RAPP Workshop Update by Hannah Lee

 
A band of RAPP Brothers and Sisters at the 2010 Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program Workshop during the Great Washington DC Blizzard of '10.
 
 2010 RAPP Workshop Summary
by Hannah Lee
 
As a change of pace, this is not going to be an educational post, so some of you might wish to stop reading now. However, if you’re a Faithful Reader, do stay with me as I tell you about my inspiring, productive, and energizing-- though way too long-- day in Washington attending the Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program (RAPP) workshop. I’m so glad that Larry Laverentz of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) invited me to attend—he was so thrilled by a query from Pennsylvania, a state that’s not been represented in the RAPP program before—and I even had useful material to contribute! I do not have field results (yet), but I was able to draw upon my experience with the Burmese refugees as well as my experience as a CSA Site Host and a loyal patron of farmers’ markets. In remarks made by co-organizer Dan Krotz of ISED (Institute for Social and Economic Development), he noted that if current migration patterns hold true, by the year 2040, there would be no one left in the rural countryside to continue farming. Hence, ORR and RAPP’s goal of fostering the commitment and knowledge-base for urban farming.
 
The team from Burlington, VT spoke about strategies to engage various market options, which include buying groups and value-added products. Vermont law allows for the sale of home-canned and home-prepared foods, if they are not served hot. Amy Carrington of Portland, ME pointed out that CSAs (and buying groups) are more manageable for refugees than farmers’ markets because they’re controlled settings without the hustle and bustle of a retail market enterprise.
 
The organizer from Hickory, NC presented on effective training by the United Hmong Association. She tapped into the community resource of a Hmong radio program on weekends. She arranged monthly visits by experts—both agricultural and marketing—to teach workshops to her farmers. She made monthly visits to each farm and they started a marketing co-op to promote their own (unfamiliar) vegetables. Though a fluent speaker of Hmong, she found it essential and effective to use plenty of visual aids in her educational sessions with her farmers, many of whom are illiterate.
 
After a networking break, the team from Louisville, KY presented on integrating RAPP into the local food systems. Stephen Bartlett spoke about a “solidarity economy” in which a local farmer-owned company acted as broker. This company had already purchased a warehouse in a low-income neighborhood and they got funding to support 400 CSA shares in the summer. Through cooperation with a church, they got access to unused land for their farmers.   Another initiative was Fresh Stop— CSA sites located in churches in low-income neighborhoods. They used a variation of the standard CSA model (originated in Oberlin?) in which the members order and pay for produce one week in advance. Amy C. noted that welfare recipients cannot pay in advance for food, while farmers cannot deal with the uncertainty of weekly orders. So, she instituted a schedule where the farmers are given two months’ orders and the refugees and low-income clients pay on a week’s basis (still a work in progress). 
 
Stephen told us they gave their regular clients the opportunity to subsidize shares to low-income customers by paying $10 extra and this was fruitful. Amy C.-- who lives in a city with lower living costs and lower CSA prices-- asked her affluent single CSA members to pay up to 50% of the cost of an extra share and her law-firm clients readily did it!
 
Stephen also reported that an effort for collective plots was not well-received, but family plots were. They also had a RAPP demonstration plot to introduce new techniques and plant species. Inna Kinney of Columbus, OH, then asked if they provided loans to their farmers. Amy C. talked of transitioning her clients from subsistence farming to commercial marketing with the initial step of IDAs (Individual Development Accounts) of matched savings, obtainable from the government. Stephen said that they couldn’t get their refugees to accept loans and Amy Lint of San Diego said that group loans conferred a sense of ownership, but Inna scoffed at them and told about her experience in providing micro-enterprise loans. As I understood it, the client has to first save a small, specified sum of money (as little as $500), which would serve as collateral for a secured-loan. This then creates capital on a revolving basis. This strategy is tricky to manage and can lose money for the lending agency, so Inna said it was only effective and profitable if they handle more than 125 accounts at a time.
 
During a discussion session, the woman from Salt Lake City introduced the ancient technique of underground agriculture, called wallipini, that’s now being studied and revived.   This is a low-tech way for climate control, and can be combined with a surface-level solar panels, and augmented with tilapia fish to clean the algae in the surrounding pond. This has been used in Mexico, Bolivia, Europe (for cultivating orchards of miniature trees), and in the Ozarks hillside in the U.S.
 
The presenter from Phoenix, AZ spoke about some case studies, including a goat farmer and an okra farm. As an example of how productive this kind of workshop is: when he spoke about their attempts at valued-added marketing-- providing dried, powdered okra-- a member of the audience asked if they’d considered floriculture. Apparently, florists routinely add dried okra stalks to winter floral arrangements, but these items come with a premium price. Now, this came from her own (African-American) experience, and not as a PhD professional from the USDA. 
 
The presenter from Boise, ID, spoke about promoting self-sufficiency in community farming. Their original plot was in the refugees’ neighborhood, where there are many vacant lots. They did not use fencing, but the complaints were about members taking more than their fair share. Their new venture is an 18-acre plot outside of town for ten individual refugee farms and one American demonstration farm. Their selection criteria involvement a demonstration of commitment, including the fortitude to complete a long, detailed application. They offered winter classes on relevant topics such as pest management and soil science. They’ve learned to not give anything for free, but to demand an investment (to “put skin in the game,” in Inna’s words) such as providing their own transportation, preparing the work schedule amongst the farmers, procuring their own translators, purchasing their own tools, and paying the $25/week market fee. Their issue now is identifying more marketing outlets. Having a cohesive, established refugee community allows for an early withdrawal and early attainment of self-sufficiency.
 
A side note: the refugees did not use field maps, but this could be as much from their use of polyculture (multiple, interspersed plantings) as from a spatial problem of irregular rows where one cannot tell whether the seeds had been planted in the hills or furrows. Amy C. noted that her refugees cannot read maps of any kind-- road or field-- so she’s developed a binder of pictorial tutorials and reference sheets.
 
Amy Lint of the IRC in San Diego had the experience most relevant to HIAS and her report was daunting. They spent two years, $19,096.07 in city permit fees (not to mention the fees paid for the separate professional evaluations), and about 500 hours by project personnel to create the first permanent urban farm. The city considered their application the same as they would for any potential developer and put them through the bureaucratic hoops. Her agency saw the need to change local land-use policy, so they galvanized their forces and showed up en masse to present to the Land Use Housing Committee. They overwhelmed the committee with their multi-ethnic presence to the extent that the Committee has suspended approval of all applications for city permits pemding further review of the process, although I’m not sure if this counts as progress or not.   They have a three-year lease, but they’re seeking a five-to-ten-year lease. The city waived rent as well as any water-installation fees. IRC has ample insurance to cover this urban farm but they’re also negotiating for group insurance for all the community gardens.
 
 They succeeded in gaining land for 80 plots that encompasses 10 ethnic groups (with four main ones). They’re now graduating some people to a new 5-acre farm. They created a sense of ownership by hiring ten refugee youths, who have come to regard the farm as a community hangout (considered a good thing by Amy L.). There is a steering committee composed of representatives of each ethnic community. They’ve even learned to use the media as an advocacy tool for themselves, as when the farmers are sought out by the reporters (they’ve now become Somebody). 
 
Dan praised the IRC in San Diego as an example of how a change in leadership has resulted in a new commitment to micro-enterprise lending, which now generates revenue and has become a player amongst the non-profits in the greater municipal area. In his view, the greatest barrier to success is an unsupportive administrative culture, so he stressed communication and feedback.
 
The Boise person talked about her agency’s innovative use of bringing the market to the refugees, by deploying a truck filled with vegetables and sent to the refugee neighborhoods. Someone also talked about switching from three-hour-long weekend evening sessions to three 1-day-long workshops on Saturdays.
 
In a group discussion component, we came up with this guideline for community mobilization: (1) identify the partners; (2) create a food council; (3) identify the food champions, both in the community and at the legislative level; (4) identify a source for volunteers, such as a food co-op that has work service requirements; and (5) decide if your agency is to be a leader or merely a player, providing input.
 
The presenter from Kansas City, KS spoke about strategies to foster community integration. Her own lack of familiarity with her target neighborhood lead her to mis-contrue current events, without accounting for past municipal actions and frustrated expectations. She lamented her lack of knowledge of the historical context and the animosity towards outsiders. Another misguided tactic was assuming that the ten local churches ringing their housing projects would be influential resources, but their congregants have mostly moved out of the inner-city neighborhood and only come back for services. Her successes, after three years of efforts, are in building connections in the community and identifying the power structure (as informal as it may be) within the community. In their first year, they included only refugee farmers, but they later welcomed other local residents and this has helped foster dialogue in the community.
 
The last session of the day (of a three-day workshop) was on metrics, how to collect meaningful economic data on these farming initiatives. We grappled with how to measure participation and Amy C noted that Heifer International counts family members and I quipped that they count legs too. They intend to further refine their measurement tools with us afterwards via conference calls.
 
I left energized and with a renewed commitment to creating a community garden/farm in South Philadelphia. This project would be a terrific investment for HIAS, for the refugees, for the residents of South Philly, and for the future of sustainable agriculture in Pennsylvania.
 
For more information, contact: Hannah Lee hannah@barzel.org.