Turning a New Leaf

The past five months have brought many changes and milestones for this former dietetic intern. Let's take a month-by-month review, shall we?

February - Joseph and I move into a house with another married couple with whom we went to high school. Plans to garden commence immediately. I get trained in as HEN web co-chair.

March - I finish my clinical rotation at Abbott Northwestern, making two presentations ("Registered Dietitians and the In-Patient Treatment of Eating Disorders" and "Tetraplegia, Pressure Uulcers, and Malnutrition: A Case Study") and riding the plateau of the steepest learning curve I've experienced to date.

April - My groupmates and I present our final project to our TEP preceptors: "Eating, Moving, and Your Body: An Eating Disorders Prevention Curriculum for 6th-8th Graders." High fives and diplomas all around. 

May - I hunker down for some serious studying and light gardening (beans, basil, tomatoes, kale, beets, corn). RTB welcomes me back to record the show Nutrition and Health. I apply for an instructor position at HECUA (no go) and a web design contract consultant position (so go!), which has its own sharply inclined learning curve.

I can ha-RD-ly believe it!

June - I sit the registration exam for dietitians and pass, just as everyone told me I would. Mhonpaj Lee of Mhonpaj's Garden offers me work managing communications - I pounce. The chair of the Hampden Park Co-op Board of Directors encourages me to apply for an open position on the board - I do so and am appointed forthwith.

I can hardly believe how blessed I am to have become gainfully employed straight out of the internship, with work that is not only gainful, but also thoroughly engrossing. Each one of my positions includes room for tremendous growth of varying degrees - now I just have to figure out how to do it all!

Certified Organic - Mhonpaj's Garden

The last several posts went through the nuts and bolts of certified organic farming. The farm with which I worked this summer is certified organic, and near the close of my time with them, I asked my supervisor, Mhonpaj, to talk about why being certified organic is important to Mhonpaj’s Garden.

She gave me an earful, but it boils down to two main elements. First, as an undergrad, she read a lot about food systems on the side and her interest grew over time. Mhonpaj believes that many health problems could be prevented by switching to organic, from ADHD to cancer to diabetes.

Second, the Minnesota Food Association trained the Lee’s to farm organic. The MFA’s program sessions include “Intro to Organic Farming,” “Farmers Market Success – Learn new ways to … emphasize local, certified organic,” and “Record Keeping – Learn how to keep good records for business planning, organic certification, and for financial institutions.” Becoming certified was the natural outcome of Mhonpaj’s focus on health and the MFA’s program.

Whenever I talk to people about Mhonpaj’s Garden, I say that it is the first Hmong-owned and operated certified organic CSA. This introduction highlights their unique position in the Hmong agricultural community, their adherence to national standards, and their method of distribution, but it fails to capture the depth of the operation. I wrote in July that Mhonpaj’s Garden is “a curious blend of subsistence, organic, and mission-driven agriculture.”

This better captures the essence of Mhonpaj’s Garden. The organic piece is important, but not the whole story. “Subsistence” refers to how the Lee’s are really farming for themselves, a point Mhonpaj emphasized in our most recent conversation. What they put in their CSA boxes, sell wholesale, and vend at the farmers market is really just the extras. That said, they need to break even and so sell through different channels. They are sharing their produce with the people who know its value and are willing to pay the true cost.

And mission-driven? When I started, I noticed that their web site lack a mission statement. I asked Mhonpaj about this, and she said that every year her vision changes. And while winter is the time for organizing and planning for the year ahead, sitting down to pound out a mission statement is consistently the last thing on her mind. Still, her passion for education and outreach and the cooking demonstrations that she and May do signal a deeper purpose for their farm than just sharing their extra vegetables.

Mhonpaj pointed out that early American settlers started out farming organically, but would make the switch to reduce labor costs. “There’s not enough community discussion” around organic farming, she said. “The only source of education is the stores, [but] they are not there to educate; they are there to sell a product.” Why would someone selling herbicides tell you how to rotate your crops to control weeds? “Learning to farm organic is almost like a hidden education,” she continued. “It’s like it’s top secret, behind the counter - you gotta ask for it.”

Mhonpaj plays an exhausting role. Not only does she call the business shots on the farm in addition to her job as an interpreter at HCMC, but she is a solitary liaison between organic agriculture and Hmong farmers, along with the MFA. “No one besides the MFA is helping the farmers. Nowhere else speaks Hmong,” she said, “We have to show by example.”

Photo by Chue of red oak lettuce growing at Mhonpaj's Garden.

Certified Organic - Where can I get that seal?

Mhonpaj’s Garden, the first Hmong-owned and operated USDA certified organic farm in Minnesota, is certified through the Minnesota Crop Improvement Association (MCIA). That is to say, you know that May, Chue, and Mhonpaj farm according to the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, because they've been certified by the MCIA, which has been accredited by the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP).

Wait, what?

The US Department of Agriculture is a busy department and cannot review all ~13,000 of the organic producers in the US. So they delegate the certification responsibility to outside organizations. The chain of command goes something like this:

USDA►Agricultural Marketing Service ►National Organic Program ►Accredited Certifying Agents

So, part of NOP’s job is to accredit private businesses, organizations, and state agencies which then certify organic producers and handlers. According to a data set here, in 2008 there were 20 state and 40 private certifiers, and according to NOP, there are 56 domestic and 42 foreign certifiers.

Mhonpaj’s Garden and Cornercopia (UMN’s student organic farm) are two of fifty crop producers certified through the MCIA. Loon Organics is another organic crop producer in Minnesota, and they are currently certified through Midwest Organic Services Association (MOSA).

Which begs the question: How does one pick an Accredited Certifying Agent among the almost one hundred out there? For one, some agents serve only certain areas. Case in point: MCIA serves only six states in the Midwest. To tease out other differences, the Rodale Institute has a nifty guide that lets farmers search certifiers by attributes, compare two side-by-side, and more. For kicks, I compared the top five (self-identified) strengths of MCIA and MOSA:

MCIA	MOSA
Personal contacts	Prompt, courteous service
Timely service	Always someone in the office to answer questions
Long history of independent status	Organic plan questionnaires are user-friendly
Professional	MOSA information meetings, conferences, events
Unbiased	Newsletter

What about the certification process itself? The basic process is as follows:

1. Farmer Joe Organic contacts MCIA for information.
2. Farmer Joe Organic receives introductory documents and fills out application.
3. MCIA office staff reviews application and sends it to Inspector Jane Growright.
4. Inspector Jane Growright inspects farm and files a report. Farmer Joe Organic corrects any noncompliance issues.
5. Organic committee reviews farmer's file, accepts it, and sends Farmer Joe Organic a contract and a bill.
6. Farmer Joe Organic signs contract, pays bill, and receives certificate.

In some ways, this process is reminiscent of applying to colleges. You hunt around for an institution that looks good, get information about their programs, fill out an application, and have an interview. A committee decides to let you in (or not), and you pay them a bunch of money every year for the privilege of their services.

What the application process lacks in self-reflective essays, it more than makes up for in management techniques, as probed in the organic plan questionnaire, #3 of MOSA's strengths and the topic of the next post.




Revised 7/20/2012.

Driven by tradition, mission

Last month, I said I’d talk more about Mhonpaj’s approach to farming. Before we start, I’d like to point out that while I refer to Mhonpaj a lot, it would be more accurate to refer her entire family. I have met or at least spotted a dozen family members so far that pitch in an unknown amount of labor, and after having spent more time with Mhonpaj’s mother May, I understand better her crucial role as Chief Farmer at Mhonpaj’s Garden.

Mhonpaj’s Garden was born out of a combination of tradition and necessity. Mhonpaj says that her family gardens because that’s just what they do. It’s their lifestyle. When I asked her if they had any employees, she laughed. She reassured me that there are no employees; family members do most of the work, with occasional outside help from neighbors and a mission trip. They don’t strive to make a profit, she said, just to make enough money to buy seeds for the next year. Still, they won’t budge on $3 a tray for their organic potatoes because of the work that goes into picking off bugs by hand. They know how much their produce is worth and they don’t undersell themselves.

On the one hand, this mindset releases Mhonpaj from the treadmill of continually trying to increase profit for the sake of “growth” and “shareholders,” but on the other, it makes an off-farm job a necessity. I’m not sure how Mhonpaj manages to balance work at HCMC with all the work generated by the farm and her ambition, and I have no idea how her parents spend their time in the winter.

I’ve heard hints of the challenges Mhonpaj’s Garden faces. Marketing is a challenge common to all farmers who realize its necessity, and there’s always room for improvement. In one of our first conversations, Mhonpaj mentioned that her goal for the CSA was a hundred members. At the St. Paul Farmers Market this weekend, a customer asked May how many members they had. "Fourteen," May said. At the White Bear Lake Farmers Market, another customer told us we needed more signage proclaiming our USDA Organic certification. “You need signs out here,” she said, “not just that little one back there,” indicating the seal on the banner behind us.

Another challenge is finding land to own. David Washburn, from whom they rent, has no plans to sell his land. According to Mhonpaj, he knows that the value is going to keep increasing and thinks that whoever would buy it wouldn’t be able to keep up with property taxes. Eventually, he believes, they would be forced to sell the land and it would be “developed.” From what Mhonpaj said, it sounds like his long-term goal is to build up a community of farmers who rent from him and show commitment to the land. Then, someone (Washburn himself? A community member?) would create a nonprofit that would own the land, keeping the taxes down.

So it seems to me that Mhonpaj’s Garden is a curious blend of subsistence, organic, and mission-driven agriculture. It started as the traditional way to make a living, but Mhonpaj has adapted to the Minnesota food system. The farm is certified organic, which is a big deal to some customers. They operate a CSA, which is a hallmark of a regional food system (I’m not sure that it should be, but that’s another topic entirely). They donate to the Emergency Food Shelf Network, our culture’s preferred method for disposing of leftover produce (versus throwing it away). They have a website (maintained by yours truly) so that customers can learn more about the story behind the produce.

In these ways, Mhonpaj’s Garden distinguishes itself from other Hmong farms and integrates itself into the dominate culture’s local food movement paradigm. I think I need more exposure to other Hmong farmers to draw more complete conclusions. Too bad I don’t speak the language.

Photo by Joan Benjamin, from the Summer/Fall 2009 Issue of the Newsletter of the NCR-SARE.

Updated 8/30/10.

Keeping up with it all

On Wednesday, I meet with Mhonpaj Lee, with whom I am interning. I always hesitate before describing her role in the Hmong and farming community because it seems so informal and yet so powerful. Suffice it to say for now that she has a new baby girl, works as an interpreter at HCMC, and manages the business end of her family’s farm, Mhonpaj’s Garden.

This was our second meeting, intended to flesh out the details of my HECUA internship. We agreed that I would maintain the website, write a weekly column on nutrition for the newsletter that goes out with the weekly CSA shares, and put together recipe cards to hand out to customers uncertain what to do with bitter melon or mustard greens.

Beyond these tasks, I have other exciting opportunities. I will help put together the CSA shares on Sunday for Monday delivery. I’ll assist at cooking demonstrations, taking pictures and posting them to the website. I may even make cold calls to organic buyers around the Twin Cities (cold calls! me!).

Even the seemingly duller activities, like weeding, hold the promise of getting to know the family better and plumbing for details about traditional farming techniques, oral tradition, and the challenges of farming in a new country.

Once we got some logistics squared away, Mhonpaj started sharing some of the projects that come across her desk. Last time we met for lunch at HCMC, we sat outside and she pointed out the rooftop herb garden. She told me that they had started growing them so that the female Hmong patients could have their traditional post-partum diet. The mayor came to cut a ribbon and everything. Now MCTC is starting an herb garden and North Memorial wants to know how to get one started.

“It’s not that hard,” she laughed. “You get a box with dirt and put seeds in it.”

Mhonpaj also told me about a magazine interview (Simple Life?) that was to include her cucumber recipe. But when it got the editor, the recipe was deemed too exotic for the magazine’s audience. She was asked to share a more traditionally Asian dish – perhaps she had a spring roll recipe? Mhonpaj declined to comply.*

I wondered aloud if Mhonpaj had heard of crop mobs. She hadn’t, but apparently twenty students from Nebraska are descending on her farm on June 29th and July 1st to trellis tomatoes. Sounds a lot like a crop mob to me.

Fresh from my HECUA experience, I asked her a question about employees. Her answer led to a fascinating discussion of her farming philosophy (if you can call it that) and her landowner's wishes for his land. More on that later!

*It sounds like the magazine finally came around and the article will be printed in all its exotic glory.

flickr photo from h-bomb.