in and they
produce a lot of these vegetables for their
customers all across the state.
One of those farmers is Bentley Vang, who
leases land in Fresno County and is a regular
vendor at the Berkeley Farmers Market. Like
many Hmong farmers, he fled Laos in the aftermath
of the Vietnam War, but since arriving in
the U.S., he's been farming and he now grows
a huge number of crops on around 8 acres. I
have maybe like 150 almost 200 kind of vegetables.
Jennifer travels often to the Central Valley
to work with local regulating agencies to
provide more culturally-accessible training
for Hmong farmers.
So, what's your current work and what are
you hoping to get done?
I'm just initiating a new project to look
at the impact of drought on Hmong farmers.
What we're going to do is interview about
150 farmers just to get a sense of what strategies
they are using to cope with the drought and
the extent to which they're able to access
government support programs.
Another project we're looking at too, is food
safety. There already have been some implications
where the buyers are requiring the Hmong to
have food safety certification and that's
very costly so we are already seeing evidence
that some of the Hmong farmers are losing
markets. Wow, that's delicious! So we developed a very straightforward
training program for a number of Hmong farmers
in the Fresno area and it's a very hands-on, applied food safety class. I mean, it's just
washing your hands, making sure that you have
a hand washing station next to the bathroom
and you have paper towels. And one of the
farmers, because he went through the food
safety training, now he's able to sell to Fresno Unified School District. And so it was really
exciting to see the benefits of those classes
on some of the farmers instituting a lot of
the practices.
Oh, that's great.
And we would like to see more farmers being
able to access markets like this.
Meanwhile, the stands at Bay Area farmers
markets do brisk business as new and repeat
customers, like Jennifer and me, pick up tender
cooking greens, squashes, and yes, the best
eggplant. I love these little eggplants. It's fabulous!
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